New Jersey · Land Surveyor seal requirements
New Jersey Land Surveyor seal requirements: size, wording, and the rule that sets them
As of
Land surveyors in New Jersey seal under N.J.A.C. 13:40-8.1 (Signing and sealing of documents); N.J.A.C. 13:40-8.1A (Digital signatures and seals); N.J.S.A. 45:8-36, administered by the State Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors. The rule allows “Licensed Land Surveyor” or “Licensed Professional Engineer and Land Surveyor”. The rule sets no diameter of its own; it requires that the design of the seal be authorized by the Board. The Board's published Guidelines on Seals and Title Blocks state that the authorized design of a seal is round, 1½ inches in diameter, and metal-type embossing, and illustrate the land surveyor variant at that same 1½ inches.
N.J.A.C. 13:40-8.1(a) states no diameter itself; it requires that the design of the seal "shall be authorized by the Board." The Board supplies that design in a document it still hosts, "Guidelines on Seals and Title Blocks," which gives the authorized design as "ROUND: 1½" DIAMETER," "METAL-TYPE, EMBOSSING," and prints an illustration captioned "1 1/2 INCHES" showing STATE OF NEW JERSEY in the outer ring. That sheet is undated, is no longer linked from the Board's own applications or regulations pages, cites the title block rules by their pre-2006 numbers (13:40-1.1 through 1.3, recodified in 2006 as 13:40-8.2 and 8.3), and its "metal-type, embossing" specification predates the November 16, 2015 amendment that first allowed a digital seal. It is nonetheless the only published statement of the design the Board authorizes, so the diameter here comes from it and the caveat comes with it. New Jersey publishes no free official text of the Administrative Code: the Office of Administrative Law directs the public to LexisNexis, and both boards' regulations pages link instead to "the Justia unofficial code (that may not be current)," so the rule text here is taken from the boards' own adopted rules as published in the New Jersey Register. Both chapters are in force: N.J.A.C. 13:40 was readopted effective February 24, 2025 (57 N.J.R. 716(a)), and N.J.A.C. 13:27 was readopted effective October 21, 2024 with a new expiration date of October 21, 2031 (56 N.J.R. 2245(a)). The engineers' and surveyors' digital seal rule was loosened effective January 6, 2020 (52 N.J.R. 46(a)): former N.J.A.C. 13:40-8.1A(a)1iv was deleted, taking with it the requirement that a digitally sealed document be available in read-only format when transmitted, and the tamper condition became new (a)2, which asks only that modification after sealing be evident. The architects' equivalent, N.J.A.C. 13:27-6.5, was adopted effective May 1, 2017 (49 N.J.R. 1093(a)) and still carries both of the older conditions; the Board of Architects' own compilation of Chapter 27 is stamped "Last Revision Date: 8/1/2011" and still prints 13:27-6.5 as "(RESERVED)."
New Jersey Land Surveyor seal
- Legend (any one)
- “Licensed Land Surveyor” · “Licensed Professional Engineer and Land Surveyor”
- Diameter
- The rule sets no diameter of its own; it requires that the design of the seal be authorized by the Board. The Board's published Guidelines on Seals and Title Blocks state that the authorized design of a seal is round, 1½ inches in diameter, and metal-type embossing, and illustrate the land surveyor variant at that same 1½ inches.
- Expiration date
- Same rule as the engineer's: name, license number and the legend "Licensed Land Surveyor." No expiration date on the seal.(N.J.A.C. 13:40-8.1(a); N.J.S.A. 45:8-36)
- Signature date
- Subchapter 8 governs both professions; the title block shall contain the signature of the person in responsible charge and the date when signed.(N.J.A.C. 13:40-8.3(a)5)
- City on seal
- The rule does not require a city on the seal.(N.J.A.C. 13:40-8.1(a); State Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, Guidelines on Seals and Title Blocks)
- The seal shall be a digital or an impression-type seal of a design authorized by the Board, containing the name and license number of the professional land surveyor and the legend "Licensed Land Surveyor" — or "Licensed Professional Engineer and Land Surveyor" for a licensee qualified in both classifications.(N.J.A.C. 13:40-8.1(a); N.J.S.A. 45:8-36)
- The legend omits "Professional," although N.J.S.A. 45:8-36.1 separately permits a person licensed as a land surveyor to use the title "professional land surveyor" in the scope of the practice of land surveying.(N.J.S.A. 45:8-36.1)
- Alternatives, such as rubber stamp facsimiles of the seal, shall not be permitted; digital seals may be used only in compliance with N.J.A.C. 13:40-8.1A, on the same terms as for professional engineers.(N.J.A.C. 13:40-8.1(a); N.J.A.C. 13:40-8.1A)
- Upon completing the plat or plan of survey the licensed professional land surveyor shall provide the client an agreed upon number of prints of the survey drawing, and such print copies shall bear the signature and impression seal of the licensed professional land surveyor.(N.J.A.C. 13:40-5.1(i))
- Where a deed description for conveyancing is supplied as a separate document rather than reproduced on the survey plat, that description shall be signed and sealed by the licensed professional land surveyor responsible for its preparation.(N.J.A.C. 13:40-5.1(i)1)
- No department, institution, commission, board or body of the State Government, or of any political subdivision, may receive or file any plan involving land surveying unless there is affixed to it the seal of a land surveyor licensed under the chapter.(N.J.S.A. 45:8-45)
New Jersey land surveyor seal questions
Does a New Jersey land surveyor seal say "Professional Land Surveyor"?▾
The surveyor legend is "Licensed Land Surveyor," without "Professional," even though N.J.S.A. 45:8-36.1 lets the same licensee use the title "professional land surveyor" in practice and the subchapter heading itself reads "professional land surveyors." The legend is also the phrase spelled out, so "P.E." is not it. (N.J.A.C. 13:40-8.1(a); N.J.S.A. 45:8-36; N.J.S.A. 45:8-36.1)
Must a New Jersey land surveyor seal a separate deed description?▾
Yes. N.J.A.C. 13:40-5.1(i)1 provides that where the description for conveyancing is supplied as a separate document rather than reproduced on the survey plat, that description shall be signed and sealed by the licensed professional land surveyor responsible for its preparation. A metes-and-bounds description issued as a loose page is a sealed document in New Jersey, not correspondence. (N.J.A.C. 13:40-5.1(i)1)
Can any other seal stand in for a New Jersey land surveyor's on a filed plan?▾
No. N.J.S.A. 45:8-45 bars any department, institution, commission, board or body of the State Government, or of any political subdivision, from receiving or filing a plan involving land surveying unless the seal of a land surveyor licensed under the chapter is affixed to it. The same section is more forgiving one clause earlier: a plan or specification involving professional engineering may be received bearing either a licensed professional engineer's seal or a registered architect's. The surveyor's seal has no such alternative. (N.J.S.A. 45:8-45)
How does a New Jersey land surveyor mark a preliminary plan?▾
With the sentence the rule dictates, placed where the seal would go. N.J.A.C. 13:40-8.1(f) requires incomplete and draft plans, documents and sketches — advanced or preliminary copies alike — to be conspicuously identified, and permits them to be signed but not sealed, provided the licensee inserts the language "This is not a sealed document" in place of the seal in the title block. Leaving the seal space empty, or writing some other caveat, is not what the rule asks for. (N.J.A.C. 13:40-8.1(f))
Where does the date go on a New Jersey sealed survey plan?▾
In the title block, not beside the seal. The sealing rule asks nothing of the seal beyond the name, the license number and the legend, and never calls for a date next to it; the requirement arrives instead through N.J.A.C. 13:40-8.3(a)5, which has the title block contain the signature of the person or persons in responsible charge and the date when signed. The statute behind the seal, N.J.S.A. 45:8-36, mentions no date at all. (N.J.A.C. 13:40-8.3(a)5; N.J.A.C. 13:40-8.1(a); N.J.S.A. 45:8-36)