DEPARTMENT OF SURVEYING SCIENCE AND GEOMATICS FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING AND SURVEYING UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

LECTURE 1

5.00 pm 8.00 pm POWERS AND DUTIES OF DIRECTOR OF SURVEY AND LICENSED LAND SURVEYORS
(2 HOURS).
28 November 2007

1. POWERS OF DIRECTOR OF SURVEY. DEFINITION. Section 5 of the National Land Code 1965 defined Survey Department as follows; "Survey department means the Survey Department of the Government of the Federation operative in the States of Malaya." Director of Survey is defined in the same section of the NLC as follows. "Director of Survey means the Director of Survey of the State appointed under section 12, and includes a Deputy Director of Survey appointed thereunder;" Similarly the same section defined survey officers as follows; "Survey officer means the Director of Survey or any Survey Officer appointed under section 12" Director of Survey, Deputy Director of Survey and Survey Officer must be appointed according to section 12 of NLC which states as follows; "12. State Director and other State Officers (1). The State Authority may appoint for the state (a) A State Director of Lands and Mines, a Registrar of Titles and a Director of Survey; (b) So many , Deputy Director of Survey, ., Survey Officers and other officers as the State Authority may consider necessary for the purpose of this Act.

(2) ." POWERS OF DIRECTOR OF SURVEY Director of Survey is authorized under section 15 of NLC as follows; "15. General powers of State Director, etc
(1)

The State Director, the Registrar, and any Land Administrator, may for the purpose of this Act (and without prejudice.)(a) at all reasonable times have free access to, and enter upon, any land in the State; (b) . (c) (d) .. (e) by notice in Form 2B, require any person or body(i)

to produce for inspection any document of title, or other document relating to land, in his possession or control, or to give him such information as that person or body may possess as to the whereabouts of any such document, and take copies of, or extract from, any such document: Provided that no person or body shall be compelled by virtue of this paragraph to produce any document which he could not be compelled to produce on the trial of a suit;

(ii)

(f) . (g) Exercise all other powers conferred on him by this Act, and all such powers ancillary or incidental thereto as may be reasonably necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act.
(2)

The Director of Survey, the Deputy Director of Survey and any other Survey Officer may for the purposes of this Act (and without prejudice to the exercise of any powers conferred upon

him by any other written law) exercise any of the powers referred to in paragraph (a), (e) and (g) of sub-section (1). (3) ." In addition to the provision of section 15 of the NLC mentioned above the Director of Survey is conferred with the following powers; "398. Powers of Director of Survey (1) The Director of Survey may carry out a survey of any land in the State for the purposes of this Act and, in connection with the Survey, may (a) do preparatory work on the land or adjacent land; (b) mark out the boundaries of the land; (c) emplace boundary marks on the land or adjacent land; (d) alter, repair or remove any boundary mark so emplace; (e) remove or destroy trees, crops, fences and other property on the land or adjacent land; and (f) do on the land or adjacent land all other things reasonably necessary for carrying out the survey. (2) The Director of Survey may emplace any survey reference mark on any land in the State, and may do on the land or adjacent land all things reasonably necessary for the establishment, protection, maintenance, repair, alteration or removal of such marks.
(3)

In the exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) and (2) the Director of Survey shall have the right of access to and entry upon any land in the State

(4) The powers conferred on the Director of Survey by sub-sections (1), (2) and (3) (a)

may be exercised on behalf of the Director of Survey by any Survey Officer or licensed land surveyor; and

(b) may be exercised at all reasonable times and with such number of assistants as the Director of Survey or the person acting on his behalf, as the case may be, thinks appropriate." Compensation for damage

In exercising powers conferred by the Act as specified above the Director of Survey is subject to the following condition regarding damage caused by such action;

"406. Compensation for damage (1) Where, in order to mark out, clear or define any boundary or other line for the purposes of a survey, it is necessary for a Survey Officer to enter on any land and remove or destroy any trees, fences, crops or other property of value, the officer shall(a) assess the value of the property before removing or destroying it; and (b) Pay or tender to the owner of the property the value so assessed.
(2)

Any dispute regarding the sufficiency of any amount assessed, paid or tendered under sub-section (1) shall be determined by the Land Administrator, whose decision shall be final."

POWER TO PROSECUTE 429A 1) Prosecutions in respect of any offence committed under this Act may be conducted by State Director, Land Administrator or any other officer authorized by the State Director in writing
2)

Notwithstanding sub-section (1) prosecutions in respect of offences against sections 400 and 403 may be conducted by the Director of Survey and Mapping.

400 Notice to secure attendance for purpose of pointing out boundaries, etc, Form 29A served to; i. ii. iii. iv. Person owning Occupying Applying or interested in Employed on Any land

Form 29A - For the purpose of; i. ii. iii. pointing out boundaries rendering aid in emplacing or repairing boundary marks affording other information or assistance for the purpose of the survey

Notice to secure attendance to give information, document regarding boundaries of any land. Form 29B for the purpose of; i. ii. giving information produce document

any person who, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with any requirement of notice served on him under sub-section (1) or (2) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred ringgit. 401-notice to clear boundary, Form 29C 402- Recovery of cost of boundary marks 403
i.

For the offence of - Destroy, damage, deface, move, interfere, with boundary marks or survey reference marks The fine not exceeding five hundred ringgit and May in addition or in place of that penalty pay to the State Authority and Survey and Mapping Department the sum not exceeding three times the cost of repairing or re-emplacing the boundary mark or survey reference mark

ii.

2. DUTIES OF DIRECTOR OF SURVEY The duties of Director of Survey are spelled out in section 399 of the NLC as follows; "399. Duties of Director of Survey (1) It shall be the duty of the Director of Survey (a)

to cause such computations to be made from the records of Survey Officers as may be necessary in the opinion of the Minister to prove in respect of any land surveyed the

accuracy of the survey, the dimensions of the land and the accurate emplacement of boundary marks;
(b)

to cause such computations or measurements to be made as shall define the geographical position of any land surveyed to the satisfaction of the Minister; to cause to be prepared plans embodying, in such form as the Minister may from time to time direct, the measurements and dimensions obtained by Survey Officers; and safely to keep all survey records

(c)

(d) (2)

The functions of the Minister under sub- section (1) may, subject to any direction given by the Minister, be exercised on Minister's behalf by the Surveyor-General."

In carrying out the survey the Survey Officer may cause notice in Form 29A to be served on any person owning, occupying, applying for or otherwise interested in, or employed on or in connection with, any land which the officer is required to survey calling upon that person to attend before him, at a time and place to be stated in the notice, for the purpose of pointing out the boundaries; or rendering aid in emplacing or repairing boundary marks; or (c) affording other information or assistance for the purpose of the survey
(a) (b)

A survey Officer who reasonably believes that any person(a) can give any information respecting the boundaries of any land which the officer is required to survey; or (b) has in his custody or under his control any document relating to boundaries of the land, may cause to be served on that person a notice in Form 29B calling upon him to attend before the officer at a time and place to be stated in the notice for the purpose of giving the information or producing the document, as the case may be. Any person who, without reasonable excuse, fail to comply with any requirement of notice served on him in Form 29A or 29B shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred ringgit.

3. POWERS OF LICENSED LAND SURVEYORS Licensed land surveyor has the authority under licensed Land Surveyors Act 1958 (Revised -1991) to carry out title survey upon any land in the States of West Malaysia. Such licensed land surveyor can exercise the powers of the Survey Officer as mentioned in section 398 of the NLC above. Regarding the powers of licensed land surveyor Section 13 of LLSA 1958 states that:

A licensed land surveyor shall be entitled to undertake title survey A LLS may enter upon lands which he is employed to survey, upon neighboring land and any buildings on such lands and may emplace any boundary marks in or upon such lands and may dig up any ground for the purpose of emplacing such boundary marks and may cut down and remove any timber or other growth which may obstruct any survey line or any boundary causing as little damage as possible, provided he is not exempted from such liability for any damage he may cause in the exercise of the powers conferred by this Act. LLS may obtain data for title survey from Survey Department without having to pay search fee.

Section 400A further spelled out the authority to carry out survey of any land in the State under this Act (sometimes called title survey) which covers licensed land surveyor; "400A. Unauthorized survey Any person who, not being a Survey Officer or licensed land surveyor, carries out a survey or undertakes to carry out a survey of any land in the State for the purposes of this Act, shall be guilty of an offence, and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or to both." Licensed Land Surveyors Act 1958, in section 2, defines title survey as follows; "title survey means any survey which by any written law is required for the purpose of or in connection with the registration of any title to land or any assurance or instrument affecting or purporting to affect title to land, and includes in connection therewiththe delimitation of the boundaries of any land whether privately owned or not; (b) the emplacement, replacement and removal of boundary marks;
(a)

surveys required for the correct inter-relation of boundaries or boundary marks; and (d) the making and recording of all measurements and calculations relevant thereto and the drawing and reproduction of plans therefrom."
(c)

All survey of land in any State that fall under that definition will be categorized as title survey and can only be performed by Survey Officer or licensed land surveyor. 4. DUTIES OF LICENSED LAND SURVEYORS. A licensed land surveyor appointed to carry out title survey is required to complete the survey within a stipulated time as mentioned in section 398A of NLC; "398A. Duty to complete survey.
(1)

where any licensed land surveyor carries out a survey of any land for the purposes of this Act, he shall complete the survey within the stipulated time and deposit all the survey plans together with the relevant field books, calculation sheets and other survey data with the Director of Survey within such period as may be specified by the Director of Survey. The Director of Survey may, by notice in Form 29D, require any licensed land surveyor who has not completed the survey to produce any document relating to the survey which is in his possession or control. Where any licensed land surveyor fails to complete any survey, without any reasonable cause, the Director of Survey shall complete or cause to be completed the survey and recover the costs of the completion of the survey from such surveyor."

(2)

(3)

Subsequent to the service of notice in Form 29D, and if the person fails to comply, then section 424 (2) of NLC will apply; "424.Penalty for failure to produce documents (1) Any person or body who.
(2)

Any person who, without reasonable excuse, fails to produce any document as required by a notice lawfully served on him under sub-section (2) of section 398A shall be guilty of an offence, and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to both."

Authority to Approve Title Surveys Only the Director of Survey has the authority to approve title survey carried out by Survey Officer or licensed land surveyor. This is clearly provided in section 15 of Licensed Land surveyors Act 1958 and section 396(1) (e) of the National Land Code 1965. Section 15 of LLSA 1958 states as follows; "15. No title survey or survey plan thereof shall be accepted or adopted for the purpose of any written law unless it has been approved by the Director General of Survey or other officer appointed by him to approve survey plans on his behalf."

Whereas section 396(1) (e) of the NLC 1965 states as follows; "396. Manner in which survey is to be carried out (1) for the purpose of this Act, land shall not be taken to have been surveyed until(a) its boundaries.. (b) its boundaries as so determined.. (c) the area enclosed.. (d) a lot number. (e) A certified plan, showing the situation of the land, the position of its boundaries as so determined and of the boundary marks placed thereon and the area and lot number thereof has been approved by the Director of Survey." These two provisions placed great responsibility to the Director of Survey. He has to ensure that all title survey have been carried out following the requirement of the law before approving it. The responsibility for the correctness of the survey fall on his shoulder besides the licensed land surveyor is also has his share of responsibility. Correction of Errors The Director General of Survey or any Government surveyor so authorised by him may at any time undertake such field and office

checks on the title survey work of a licensed land surveyor. Licensed land surveyor is required to correct any errors, found at his own expense, as instructed by the Director of Survey regarding the title survey work done by him provided that the instruction is made within twelve months of the date of submission of the plan failing which the Director of Survey can correct the errors departmentally and recover the cost from the licensed land surveyor. If the licensed land surveyor refuses or neglects to refund the cost of the correction survey within 14 days of the receipt of the statement of the cost the matter may be reported to the Board for disciplinary action. The Board after due enquiry may order such licensed land surveyor to pay the cost of correction of his work or to pay his client such sum by way of compensation as the Board thinks fit; If such licensed land surveyor refuses or neglects to comply with such order within one month of the date of such decision the Board may, subject to section 18, suspend such licensed land surveyor until the cost of such correction survey has been paid, or for a period not exceeding three years.

10

ASSIGNMENTS Assignment 1 Discuss the powers and the duties of a licensed land surveyor. What are the remedies available if the licensed land surveyor failed to perform his duties regarding the completion of title survey work undertaken by him and the correction of errors found in his survey work? Assignment 2 Licensed land surveyors are entitled to carry out title surveys. Explain the extent of the title survey carried out by licensed land surveyor, who approve the survey, once approved can LLS claim ownership to the survey plan? Assignment 3 What are the duties of? i. ii. iii. State Director Director of Survey Licensed Land Surveyor

Assignment 4 With the current development in survey technology can title survey be carried out using different technique and what consequence will it be to the present legislation? Does the current title survey legislation need to be amended? Assignment 5 What are the outputs of title survey and describe their use? Can final title be issued after the approval of land alienation? If cannot why? Are there instances where final title issued after alienation?

11