Landtech Delivery, Billing and Payment Policies: 

In our many years of providing surveying services, we have developed excellent relationships with many clients. Unfortunately we have also identified everything from simple payment errors to direct fraudulent activities.

Certain industry agents have asked for or even simply assumed a “washout policy”. This is an illegal practice.
For further important information regarding washouts, please review the following:

The Florida Administrative Code governing Land Surveyor’s activities as well as R.E.S.P.A. dictates that a Surveyor may not offer any thing of value in exchange for preferential treatment in obtaining surveying work. The Florida Administrative Code Chapter 61G17-2.001(6)(e) specifically prohibits the practice of providing a "washout survey" (whereby payment for services is contingent upon the transaction closing).

Unfortunately there are Surveyors who do offer washout surveys (even in print!). These Surveyors practice poor business procedures, act illegally and unethically and degrade our profession. They place their clients at risk by exposing them to criminal offenses. This is so much more a danger now given the current environment of increased mortgage fraud investigations and the questioning of ethics within the entire mortgage industry.

A word of caution... unethical behavior of any sort is usually indicative of a firm's approach to business practices as a whole. Do you want to place your trust in firms such as these? Surveyors offering washouts lose money and must either increase fees or worse, employ substandard personnel and take shortcuts. Given their unprofessional actions, you simply cannot trust the validity or accuracy of their surveys upon which you so greatly rely and upon which you may be judged.  

Illegal washout surveys have never been offered here at Landtech Surveying. We must be paid for our services but still strive to work with and for the well being of our clients. The following outlines our delivery, billing and payment policies.

Surveys performed for mortgage closing transactions:

No hidden fees! If fees for services will be higher than our published rates, we will always contact our clients for approvals prior to the commencement of any work. It is advised that borrowers agree to this in writing.

When services are ordered by industry professionals (Title agents, Attorneys, Brokers, etc) acting as agents for those ultimately responsible for paying these fees (typically borrowers), we do accept our fees from funds at closing. It is in this way that we extend “credit” to industry clients. This applies to either purchases or refinances.

Under no circumstances will credit continue to be extended to any outstanding files that have not closed within six months (180 days) - at which time they become immediately due and payable.

When a survey has been ordered on behalf of a borrower, we have no legal basis for holding that borrower accountable for payment. We must hold those actually placing orders with us accountable.

Some industry agents choose to order the survey themselves but have us collect our fee directly from the borrower. This allows industry professionals to retain control of the process but not assume liability for payment. This is acceptable but we must receive payment from the borrower prior to delivery of the survey, possibly causing delays if payment information is not received at the time the order is placed.

An invoice is forwarded along with the delivery of each of our surveys. These documents are typically delivered to the party initially ordering the services unless instructed otherwise. Our standard method of delivery is email of electronically sealed documents. Delivery of hardcopy documents is available by U.S. Mail or for an additional fee, by next-day courier.

Canceled mortgage transactions:

Mortgage industry agents should notify their customers that they are responsible for payment. Some act prudently as an agent for the borrower either by using a written acknowledgement of this fact or by collecting and holding the survey fee in escrow… others though are far too informal regarding the "agent" relationship.

If you are not collecting and/or holding the fee in escrow, we highly recommend that all agents have their clients/borrowers sign an acknowledgement that they are aware that a survey is being ordered on their behalf. This is a simple and safe way to avoid misunderstandings between all involved parties.

If a transaction fails to close and if possible, we would be happy to simply re-certify and re-invoice the survey to any new parties involved – thereby absolving our customer’s payment responsibility.  

If a transaction fails to close and we have already rendered services, we still do expect payment of our fees. We do view that in most cases the borrower is ultimately responsible for payment. In the event of a canceled transaction, if funds have been withheld in escrow, please provide for their release and the payment of our fee. If however funds were not withheld or otherwise prepaid, industry professionals who have ordered services should remit payment to us immediately and may forward a copy of our invoice to the borrower to seek reimbursement.

Benefits for preferred customers:

In the past, after already having delivered the survey documents, if provided with borrower contact information, we had offered to attempt to collect from borrowers directly. This was an effort to further assist our clients but has proven to be ineffective and has even led to our being victims of fraud. We have been forced to eliminate our survey return program.

For our preferred customers – those who have illustrated consistent repeat business for a minimum of 3 months –  
we now offer a discounted rate for any cancelled mortgage transactions.

We fully understand the dynamics of mortgage transactions and realize that industry professionals may sometimes get stuck with the bill. We do not want to profit unduly from our customers and wish to simply cover our direct expenses. For orders not prepaid by the borrower or not covered by escrow funds or an acknowledgement form, upon notification of a cancelled transaction using our simple Transaction Cancellation Form, we will apply a 35% discount (rounded to the nearest dollar) to the invoice.

We will issue an updated invoice to reflect the cancellation discount and our preferred customers may pay this discounted fee upon receipt of the updated invoice. Customers should destroy all copies of surveys as Landtech will assume no liability with respect to any surveys discounted by this policy.

An internal auditing program will ensure the validity of all transaction cancellation requests.

Transaction cancellation discounts will not be available or for any files not paid within six months from date of delivery.
Transaction cancellation discounts will not be available on any files if a customer falls from preferred status.

In an effort to assist all of our clients, we will review each circumstance and make any appropriate adjustments. We will always work our hardest to facilitate the needs of all involved parties. It is in this way that we can ensure consistent quality service and continue to extend low fees to all of our customers.

REO and foreclosures:

We understand that industry firms that specialize in REO or foreclosure transactions are unique in that if a transaction cancels, the firm still retains the file and simply must find another buyer for the subject property. These firms remain entirely responsible for payment in full on all files and as long as these customers retain preferred status, we fully accommodate these customers by recertifying completed surveys accordingly. We will await payment until a closing is completed or for a period of 1 year from the initial date of delivery, whichever comes first.

Monthly statements:

There are sometimes delays in the closing process. For this reason we issue a monthly aging statement to our clients as a reminder indicating all outstanding files delivered over 30 days prior to the statement date.

Customers receiving such a statement can simply indicate directly on the statement the updated status of files shown (rescheduled closing date, etc) and fax this back to our accounts manager. Payments are also occasionally and inadvertently overlooked at closing - the statement also serves as a reminder to remit those payments.

As mentioned, credit will not be extended to any files that have not closed within six months. Regardless of their status, any files shown on the statement to be over 180 days are immediately due and payable.

Surveys performed for parties other than mortgage industry professionals:

Any surveys delivered for any other purposes and/or when ordered by individuals or contractors acting on behalf of individuals, must be paid in full prior to delivery of documents.

The interested party shall receive a call from our offices informing them of the completion of the work. The surveys may then either be picked up directly from the appropriate Landtech office and paid for at that time or a credit card payment may be made over the telephone prior to our delivering our surveys either electronically or via U.S Mail or courier. Checks drawn on U.S. funds may also be mailed to our office and once received, the surveys will be delivered.

Under no circumstances will surveys be released without first receiving payment. In certain circumstances (especially large surveys) and solely at our discretion, payment may be required prior to rendering any services.  

Multi-phase/long term projects:

Any services provided for long term - typically multi-phase construction related projects will be billed according to a billing schedule as outlined in an initial written contract. Generally these types of services are performed for developers of residential or commercial projects. Invoices will typically be delivered either on a monthly basis or as phases of work are completed - dependent upon the scope of work being performed. Payment is due upon receipt of our invoices.

Collection agency policies:

Any customers not illustrating responsible management of their account may be subject to referral to our collection agency. If our continued in house attempts at collecting any outstanding fees should fail, files will be sent to our collection agency for further action. Customers placed in collection will incur additional collection fees. Reasons for referral include:

    1. Non-payment of outstanding fees and/or unusually high percentage of unpaid files over 90 days.
    2. Unresponsive behavior toward monthly statements.
    3. Misrepresentation of cancelled transactions and/or fraud.

Our clients have continuously informed us of how pleased they are with our fairness and flexibility, our policies and procedures and most importantly, our consistent quality and professional ethics.

We strive to make our payment procedures as simple and easy as possible for our clients and we look forward to continuing to develop loyal, long-term business relationships. We thank you and greatly appreciate your understanding and cooperation in these matters and we will remain dedicated to earning your trust and respect.