3.2 State Survey Laws: Plans, Deposit and Protection of Survey Marks
Key Takeaways
- State Survey Laws prohibit acceptance for registration, and restrict admission in evidence, of any map, plan or diagram of land not prepared and signed by a surveyor.
- A licensed surveyor who prepares a plan for a registrable instrument must insert the date of completion and submit a copy to the Surveyor-General within one month, receiving a certificate of deposit.
- Unlicensed practice under the Survey Law attracts a fine of five thousand naira in respect of each transaction, and the person may not sue for remuneration.
- Wilfully obliterating, removing or injuring a survey beacon is an offence carrying a fine of two thousand naira or three months' imprisonment, plus the cost of repair and any survey made necessary.
- Owners, occupiers, chiefs and local governments are placed under a positive statutory duty to preserve survey marks and report damage.
3.2 State Survey Laws: Plans, Deposit and Protection of Survey Marks
Note on sources: land is within the legislative competence of the States, and each State has its own Survey Law with Survey Regulations made under it. Their structure and much of their wording descend from a common ancestor (the Northern Nigeria Survey Law, 1963 Cap 129, re-enacted in successor States), so the sections below are cited by their standard numbering. Always check the Survey Law and Regulations of the State in which you practise - section numbering and monetary penalties vary, and Paper VI answers should say so.
1. Who may sign a plan (section 3)
The Survey Law makes signature by a surveyor the gateway to both registration and evidence. Except for a plan of land required for farming purposes, no map, plan or diagram of land:
- (a) prepared after 1 June 1918 shall be accepted for registration with any registrable instrument required by written law to contain a map, plan or diagram; and
- (b) prepared after 16 May 1918 shall, save for good cause shown to the court, be admitted in evidence in any court,
unless it has been prepared and signed by a surveyor, or is a copy of such a plan certified by a surveyor as being a true copy.
Two points repay attention. First, the evidential bar is not absolute - the court retains a "good cause shown" discretion - whereas the registration bar is flat. Second, "surveyor" in the Survey Law means a licensed surveyor or an officer of the Survey Department authorised by the Director or the Surveyor-General to carry out surveys, and "licensed surveyor" is defined by reference to licensing under the Surveyors Registration Council of Nigeria legislation. The State law therefore keys directly into the federal register.
2. Deposit with the Surveyor-General (section 4)
Where a licensed surveyor prepares any map, plan or diagram to be annexed to or form part of a registrable instrument, he shall:
- (a) insert the date of completion of the preparation at the foot or other conspicuous part of it; and
- (b) within one month of the date of completion, submit a copy to the Surveyor-General.
On receipt, the Surveyor-General shall issue a certificate of deposit to the licensed surveyor on payment of the prescribed fee. Failure to submit is an offence, punishable on conviction by a fine not exceeding two thousand naira.
The Surveyor-General must keep proper record of any plan so submitted, ensure its safe custody, and make it available to members of the public for inspection. The deposit obligation is therefore not administrative housekeeping - it is what builds the public cadastral record on which every subsequent surveyor relies when searching for adjoining data.
Compare this one-month deposit with the Survey Co-ordination Act's one-month furnishing obligation under a counter-notice. They are different obligations, owed to different offices, arising from different statutes. Cadastral plans go to the State Surveyor-General under the Survey Law; notifiable survey work goes to the Director of Federal Surveys under the federal Act.
3. Unlicensed practice (section 5)
Any person who practises or professes to practise the profession of surveying, not being a surveyor, is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine of five thousand naira in respect of each transaction in which he was engaged, and shall not be entitled to sue in any court for remuneration in respect of a survey, plan, map or diagram made by him.
This mirrors sections 18 and 20 of the SURCON Act at State level, and note the per-transaction multiplier - a quack who has produced fifty plans faces fifty counts, not one.
4. Public surveys, entry and compensation (sections 6 to 8)
Section 6 - public surveys. For the purposes of any public survey the Director, the Surveyor-General, or any surveyor authorised by him may enter upon any land with such assistants as may reasonably be required, and may affix, set up or place trigonometrical stations, survey beacons, marks or poles, and do all things necessary for the survey. The surveyor shall, when practicable, give reasonable notice to the owner or occupier of his intention to enter.
"Public survey" is defined as any survey made for the purpose of defining the boundaries of land owned by the State or a public authority, or in which the State or a public authority possesses or disposes of any interest, or any survey which forms part of the general survey of Nigeria or of any part of it.
Section 7 - compensation. Compensation is payable out of the public revenues to the owner of any crops or trees cut or damaged in the exercise of section 6 powers. Disputes as to the amount or the right to recover are, in default of agreement, finally determined by a District Judge on application. Critically, no application may be granted if made by a claimant more than thirty days after the date on which the crops or trees were cut or damaged.
Section 8 - entry upon land. Any surveyor may, for the purpose of surveying land he is employed to survey, enter on and pass over any land, whether private or public, causing as little inconvenience to the owner or occupier as is consistent with his duties. Note that this general right of entry is not confined to public surveys.
5. Protection of survey marks (sections 9 to 15)
The Survey Law treats survey marks as public infrastructure and protects them criminally.
| Section | Provision |
|---|---|
| 9 | Any unauthorised person who wilfully obliterates, removes or injures any trigonometrical station, survey beacon, mark or pole, or any boundary mark affixed for the purpose of any public survey or a survey ordered by a court, is liable to a fine of two thousand naira or to imprisonment for three months, and in addition may be ordered to pay the cost of repairing or replacing the thing and of making any survey rendered necessary by the act. |
| 10 | It is the duty of the owner and the occupier of land on, in, or on the boundaries of which a mark has been placed to preserve it and forthwith to report to the Survey Department if it is obliterated, removed, injured or requires repair. Failure is an offence, fine one thousand naira. |
| 11 | It is the duty of every chief or local government to prevent obliteration, removal or injury of marks within its jurisdiction and forthwith to report any such event to the Survey Department. |
| 12 | Any person who, unless acting on the authority of the Director or the Surveyor-General, uncovers any survey beacon or mark buried below the surface or covered with earth, stone or other material is liable to a fine of two thousand naira or imprisonment not exceeding three months. The same penalty applies to a person who, having uncovered a mark with authority, neglects to re-cover it in the prescribed manner or properly to fill up the hole with the same material as the ground or road under which it was buried. |
| 13 | An informer on whose information a conviction is secured under section 9 or 12, or under section 335 of the Penal Code, may with the Commissioner's approval be paid a reward not exceeding one thousand naira out of public revenues. |
| 14 | Where a person ordered under the Law to perform an act fails to do so within a reasonable time, the officer who gave the order may, after notice, cause the act to be performed, and the expenses are payable by that person. |
| 15 | Any person who wilfully obstructs, hinders, resists or threatens any surveyor in the execution of his duty on a public survey or a survey ordered by a court, or any workman or other person acting in aid of such a surveyor, is liable to a fine of five thousand naira or imprisonment for six months. |
The practical lesson is section 10 and 11. When you emplace a beacon, the owner, the occupier, the chief and the local government all acquire a statutory duty to preserve it. Telling them so at the time of demarcation is not a courtesy - it is how the duty becomes effective, and it is the answer to the examination question about how a surveyor protects the marks he has set.
6. Delegation and the regulation-making power (sections 17 and 18)
Section 17: the Director or the Surveyor-General may, by notice in the Gazette, delegate any of his functions under the Law to an officer of the Survey Department by name or office - except the power of delegation itself. Any delegation is revocable at will and does not prevent the Director or Surveyor-General from exercising the function.
Section 18: the Governor may make regulations prescribing, among other things, the manner in which surveys are to be made and the records to be kept by licensed surveyors; the manner of demarcation of boundaries; plans of surveys, their preparation and the matters to be shown on them; notices; returns to be made by licensed surveyors; reporting of matters connected with current or previous surveys ascertained during work; securing the maintenance of boundary marks in their correct position; the checking of surveys alleged to be erroneous and the incidence of the expenses of checking; the checking and correction of tapes and instruments; inspection and copying of plans; and fees.
Those Regulations are the subject of the next two sections.
Under section 4 of the Survey Law, what must a licensed surveyor do with a plan prepared to form part of a registrable instrument?
A contractor's excavator destroys a concrete property beacon during road works. Under section 9 of the Survey Law, what may a court order in addition to the fine or imprisonment?
A landowner has crops damaged when a survey party exercises the public-survey entry powers. Under section 7 of the Survey Law, what time limit applies to a claim for compensation?
Under section 3 of the Survey Law, what is the effect on a map or plan of land that was not prepared and signed by a surveyor?