17.2 Corner Records

Domain V knowledge item U asks for the legal content required of corner records. Independent OpenExamPrep teaching treats the corner record as a different statutory product from the ROS: smaller sheet, Board form, monument-focused, and not the document you use to establish a lost public-land corner.

Corner record versus Record of Survey

Start with the public-land rule. BPC 8773(a) says that, except as provided in 8773.4(b), a person authorized to practice land surveying shall complete, sign, stamp with a seal, and file with the county surveyor or engineer of the county where the corners sit a written record of corner establishment or restoration—a "corner record"—for every corner established by the Survey of the Public Lands of the United States, except "lost corners" as defined by the Manual of Surveying Instructions (2009), and for every accessory to such a corner that is found, set, reset, or used as control. BPC 8773(b) then switches vehicles: after establishment of a lost corner, a record of survey shall be filed as set forth in Section 8764. Memorize that split. Recovering a found section corner and using it as control is classic corner-record territory. Proportioning in a lost quarter-corner and setting a new monument is an ROS event.

BPC 8773(c) is the optional property-corner sentence: any person authorized to practice land surveying may file a corner record for property corners, property-controlling corners, reference monuments, or accessories to a property corner. Combined with BPC 8765(d), that "may" becomes a "shall" when you are on the retracement exemption and you set, reset, or find a property corner of a different character than prior records. BPC 8771(f) is a different election: when monument preservation under 8771(b) or (c) requires either a corner record or an ROS, the submitting licensee chooses the vehicle.

Use this comparison when an item asks which document to file:

Form, size, and published content — do not invent fields

BPC 8773.1 directs the Board to prescribe necessary information, form, and time limits. A corner record shall be a single 8.5 by 11 inch sheet which may consist of a front and back page. 16 CCR 464(h) names the prescribed form: "Corner Record" (BPELSG2016 revised 06/2016), incorporated by reference. Counties may accept electronic submittal if they can archive and distribute it (464(f)), but they do not get to replace the Board form with an unpublished local blank. Teach the published information list in 16 CCR 464(a). Do not memorize rumored extra boxes that the regulation does not state.

16 CCR 464(a) requires, consistent with each corner identified:

1. County and, if applicable, city.
2. A brief legal description of the section, township, range, base, and meridian or the Rancho, if applicable.
3. Corner type (examples in the rule: government corner, control corner, property corner).
4. Reference of the related statute (8765(d), 8771, 8773, or other relevant Code sections).
5. Description of the physical condition of any monument found, set, reset, replaced, or removed.
6. Date of the visit to the monument when the information was obtained.
7. For 8765(d) filings, applicable monument, basis-of-bearings, adjoiner, and interpretation data consistent with the purpose of the survey (the 464(a)(7) list tracks several 8764 ideas, scaled to the corner record).
8. For 8771 filings, applicable 8771 provisions.
9. For public-land corners required by 8773(a), a sketch showing site recovery information used for the corner.
10. Except for those 8773(a) public-land corners in (9), a drawing showing measurements that relate the corner to other identifiable monuments.
11. Date of preparation and, as prescribed by 8773.4, the signature and title of the chief of the survey party (United States or California State agency) or the signature and seal of the land surveyor or civil engineer defined in BPC 8731.
12. Date filed and signature of the county surveyor.
13. A document or filing number and/or agency index information.

16 CCR 464(b) makes a California Coordinate System reference optional. 464(g) requires BLM/General Land Office standard markings and abbreviations. 464(e) allows one corner record to show one or more property corners, controlling corners, reference monuments, or accessories, with reference to record information. 464(c) repeats the public-land filing duty, with exemptions in 8773.4.

Clocks, examination, and monument condition

16 CCR 464(d) is the filing clock: file within 90 days from the date a corner was found, set, reset, or used as control. Extension mechanics are the same as BPC 8762. Do not confuse this 90-day corner clock with the county surveyor's 20-working-day review.

BPC 8773.2(a) : the county surveyor or engineer examines the corner record for compliance with 8765(d), 8773, 8773.1, and 8773.4, endorses a statement of examination, and files it or returns it within 20 working days after receipt. 8773.2(b) : a noncompliant submittal returns with a written statement of necessary changes; the licensee may make agreed changes, note unagreed matters under subdivision (c), and resubmit within 60 days or a mutually agreed time; the county surveyor shall file within 10 working days after receipt of the resubmission. 8773.2(c) mirrors 8768: if agreement fails within 10 working days after a request to file without further change, an explanation of differences is noted and the county surveyor files it; both parties add notations if they cannot agree on language. 8773.2(e) allows a charge not exceeding the amount required to record a deed. 8773.2(f) returns filing data within 20 days if a postage-paid envelope is provided, unless the office keeps a public electronic database searchable by the preparer's license number.

BPC 8773.3 is not optional rehabilitation language: when a corner record is filed pursuant to 8773, the licensee shall reconstruct or rehabilitate the monument and accessories so they remain as permanent as reasonably possible and can reasonably be located later. That duty sits beside BPC 8771.6 (in effect until January 1, 2029) for monuments used as control that are less than permanent and durable.

Signature, seal, and 8773.4 exemptions

BPC 8773.4(a) : a corner record shall be signed by a licensed land surveyor or licensed civil engineer and stamped with a seal, or, for a United States or California State agency, the certificate may be signed by the chief of the survey party with official title, prior to filing. 16 CCR 411 still governs what a land surveyor's seal contains (not less than 1 1/2 inches, "Professional Land Surveyor" or "Licensed Land Surveyor," "State of California," name as on the Board certificate or an allowed given-name abbreviation with the listed surname, and certificate number) and requires the date of signing and sealing immediately below or next to the signature and seal. Rubber-stamping a signature is prohibited; a rubber stamp of the seal is a different, permitted tool under 411(f)'s signature ban and 411(e)'s impression language.

BPC 8773.4(b) : a corner record need not be filed when:

1. A corner record is on file and the corner is found as described in the existing corner record.
2. All conditions of 8773 are complied with by proper notations on an ROS filed under the Professional Land Surveyors' Act or a parcel or subdivision map under the Subdivision Map Act.
3. The survey is a mobilehome park interior lot under Health and Safety Code 18210, with the same prior-map and 66428.1 conversion limits used in 8765(e).

8773.4(c) : the section does not apply to maps filed prior to January 1, 1974.

Worked example. You recover a brass-cap section corner, it matches the existing filed corner record description, and you use it as control. 8773.4(b)(1) says you need not file another corner record. You then establish a lost 1/4 corner by proportion. 8773(b) requires an ROS with 8764 content; putting only a sketch on an 8.5-by-11 corner record does not satisfy 8773(b). On a recorded subdivision retracement with no material discrepancy you reset one lot corner: 8765(d) plus 464(a)(7) content on the Board form, filed within 90 days, examined within 20 working days.