| (a) The purpose of the registered professional land
surveyors and licensed state land surveyor seal is to assure the user
of the surveying product that the work has been performed or directly
supervised by the professional surveyor named and to delineate the
scope of the surveyor's work.
(b) Registration and licensed holders shall only seal
work done by them, performed under their direct supervision as defined
in §131.2 of this title (relating to Definitions). Upon sealing,
surveyors take full professional responsibility for that work.
(c) When a license or registration holder reviews and
elects to incorporate the work products of others into a signed and
sealed survey document, those items shall be clearly labeled as such
and shall clearly indicate the identity of the originator.
(d) Registration holders shall take reasonable steps
to ensure the security of their physical or electronic seals and electronic
signatures. For electronic seals and electronic signatures, the surveyor
must have reasonable security measures in place to protect these files.
In the event of loss of a seal or electronic signature, the surveyor
will, as soon as possible, but no later than 30 days of discovery,
give written notification of the facts concerning the loss to the
board.
(e) Preliminary documents released from a land surveyor's
control shall identify the purpose of the document, the land surveyor
of record and the land surveyor's registration number, and the release
date. Such preliminary documents shall not be signed or sealed and
shall bear the following statement in the signature space or upon
the face of the document: "Preliminary, this document shall not be
recorded for any purpose and shall not be used or viewed or relied
upon as a final survey document". Preliminary documents released from
the land surveyor's control which include this text in place of the
land surveyor's signature need not comply with the other minimum standards
promulgated in this chapter.
(f) License and registration holders shall affix their
seal and original signature or electronic seal and signature with
the date on the final version of their professional surveying work
before such work is released from their control. The signature and
date shall not obscure the surveyor's name or registration number
in the seal.
(g) Work performed by more than one registration holder
shall be sealed in a manner such that all surveying work can be clearly
attributed to the responsible registration holder or registration
holders. When surveying work on which two or more registration holders
have worked, the seal and signature of each registration holder shall
be placed on the surveying work with a notation describing the work
done under each registration holder's responsible charge.
(h) Registered employees of the state, its political
subdivisions, or other public entities are responsible for sealing
their original surveying work; however, such registered employees
engaged in review and evaluation for compliance with applicable law
or regulation of surveying work submitted by others, or in the preparation
of general planning documents, a proposal for decision in a contested
case or any similar position statement resulting from a compliance
review, need not seal the review reports, planning documents, proposals
for decision, or position statements.
(i) A local authority may require an original seal
and/or signature on reproduced documents.
(j) Any surveying work issued by a registration holder
for land or property in this state, except for surveying work that
constitutes state land surveying, as defined in §1071.002 of
the Surveying Act, must include the registration holder's registered
professional land surveyor seal placed on the document. A registration
holder is not required to use a Texas seal if the surveying work is
not located in Texas.
(k) A surveyor may securely transmit his or her final
version of surveying work electronically, provided that work bears
the surveyor's seal and uses one of the techniques described in §138.35(a)
of this chapter (relating to Electronic Seals and Electronic Signatures)
and must employ reasonable security measures to make the documents
unalterable. Electronic correspondence of this type may be followed
by a hard copy containing the surveyor's printed name, date, signature
and the designation "R.P.L.S." or other terms described in §138.1
of this chapter (relating to Registration Holder Designations).
(l) A registration holder is not required to use a
seal for a project for which the registration holder is not required
to hold a registration under the Surveying Act.
(m) All surveying documents released, issued, or submitted
by a registration holder, including preliminary documents, shall clearly
indicate the firm name and registration number of the surveying firm
by which the professional surveyor is employed.
(1) If the surveyor is employed by a local, State,
or Federal Government agency, then only the name of the agency shall
be required.
(2) If the surveyor is exempt from sealing a document
under subsection (l) of this section, but elects to seal a document,
then only the name of the employer shall be required.
(n) A licensed state land surveyor must sign and seal
surveying documents and surveying work submitted to the General Land
Office, including field notes, plats, and reports, with the licensee's
licensed state land surveyor seal. In addition to being signed and
sealed with the licensed state land surveyor's seal, state land surveying
documents and surveying work must also include the licensed state
land surveyor's printed name and license number.
(o) Use of a seal that is not in compliance with the
requirements of §138.31 of this title (relating to Seal Specifications)
by a registration or license holder is a violation of Board rules
and subject to sanctions.
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| Source Note: The provisions of this §138.33 adopted to be effective April 1, 2021, 46 TexReg 2017; amended to be effective July 3, 2022, 47 TexReg 3688; amended to be effective September 19, 2022, 47 TexReg 5852 |
