Land Surveying Video Guides

In this video, Landon Blake tells a story about when his friend got a message from a land firm wanting him to update an ALTA Survey. He goes over lessons that should be taken from this story and answers questions such as, "Why is it important to hire a good lawyer and to pay attention", "Why it's important to hire someone who knows the rules", and as a law firm, "Why it is important to train and supervise your paralegal.

Video Transcript:

I got a call from another surveyor i i work with occasionally here in central california he's a good man i've known him for a long time and he told me a story he he got a call from a law firm that was working on a commercial real estate transaction and they sent him over a land title survey that his company had done i don't know four or five years ago and the the email that he got the Message you got from the law firm was uh hello you know so and so land surveyor we need you to update this land title survey and return it to us as soon as possible and you know they said something like we're trying to close in five days you know blah blah blah that was it that was the whole email and so he called me and was kind of like can you believe this can can you believe What i got from this law firm and we kind of had a good chuckle but i i wanted to tell you that story because i think it it it illustrates a couple really important lessons either a if you're the law firm working on commercial real estate due diligence or b if you're the land developer real estate investor landowner that's hiring that law firm right so there's some there's some lessons for both parties there so before We talk about the lessons like what's the problem what's the problem with the email that that that law firm sent to my friend well there's there's four major problems with that so i'm gonna go through them one at a time number one the law firm that's running due diligence on that transaction is either negligent or incompetent the fact that they could send that email Without understanding what they were asking for is a huge red flag right that that's a law firm that does not know what they're doing right and i'm gonna explain that uh here as we go through these other reasons you'll you'll see why that that becomes clear okay what's the second major problem uh the second major problem is my friend the land surveyor had no contractual relationship with either the law firm or their client So you don't get to just call up a land surveyor with whom you have no contractual relationship and ask for that kind of favor right that's just first of all it's it's illegal in california for a land surveyor to perform those kind of services without a written contract so the law firm was basically asking the surveyor to break the law he needs to have a contract right and then for liability reasons he needs to have a Contract with whoever's asking for that so that was the second major problem no contractual relationship what we call privity a contract and the law the third prop major problem was uh whoever sent that email the law firm that sent that email there was no recognition on their part that conditions may have changed either on the ground or in the record right they're just trying to check a box like oh we need an updated title survey Right without any understanding of why an updated survey was being asked for or what a surveyor needed to do to prepare an updated survey like they were just trying to check a box right like if all you need is somebody to check a box don't hire a lawyer hire your 13 year old cousin she can check boxes on a checklist right so that just they they were they were just trying to check a box without without really understanding why this was part of the Real estate transaction and then finally the fourth major problem was there was no recognition here that in this situation the land surveyor was owed some reasonable kind of compensation for the for the alta survey update or the land title survey update so all those are major problems right there was there's just and that's why my my friend called me and we had a good chuckles like this This is just it's unbelievable that a professional law firm would even call and ask that of a professional land surveyor so what are the lessons let's start um if you're the client so if you're the real estate investment trust or the landowner or the land developer and you've hired this law firm to do your commercial real estate due diligence and they pull a stunt like this what what what do you what does that teach you Um hire a good lawyer and then pay attention to what your lawyer is doing um you don't want to just go hire any old schmuck law firm you don't want to hire a law firm that doesn't have experience with commercial real estate due diligence and land title issues you know you need to hire an attorney that understands what a land title survey is and what its role in the real estate process is and then you can't just hire An attorney and put them on autopilot right even with a good attorney you need to pay attention you need to ask questions you know i have an accountant i have a cpa at my company i have a human resources consultant you know we we get we have a business attorney we hire out outside expertise when we need it but i'm i am totally comfortable with asking my experts questions why are you doing this do we need to do that what about this i need Some basic level of understanding of the work that they're doing i don't get into the details that's why i hire them they're the specialists but they need to be able to explain to me what they're doing and why and it needs to sound reasonable right and so in this case you can't just hire a law firm and turn them let them off the leash right you need to understand why are you contacting the surveyor what are you asking him what do you need from him Okay so you can't just abdicate your duties okay what if you're a law firm what if you're a law firm doing commercial real estate due diligence what does this teach you don't embarrass yourself you know train and supervise your your paralegal right i assume in this case it was a paralegal that was actually reaching out um to to the surveyor so um just You you don't get a pass because it's your paralegal you have a you have a legal obligation and an ethical obligation to supervise the work of that paralegal and your paralegal either needs the proper training to understand what a what an altar survey is and and when an update is required and if she can't get that or he if they can't get that training from you then you need to hire help so get the right kind of help If you have to if you're a law firm and you're and you're processing lots of commercial real estate transactions maybe you need to have a land surveyor like me on contract to provide assist assistance with those transactions right to read and interpret the land surveys and to manage the surveyors that are working on your transactions like you either have to put the time in to figure this stuff out or hire the right person to help you do it um don't half bake it Especially at the hourly rates that that you guys typically charge i think that you you owe your client better than that and and when you when you allow a request like that to go out on your law firm's letterhead that that's an embarrassment that's something that you should be ashamed of right that that i just i would be embarrassed to be that law firm and then finally whether you're the the land title officer or the paralegal Or the land attorney or the the real estate investor understand the role of the surveyor and the role of the survey in the commercial real estate process if you don't know ask questions right if you don't understand why i'm involved and what i'm doing it it could burn you right and so you need to put forth a little bit of effort to educate yourself and if you know most surveyors if you call them up we do a Horrible job of marketing as surveyors but most surveyors if you give us a call we are more than willing to tell you what it is we do and why we're working on your transaction right most surveyors love to do that so call your survey or talk to them right or take other reasonable steps to understand yeah you know ask your attorney ask your real estate broker why are we being asked for a survey what needs to be on a survey what does it Take to get a good survey is there nothing wrong with asking those questions and then finally respect the land surveyor as a professional right if you're an attorney or a land title officer or a real estate investor right you're all professionals right land surveyors are professionals you don't call and ask me to update a survey that i haven't seen on the ground in five years who knows what's changed in the Record right i don't have a contract with you and there's no discussion of compensation right that's just a total lack of professional respect and dignity so all the survey updates are not free you need to educate your paralegal so that they don't expect free land title survey updates and you need to understand and respect the role of the land surveyor and the land survey in the commercial real estate