Maine Land Surveyor seal requirements: size, wording, and the rule that sets them

Circular, with an outside diameter of not less than 1½ inches — a floor with no ceiling. 02-360 C.M.R. Ch. 50 § 6 fixes the shape as well as the minimum, so a Maine surveyor's seal cannot be an oval or a rectangle, and nothing stops it from being larger than 1½ inches. The 1-3/4 inch figure known as Size #1 is the engineering board's Approved Seal Format under 02-322 C.M.R. Ch. 2 § 9(1) and does not set the surveyor's size. (02-360 C.M.R. Ch. 50 § 6)

Not as part of ordinary sealing. 02-360 C.M.R. Ch. 50 § 6 requires the professional land surveyor to sign and seal and/or emboss every final document, and lists what the seal must plainly set forth — the surveyor's full name, the license number, and the words "State of Maine" and "Professional Land Surveyor". No date appears in that list or in the signing requirement. The rule that pairs a date with the seal, 02-322 C.M.R. Ch. 2 § 9(3), is the engineering board's. The one place Maine requires a date from a surveyor is on an altered document under 32 M.R.S. § 18226(1)(B). (02-360 C.M.R. Ch. 50 § 6; 32 M.R.S. § 18226(1)(B))

By adding four things, not simply a second seal. 32 M.R.S. § 18226(1)(B) provides that if an item bearing the seal of a professional land surveyor is altered, the altering professional land surveyor's seal and signature must be affixed with the notation "altered by," the date and a specific description of the alteration. A revised plan that carries only the second surveyor's seal and signature, with no notation and no description of what was changed, does not meet the statute. (32 M.R.S. § 18226(1)(B))

Yes. Both the rule and the statute reach past plats. 02-360 C.M.R. Ch. 50 § 6 requires the surveyor to sign and seal and/or emboss every final document, "including but not limited to plans, descriptions, reports, maps, plats and other drawings", and 32 M.R.S. § 18226(1)(A) repeats that list for all final documents issued by the surveyor. A metes-and-bounds description issued as completed work is therefore a sealed document in its own right, and § 18226(1)(C) forbids any state, county, city, town or village official charged with enforcement from accepting or approving documents prepared within the chapter that are not sealed and signed by the surveyor in responsible charge. (02-360 C.M.R. Ch. 50 § 6; 32 M.R.S. § 18226(1)(A) and (C))

The Board of Licensure for Professional Land Surveyors — a third Maine board, separate both from the State Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers, whose rules are agency 02-322, and from the architects' board at 02-288. The surveyors' chapter is 02-360 C.M.R. Ch. 50, adopted under 32 M.R.S. § 18212, and it was repealed and replaced effective January 18, 2026; it is now titled "Qualification for Licensure as Professional Land Surveyor and Use of Seals", with the seal provision at Section 6. Citations that route a Maine surveyor's seal through the engineering board's Chapter 2 are pointing at the wrong agency. (02-360 C.M.R. Ch. 50 § 6 (repealed and replaced Jan. 18, 2026, filing 2026-002); 32 M.R.S. § 18212)