Section 138.33 - Sealing Procedures(a) The purpose of the registered professional land surveyors and licensed state land surveyor seal is to assure the user of the surveying product that the work has been performed or directly supervised by the professional surveyor named and to delineate the scope of the surveyor's work.(b) Registration and licensed holders shall only seal work done by them, performed under their direct supervision as defined in § 131.2 of this title (relating to Definitions). Upon sealing, surveyors take full professional responsibility for that work.(c) When a license or registration holder reviews and elects to incorporate the work products of others into a signed and sealed survey document, those items shall be clearly labeled as such and shall clearly indicate the identity of the originator.(d) Registration holders shall take reasonable steps to ensure the security of their physical or electronic seals and electronic signatures. For electronic seals and electronic signatures, the surveyor must have reasonable security measures in place to protect these files. In the event of loss of a seal or electronic signature, the surveyor will, as soon as possible, but no later than 30 days of discovery, give written notification of the facts concerning the loss to the board.(e) Preliminary documents released from a land surveyor's control shall identify the purpose of the document, the land surveyor of record and the land surveyor's registration number, and the release date. Such preliminary documents shall not be signed or sealed and shall bear the following statement in the signature space or upon the face of the document: "Preliminary, this document shall not be recorded for any purpose and shall not be used or viewed or relied upon as a final survey document". Preliminary documents released from the land surveyor's control which include this text in place of the land surveyor's signature need not comply with the other minimum standards promulgated in this chapter.(f) License and registration holders shall affix their seal and original signature or electronic seal and signature with the date on the final version of their professional surveying work before such work is released from their control. The signature and date shall not obscure the surveyor's name or registration number in the seal.(g) Work performed by more than one registration holder shall be sealed in a manner such that all surveying work can be clearly attributed to the responsible registration holder or registration holders. When surveying work on which two or more registration holders have worked, the seal and signature of each registration holder shall be placed on the surveying work with a notation describing the work done under each registration holder's responsible charge.(h) Registered employees of the state, its political subdivisions, or other public entities are responsible for sealing their original surveying work; however, such registered employees engaged in review and evaluation for compliance with applicable law or regulation of surveying work submitted by others, or in the preparation of general planning documents, a proposal for decision in a contested case or any similar position statement resulting from a compliance review, need not seal the review reports, planning documents, proposals for decision, or position statements.(i) A local authority may require an original seal and/or signature on reproduced documents.(j) Any surveying work issued by a registration holder for land or property in this state, except for surveying work that constitutes state land surveying, as defined in §1071.002 of the Surveying Act, must include the registration holder's registered professional land surveyor seal placed on the document. A registration holder is not required to use a Texas seal if the surveying work is not located in Texas.(k) A surveyor may securely transmit his or her final version of surveying work electronically, provided that work bears the surveyor's seal and uses one of the techniques described in § 138.35(a) of this chapter (relating to Electronic Seals and Electronic Signatures) and must employ reasonable security measures to make the documents unalterable. Electronic correspondence of this type may be followed by a hard copy containing the surveyor's printed name, date, signature and the designation "R.P.L.S." or other terms described in § 138.1 of this chapter (relating to Registration Holder Designations).(l) A registration holder is not required to use a seal for a project for which the registration holder is not required to hold a registration under the Surveying Act.(m) All surveying documents released, issued, or submitted by a registration holder, including preliminary documents, shall clearly indicate the firm name and registration number of the surveying firm by which the professional surveyor is employed. (1) If the surveyor is employed by a local, State, or Federal Government agency, then only the name of the agency shall be required.(2) If the surveyor is exempt from sealing a document under subsection (l) of this section, but elects to seal a document, then only the name of the employer shall be required.(n) A licensed state land surveyor must sign and seal surveying documents and surveying work submitted to the General Land Office, including field notes, plats, and reports, with the licensee's licensed state land surveyor seal. In addition to being signed and sealed with the licensed state land surveyor's seal, state land surveying documents and surveying work must also include the licensed state land surveyor's printed name and license number.(o) Use of a seal that is not in compliance with the requirements of § 138.31 of this title (relating to Seal Specifications) by a registration or license holder is a violation of Board rules and subject to sanctions.22 Tex. Admin. Code § 138.33
Adopted by Texas Register, Volume 46, Number 13, March 26, 2021, TexReg 2017, eff. 4/1/2021; Amended by Texas Register, Volume 47, Number 25, June 24, 2022, TexReg 3689, eff. 7/3/2022; Amended by Texas Register, Volume 47, Number 37, September 16, 2022, TexReg 5852, eff. 9/19/2022