New York · Land Surveyor seal requirements
New York Land Surveyor seal requirements: size, wording, and the rule that sets them
As of
Land surveyors in New York seal under 8 NYCRR § 68.13 (Seals); Education Law § 7209, administered by the State Board for Engineering, Land Surveying and Geology. The seal reads “LICENSED LAND SURVEYOR”. Circular, approximately 1¾ inches in diameter.
New York requires something almost no other state does: a separate alteration-warning stamp alongside the seal. Documents filed with public officials also need a personal signature on the original.
New York Land Surveyor seal
- Legend
- “LICENSED LAND SURVEYOR”
- Diameter
- Circular, approximately 1¾ inches in diameter.
- Expiration date
- The surveyor's seal is the same section as the engineer's, with "LICENSED LAND SURVEYOR" at the bottom of the outer band; the inner circle admits no letters or numbers beyond the name and the license number.(8 NYCRR § 68.13)
- Signature date
- Education Law § 7209 governs surveyors on the same terms as engineers: seal plus personal signature on the original, with a date required only on an altered item.(Education Law § 7209(1) and (2)(a); 8 NYCRR § 68.13)
- City on seal
- The rule does not require a city on the seal.(8 NYCRR § 68.13)
- The bottom of the outer band reads "LICENSED LAND SURVEYOR" — not "Professional Land Surveyor" — with "STATE OF NEW YORK" at the top.(8 NYCRR § 68.13)
- The inner circle carries the Great Seal of New York, the name of the licensee above it and the license number below it, with no other letters or numbers.(8 NYCRR § 68.13)
New York land surveyor seal questions
Does a New York land surveyor's seal say "Professional Land Surveyor"?▾
No — the words are "LICENSED LAND SURVEYOR," without "Professional." The omission is deliberate rather than an oversight: 8 NYCRR § 68.13 and Education Law § 7209(1) each set the surveyor's legend in the same sentence in which they give the engineer "Licensed Professional Engineer," and drop the word for the surveyor. On the seal it sits at the bottom of the outer band, with "STATE OF NEW YORK" at the top. (8 NYCRR § 68.13; NY Education Law § 7209(1))
Does a New York land surveyor licensed as an engineer need two seals?▾
One seal, with a legend of its own. 8 NYCRR § 68.13 offers the bottom of the outer band four wordings — "LICENSED PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER," "LICENSED LAND SURVEYOR," "LICENSED PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER AND LAND SURVEYOR" or "LICENSED PROFESSIONAL GEOLOGIST," as the case may be — so a dual licensee's seal carries the combined phrase rather than two stamps. The section governs all four credentials from one paragraph, which is why there is no separate New York land surveyor seal rule to find. (8 NYCRR § 68.13)
Can a New York land surveyor use a facsimile signature on a filed plat?▾
Not on the original. Education Law § 7209(1) requires plans, specifications, plats and reports prepared by the land surveyor, or by a full-time or part-time subordinate under the surveyor's supervision, to be stamped with the seal and "signed, on the original with the personal signature" of the surveyor when filed with public officials. The next clause of the same subdivision bars any official of the state, a city, county, town or village from accepting or approving plans that are not stamped with the seal of a licensed land surveyor "and bearing the authorized facsimile of the signature" — the test applied to the copy the office receives, not permission to leave the original unsigned. (NY Education Law § 7209(1))
When does a New York land surveyor have to date a sealed plat?▾
Only on an item that has been altered. Neither Education Law § 7209(1) nor 8 NYCRR § 68.13 asks for a date — not inside the seal, whose inner circle admits "no other letters or numbers" beyond the name above the Great Seal of New York and the license number below it, and not beside it. The article's one date requirement is in § 7209(2)(a): where an item bearing the seal of an engineer or land surveyor is altered, the altering land surveyor affixes to the item the seal and the notation "altered by" followed by the signature, the date of the alteration and a specific description of the alteration. (NY Education Law § 7209(2)(a); 8 NYCRR § 68.13; cf. NY Education Law § 7209(1))
Generate a New York Land Surveyor seal to this specification
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