SB0337: SUMMARY OF INTRODUCED BILL IN COMMITTEE (Date Completed: 6-5-23)

INTRODUCTION

The bill would amend Public Act 132 of 1970, which provides for the filing of land surveys in the office of the register of deeds, to require the grantor or lessor of a property to record a certified copy of the original survey map in the county office of the register of deeds and to modify the requirements for a certified survey map. Additionally, the bill would modify filing requirements for land surveyed in preparation of a condominium subdivision plan and requirements for alternative survey markings if a professional surveyor were unable to set a monument on the corner of a property due to an obstruction.

FISCAL IMPACT

The bill would have no fiscal impact on State or local government.

PREVIOUS LEGISLATION

(Please note: This section does not provide a comprehensive account of all previous legislative efforts on the relevant subject matter.)

The bill is similar to Senate Bill 589 from the 2021-2022 Legislative Session.

MCL 54.211-54.213 Legislative Analyst: Alex Krabill

Fiscal Analyst: Bobby Canell

CONTENT

The bill would amend Public Act 132 of 1970 to do the following:

-- Require the grantor or lessor of a property to record in the office of the register of deeds in the county in which the land was located a certified copy of the original survey map.

-- Specify that land surveyed for preparation of a condominium subdivision plan would not have to be recorded in a county office of the register of deeds.

-- Require a professional surveyor who could not set a corner because of a physical obstruction to establish an alternative permanent monument and to reference the corner by bearing and distance from two different monumented corners of the survey.

-- Modify the requirements for a certified survey map.

Recording Copy of Survey

Public Act 132 of 1970 provides for the recording of surveys in the office of the register of deeds relative to land divisions and prescribes the requirements for those surveys. Currently, if lands are surveyed into parcels under the Land Division Act or any boundary survey in which permanent corners are monumented, the professional land surveyor who prepared the survey must record a certified copy in the office of the register of deeds in the county in which the land is situated.

Under the bill, instead, if lands were surveyed into parcels under the Land Division Act, the grantor or lessor of a property would have to record in the office of the register of deeds in the county in which the land was located a certified copy of the original survey map by the time the property was conveyed or leased, unless the professional land surveyor who prepared the survey had already done so.

If a survey is made to describe a parcel in a conveyance or title or to describe a parcel as created in a lease for a year or more, a certified copy of that survey must be recorded with the register of deeds in the county in which the land is situated within 90 days after the survey is delivered to the surveyor's client. Under the bill, instead, for a survey done for these purposes, the grantor or lessor would have to record, by the time the property was conveyed or leased, a certified copy of the original survey map with the registered of deeds in the county in which the land was situated, unless the surveyor who prepared the survey had already done so.

Currently, land platted under the Land Division Act or land previously surveyed and recorded and for which no change in boundary description is made from a previously recorded survey does not need to be recorded. Under the bill, land surveyed under Section 66 of the Condominium Act also would be exempt from recording requirements.

(Section 66 of the Condominium Act prescribes requirements for a condominium subdivision plan. Among other requirements, the plan must be prepared by a licensed professional and include a survey plan.)

Permanent Survey Markers

Currently, all corners of a survey must be monumented in the field with permanent markers which possess a magnetic field unless previously monumented with iron stakes, capped with some device legibly showing the license number of the licensed land surveyor placing them, and must include points of intersection of boundary or lot lines with highways streets, alleys, section lines, and meander lines, and corners of the United State Public Land Survey from which the parcel or parcels are described.

Under the bill, except as provided below, all corners would have to be monumented as described above and the monument would have to include the last five digits of the license number of the licensed professional surveyor placing the monument. In addition, if a corner could not be conveniently set because of physical obstructions such as pavement, large rocks, large roots, or utility cables, the professional surveyor would have to do the following:

-- Establish an alternative monument that was permanent and identifiable, such as a drill hole or an "X" chiseled in concrete.

-- Reference the corner by bearing and distance from two different monumented corners of the survey.

If neither of the above were feasible, the professional surveyor would have to monument the corner in any practical manner and show its relationship on the certified survey map.

Survey Map Requirements; Modify

The Act prescribes standards that a certified survey map must meet, including the following:

-- Lines on the map must be made with nonfading black ink on a scale of not more than 500 feet to an inch.

-- The map's scale must be shown.

-- A true scale reproduction of the map under the Records Reproduction Act must be recorded.

-- The relative positional precision of each corner must be included.

The bill would delete these requirements. Under the bill, in addition to being typed, lettered, or otherwise reproduced legibly with nonfading ink on a scale of not more than 500 feet to an inch (as currently required), the certified survey map could be prepared by computer aided drafting. The lines of the map also would have to be at a scale indicated in writing numerically and by graphic bar scale and have a text of a size readily legible for the line scale selected.

Under the Act, if the boundary of a parcel follows or parallels a section line, the section line must be defined at its extremities by corners established in the United States Public Land Survey or reestablished by accepted methods or protracted corners monumented under the State Survey and Remonumentation Act. Instead, under the bill, if the boundary of a parcel follows or parallels a section line, it would have to comply with one of the following:

-- The section line would have to be defined at its extremities by corners established in the United States Public Land Survey, by corners reestablished by accepted methods, or by protracted quarter section corners, regardless of whether the protracted quarter section corners were monumented under the State Survey and Remonumentation Act.

-- Other protracted divisions lines shown in the United State Public Land Survey would have to be defined at their extremities by corners established by accepted survey methods.

If an exterior boundary line shows a bearing or length that varies from that recorded in an abutting plat or certified survey, the following note must be placed along the line "previously recorded as (show bearing or length or both)". Under the bill, this requirement would apply to a condominium survey map.