Standards
of Practice
York Hill Surveying generally seeks to perform survey work in accordance with the standards of practice prevailing in the central Maine area and those imposed by the Maine Board of Licensure of Professional Land Surveyors. Additionally, some of our own specific standards are outlined below.
Precision
of measurements
Our equipment is capable of extremely precise measurements even over very long distances. For boundary surveys, we strive to report final measurements which, on small parcels, are accurate to within a tenth of a foot or so; on large, rural parcels, expected tolerances may be somewhat larger.
Mortgage Loan Inspection measurements, unlike those for boundary surveys, are understood throughout the title and surveying industries to be “rough.” Variations of +/- 2% are not uncommon.
Preliminary products such as boundary research reports may include
measurements which are likewise quite “rough.”
Road or
right-of-way limits
In many cases the precise limits of roads and/or
rights-of-way are of little concern to the client. Nevertheless we normally try
to precisely locate these lines. However, in order to do so, we must have good
records (from when the road or right-of-way was originally laid out) and good
physical evidence (monumentation, etc). In some cases, especially where old
town roads or informally established private roads are involved, records and/or
monumentation may be unavailable or insufficient.
In general our policy is to 1). obtain the
required records when they are conveniently indexed at an appropriate location
(such as a town office, the Registry of Deeds, or the Department of
Transportation) and 2). precisely locate road or right-of-way limits when, in
addition to such records, sufficient physical evidence exists. When a long
portion of the road would have to be resurveyed in order to precisely locate
such lines we may approximate or assume a location. Likewise we may have to
assume a location when we do not find sufficient records as to precise location.
Monumentation
We generally monument (or “pin”) unmonumented or insufficiently monumented corners using a #5 rebar (this being a 5/8” steel reinforcing bar) on which we normally place a cap with the land surveyor’s last name and license number. In some cases this may not be feasible and we may instead set a reference monument nearby and note a measurement from that monument to the corner; or we may set a drill hole (i.e. in ledge or other rocky surface).
We may not monument “minor” corners, these being
corners where a line takes an angle of about 15°
or less.
We will not normally monument corners where we
judge that to do so would be confrontational. Most obviously this would occur
in the case of an ongoing or potential boundary dispute. However, such corners
will normally be shown on the plan we provide.
Marking
of lines
We normally rough-flag long boundaries not otherwise apparent in the field (i.e. from fence lines, stone wall, etc) where feasible. This would exclude lines across open fields and lines through very wet areas, extremely dense growth, any type of dangerous terrain, etc. “Rough flag” means that the flags may deviate slightly (a foot or two) from the “true” line but should be adequate for most anticipated purposes. We do not normally blaze and paint such lines but can do so when the client requests. And, as with monumentation, we do not mark lines where to do so would, in our judgement, be confrontational.
Legal descriptions
We are happy to provide legal descriptions (for use by an attorney in preparing deeds etc) so long as we can base them on a boundary survey by a licensed land surveyor; we do not normally provide them otherwise.
Confidentiality
Land surveying is
a professional service, and ideally your survey data should be as confidential
as your legal or medical records. In practice, however, surveying is
different—it has an essentially public component because 1). the records
pertinent to your property can be examined at the Registry of Deeds; and 2).
our field work often occurs in open view over a period of several hours or
days, and requires equipment that makes it obvious that we are surveying. We
have therefore developed the following policy:
When approached by
third parties we will identify ourselves, our client(s), and the type of survey
we are performing. We may also seek out parcel neighbors and identify ourselves
so that our presence near their homes does not alarm them. We will share any readily
available information we may have (names of abutters, for example). But we
will maintain confidentiality about any other data we may have which is only
available in our files (such as concerns the client may have raised, future
intentions for the parcel, legal issues, etc).
We will assume that
those who claim to represent our client(s) (lawyers, realtors, etc) are in fact
contracted to do so unless asked not to by our client(s).
After the survey
is complete we will share survey data with other land surveyors who request it
unless asked not to by our client, or unless we are aware of some reason we
should not do so. We do not bill clients (or the surveyors) for this
service.
We will otherwise
respect “client privilege” and will treat final products (plans, legal
descriptions, etc) as confidential unless 1). the document (plan, etc) has been
recorded at the Registry of Deeds, at which point it becomes public
information; 2). common sense dictates a relaxation of the policy (i.e. the
client has sold the property and moved away).
