2.4 Unlicensed Practice, Exemptions, Right of Entry & County Surveyors
Key Takeaways
Practicing or offering to practice surveying without a Mississippi license is a misdemeanor punishable by a $100 to $5,000 fine, up to three months' imprisonment, or both (§ 73-13-39).
Under § 73-13-47 (2026), a surveyor may enter public or private lands or waters, but not buildings, to perform surveying duties without criminal liability for trespass.
A surveyor using § 73-13-47 must make a good-faith attempt to announce and identify themselves before entering private property and remains personally liable for damage.
Attorneys may draft legal descriptions under § 73-13-49 but may not determine boundary locations by field measurement, retracement, or monument placement.
Since January 1, 1984, a Mississippi county surveyor must be a licensed surveyor unless they held the office on December 31, 1983 (§ 73-13-49; § 19-27-1).
Unlicensed practice is a crime (§ 73-13-39)
Any person or firm commits a misdemeanor who:
- practices or offers to practice surveying in Mississippi without a license;
- presents or tries to use another's license or seal as their own;
- gives false or forged evidence to the Board;
- impersonates another licensee;
- tries to use an expired or revoked license; or
- violates any provision of the chapter.
The penalty on conviction is a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $5,000, plus reimbursement of investigative expenses and court costs, or imprisonment up to three months, or both. These criminal penalties are in addition to the civil penalties the Board may impose under § 73-13-37, which applies to nonlicensees too.
Unless licensed, no one may use, as a professional or business identification or claim, terms such as "surveyor," "professional surveyor," "licensed surveyor," "registered surveyor," "professional land surveyor," "licensed professional land surveyor," "surveyed," or "surveying," or any combination or abbreviation of them. No one may use any symbol or slogan implying qualification to practice surveying, or receive or be promised a fee for any part of the practice of surveying. Anyone who does these things is conclusively presumed to be practicing surveying. Law enforcement officers must enforce the chapter, and the Attorney General advises the Board. Rule 1.3 restates these prohibitions as "noncompliance with the Statute."
Exemptions (§ 73-13-49)
The chapter does not prevent or affect the following, among others:
| Exemption | Limits that matter for surveying |
|---|---|
| Attorneys drafting deeds, easements, boundary line agreements, and legal descriptions | Only if the drafting does not involve determining boundary locations by measurement, retracement, or monument placement in the field. The exemption does not cover subdivision descriptions, lot layouts, or plats needing bearings and distances for new lines, or metes-and-bounds descriptions needing newly created bearings or distances |
| Subordinates of a licensee | Work must not include final designs or decisions and must be done under the licensee's responsibility, checking, and supervision |
| Federal officers and employees | While practicing for the federal government |
| Public utilities regulated by the PSC, FCC, FERC, or NRC | Only for utility facilities of the utility and its affiliates; not services to nonaffiliated third parties or work the law requires a licensee to certify |
| County surveyors | Exempt only if they held the office by election or appointment on or before December 31, 1983 |
| Railroad employees surveying the railroad's own facilities | New right-of-way acquisitions for class one rail lines must be surveyed and platted by a Mississippi PS under the Standards of Practice. When track is removed and a line abandoned, the railroad must keep its valuation surveys and make them available to licensed surveyors on request |
| Geologists doing geologic mapping | Not tasks within the statutory scope of surveying |
| Municipal and county maps for planning, zoning, taxing, elections, E-911, public works, and similar uses | Without a PS seal and signature the map is not certifiably accurate as to position and is not an official survey |
The Board may also, by regulation and case by case, exempt specific tasks performed by regular full-time employees of manufacturing, utility, research, railroad, or industrial corporations when public welfare is not endangered.
Right of entry (§ 73-13-47, added 2026)
Before 2026, § 73-13-103 gave surveyors limited immunity from criminal trespass. HB 1150 replaced it with § 73-13-47:
- Who is covered: a licensed PS and any person employed by, or under the direct supervision of, a licensed PS.
- Scope: the surveyor may enter public or private lands or waters, except buildings, while lawfully performing surveying duties, without criminal liability for trespass.
- Conditions: the surveyor must make a good-faith attempt to announce and identify themselves and their intentions before entering private property, and must show documentation identifying them as a surveyor to anyone who asks.
- Limits: the section does not relieve the surveyor of civil liability. It does not protect against criminal trespass if the entry extends beyond the area actually necessary for the surveying duties.
- Damage: surveyors are personally liable for damage caused to private property. A landowner is not liable for damage to a surveyor unless it is caused by the landowner's (or agent's) intentional tortious conduct.
A county surveyor executing a court-ordered survey has a separate right: under § 19-27-11, the surveyor and assistants may enter the land without the occupant's consent, and anyone who obstructs them may be punished for contempt.
Mississippi's county surveyors
Section 135 of the Mississippi Constitution and §§ 19-27-1 through 19-27-35 provide for an elected county surveyor in each county.
- Qualifications: since January 1, 1984, the county surveyor must be a licensed surveyor, except a person who held the office on December 31, 1983. The surveyor posts a bond of not less than $50,000 (§ 19-27-1).
- Duties: execute survey orders directed by any court and make surveys requested by landowners (§ 19-27-3).
- Record of surveys (§ 19-27-5): the county surveyor records surveys in a book kept in the chancery clerk's office. The record shows courses and distances, acreage, when, by whom, and for whom each survey was made, witness trees and monuments with bearings and distances, and the variation of the magnetic from the true meridian. These books are a key source of collateral evidence for obliterated PLSS corners (Section 7.1).
- Resurveys (§ 19-27-13): when old marks are defaced or likely to decay, the county surveyor resurveys and re-marks the tract, governed by the original surveys, patents, or title deeds. The certificate may be recorded with the chancery clerk. Resurveys of county boundary lines follow the original government surveys and field notes, and the recorded notes are presumptive evidence in venue disputes.
- Perpetuation (§ 19-27-15): in resurveys the surveyor must perpetuate the original corners worked from by noting new bearing trees or other means.
- True meridian (§§ 19-27-33, -35): the county may establish a true-meridian line near the courthouse. The county surveyor must adjust instruments annually against a true meridian and may not certify or testify to a survey made with an instrument not adjusted within the previous twelve months.
Destroying landmarks (§ 97-17-15)
Anyone who knowingly cuts, fells, alters, removes, or destroys a boundary tree or other boundary landmark "to the wrong of another person," or causes someone else to, may be fined not less than $50 nor more than $200 on conviction. Pulling a competing survey marker to "clean up" a corner is also a professional-conduct problem under Rule 6.3.
A surveyor's crew needs to cross a neighbor's pasture and open woods to recover a section corner. Under § 73-13-47, which statement is correct?
The crew may enter any land or building without notice because surveyors have absolute immunity
The crew may enter only with a chancery court order
The crew may enter the land and waters, but not buildings, after a good-faith attempt to announce and identify themselves, and remains civilly and personally liable for damage
The crew may enter only if the landowner signs a written release of all claims
An attorney prepares a deed that creates a new tract and writes a metes-and-bounds description with newly computed bearings and distances. How does § 73-13-49 treat this work?
It is exempt, because attorneys may prepare any legal instrument affecting title
It is exempt if the attorney also holds a real estate broker's license
It is exempt if the deed is recorded within 30 days
It falls outside the attorney exemption, because it requires newly created bearings and distances for the tract
A county's GIS department produces a parcel map for tax assessment without any surveyor's seal. What is its status under § 73-13-49?
The county may lawfully produce it, but without a PS seal and signature it is not certifiably accurate as to position and is not an official survey
It is an unlawful survey, and the county officials are guilty of a misdemeanor
It becomes an official survey once the board of supervisors adopts it on its minutes
It is valid as a survey if the county surveyor reviews it within one year
Sections you finish are checked off in the contents.