California Surveyors Forums

I was contacted for a quote to do a topo for a site plan for a new house. It's a 2 acre parcel. I don't think the guy wants to pay for any boundary survey work. Also, it doesn't look like the parcel is on a map of record, so then you have the ROS issue. What do others think on this board about doing topos without showing any boundary information?

How will you prepare a setback certification letter unless you have surveyed the boundary. Surely they will want to do some landscaping after the new house is complete. Construction work usually chews up existing greenery pretty well.
The risk in an urban setting of not doing a proper boundary and topographic survey is just to costly in proportion to the fee the client is going to pay.

My experience is that when folks are cutting corners like that they usually won't pay for an adequate budget for the topo survey either.

This is in a very rural area and apparently the County hasn't requested setback verifications with this builder before. The builder is planning on being 20-25 feet from the nearest setback line. There are some fences out there, so I think that's what he is going off. I'm thinking it's a good idea to recommend a boundary survey and discuss the value of such, but if he wants to do a topo without boundary, that's his prerogative.

It is rare that the boundary is not resolved, but in those cases I do a double note - one is in model space stating "boundary is not resolved - see note" and the other is in the "notes" section in paper space that again states boundary is not resolved and therefore existing setbacks of structures can not be determined.

It has to be pretty clear to anyone working off the map that they merely have topography.

Cities often require that site plans and various permits show the property lines on the diagram no matter how simple it is. This is a common area for unlicensed Land Surveying practice by contractors and homeowners.

I recently finished a LLA in a case where improvements were built across property lines because the building permit had the property lines drawn incorrectly by a contractor. The LLA moved the lines away from the improvements.

You can probably educate the client and agency about the need for boundary surveying and get it included in the contract.

You are engaged to do a topo only survey. Who do you think is gonna get the blame when it is discovered that the brand new multi-million dollar commercial server farm facility is built right over a portion of the property where rights are claimed by an adjoiner?

If anyone is really interested saving the client money, it si usually more efficient to collect the topo and boundary field work in the same mobilzation.

Rather than doing just a topo and coming back months later to do a boundary survey.

I see several "site plans" done by Architects showing the apparent property line. It is generally required as part of various building submittals. I know how they are placed, the Assessor's Plat and some guessing based on improvements. I am wondering, is this legal? I don't know.

Also, I do not believe there is any liability in doing a boundary free topo. If I don't show it, and the client does not want it, I don't see a problem. If they change their mind I'll give them an additional price to do the boundary. No problem. Of course, I always discuss the option of doing the boundary and the general benefit of it. However, if they want to pay me to shoot topo only, I'm all in! Just don't show a boundary that's wrong. There is liability there.