Site Visits

Registered surveyors who operate a cadastral business are required by the Surveyors Act 2003 to hold a consulting endorsement. The consulting endorsement places emphasis on professional practice, business management, quality assurance programs, and communication. All consulting endorsed surveyors are required to maintain and demonstrate their competency against the Consulting Endorsement Framework.

As part of the renewal of registration process, all surveyors with a consulting endorsement are required to self-certify that they have maintained their competency. A random selection of 10% of registrants is selected each year for a site visit by two representatives from the Board.

A major focus of the site visit will be discussing the systems and processes the practice has in place to ensure the quality of field surveys and survey plans. The Board does not audit plans or practice documents.  The main purpose of the visit is a discussion and an assessment of specific issues identified by the Board. Past site visits have including the following topics:

  1. Supervision of unqualified staff
  2. Involvement in survey and plan preparation of Surveyor signing plan
  3. Structured training
  4. Instrument calibration
  5. Disclaimers
  6. Requisition rates
  7. Quality Assurance Systems
  8. GPS practices and cadastral surveys
  9. Structured approach to meeting clients expectations
  10. Reinstatement and Cadastral surveys

This will also be an opportunity for you and other registered persons to ask questions about the Board and provide feedback to Board Members.

The Board has a pro-forma reporting format and a brief report is prepared for each site visit. All reports are reviewed at a Board meeting at which time the Board will assess if any further issues need to be raised with the consulting surveyor or if the site visit was satisfactorily completed.

Once a site visit has been satisfactorily completed, the consulting surveyor’s name will be excluded from the random selection for the next two years.