Licensing
Surveying is a licensed profession in all fifty states. Missouri regulates both the individual and the firm, and the firm requirement is the one people miss.
A Missouri Professional Land Surveyor is licensed under Chapter 327 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri by the Missouri Board for Architects, Professional Engineers, Professional Land Surveyors and Professional Landscape Architects, which sits within the Division of Professional Registration.
Getting there involves education, a substantial period of experience under a licensed surveyor, and national examinations covering fundamentals and practice, plus Missouri specific content. It is not a certificate somebody picks up over a weekend.
This is the part that trips people up. Under Missouri law, a general business corporation, professional corporation or limited liability company providing land surveying services in Missouri must hold a Corporate Certificate of Authority from the Board, separate from the licenses held by its people.
The person who personally supervises the firm's surveying work has to be licensed. And the Board's certificate has to be current, because a certificate not renewed by its renewal date expires and becomes void.
What this means when you hire. There are two things to verify, not one. Is the individual signing your survey a licensed Missouri PLS, and does the firm hold a current corporate certificate of authority? Both are checkable through the Division of Professional Registration.
A licensed surveyor's seal and signature on a document is a professional certification carrying legal weight and personal liability. It is what makes a survey a survey rather than a drawing.
An unsealed sketch is not a boundary survey, whatever it is called on the invoice. If you are paying for a survey, you should receive a sealed document.
To be direct: we are not a surveying firm. We hold no Missouri land surveying license and no corporate certificate of authority, and we do not perform survey work of any kind. This site is information and referral.
When we pass an inquiry on, it goes to a Missouri-licensed Professional Land Surveyor, because in Missouri that is the legal requirement rather than a preference. See how this works.