Sawyer Land Surveying, Inc.

Spring of 2015, I commissioned Sawyer Land Surveying Inc to survey my newly-purchased property, a single family home. The new survey monuments Matt Sawyer placed showed that part of a dilapidated block wall which was an architectural match to and had originally enclosed my home appeared to encroach on my neighbor's property by a few inches. I brought up this inconsistency to Matt, who dismissed my concerns. I relied on Matt's survey to make significant development improvements to the property, including replacing the dilapidated wall with a new one, within my property boundaries. My tearing down the old wall, which had been part of my property for eighty years, caused my next door neighbor to react violently: he threatened to kill me, threatened my contractors, one of whom quit as a result, harassed my family, abused his position at the City to interfere in the development of my property, and even sued me frivolously, an action he lost with prejudice, but I still had to waste my time and resources in litigation. The neighbor relied on Matt's survey to build himself a wood fence, and had the permit signed off by a City inspector friend of his who did not verify the fence was not encroaching on my property. Then, in 2019, while browsing the Survey Records System, I found another neighbor's survey subsequent to Matt's, by another surveyor, who identified a four inch error in Matt's calculations. I pointed this out to Matt, who admitted to his error, quickly refunded my fees, and tried to get me to sign a release so I would not take action against him, a release I refused to sign. After confirming that the neighbor's fence was now on my property by several inches, I asked Matt for his insurance information so I could file a claim, but he refused, clinging to the disingenuous argument that "a few inches is not an encroachment". My goal was for Matt to acknowledge that his error had consequences on my family and me but he refused. So I sued Matt in small claims court in the hope that he would take some measure of responsibility for the impact the erroneous survey had on my family. Too late to sue, said the judge, erroneously referring to the wrong statute of limitations. Courts don’t always get it right, but no matter…. Damage caused by Matt’s error was done, I will never get my time and energy back. Relationship with the neighbor is forever damaged. The goal of the lawsuit was not to get money from Matt. Indeed, prior to the hearing, Matt offered me $1K to avoid the lawsuit, but he missed the point of the whole thing; Take responsibilty, be accountable, acknowledge that errors have consequences. When we buy land survey services, we expect accuracy within established standards. Matt's survey of my property was off by a magnitude of five times those standards. It is possible, even probable that Matt Sawyer nowadays double-checks his work, but the reality is that the probability of anybody catching him on an error is low to none. What is certain, though, in my opinion, is that Matt Sawyer is unwilling, and unable to recognize that errors in his work have consequences. Not in his character.

After months of trying to figure out who or what type of company to use to do an EC, we used the CA state and San Diego Land Surveyor websites to narrow down what type of company and then further narrow down which company. We 'interviewed' three companies via email and phone conversations. Matt at Sawyer Land Surveying, Inc. responded to me without me having to contact him more than once as was the case with the other two companies. He was direct as to what he needed to do and the cost was within the range of the other two companies. After I submitted the EC to my insurance company, more information was needed. Matt promptly supplied tne needed information to my insurance company and the EC was approved and accepted.

Matt spent over a day and a half, surveying, marking, checking and rechecking to ensure the corners were correctly to determine the property lines. Matt went a step beyond and marked a couple of points on the property lines for me. Once completed, Matt submitted all of the necessary County paperwork. I give Matt my unconditional recommendation for any surveying needs you might have.

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Mr. Sawyer  traveled over 60 miles one way to do this Survey for me.  When he arrived the first thing he did was show

 me two of our sides from the markings on the sidewalk.  He then pointed to the 3rd one.  He told me that I really did not need to have my property surveyed.  He climbed and walked the property line to 3rd one so my eyes could see.  He circled the property line so the neighbors could see.  He was here for over an hour answering our question.  He was extremely informative.  Then when I asked him what I owed.  He turned to me and said absolutely nothing.  I am here to say that there are truly good men in this world.  Matt Sawyer is one of them.  What a blessing!

He was prompt, professional and handled the situation very well. I have a neighbor who thought he knew where the property line was but we had differing information. Not a hostile dispute but not all smiles either. Matt patiently listened to my neighbor, explained why his information will be accurate and legal. This neighbor then got very upset with Matt and went to the county and spoke with the head surveyor, who is familiar with Matt's work. Since nobody is perfect and surveyors historically have been known to make n occasional error, they spent an hour looking over county records and Matt's survey to have the county tell my neighbor that Matt's survey appears free of errors. December 20th we were notified of the County's final approval. Neighbor came over, had a drink, battle over. We now agree on where the line is.

We found Sawyer Land Surveying on Angie?s list.  We want to install a fence around the front of our property and needed to have the boundary marked.  Matt was very professional. He scheduled a time to meet, arrived on time, and got the job done.  He didn?t cut any corners, in fact, he did more than we expected. We would hire him again if we had any more surveying needs.  We initially thought the price was high but once we saw the work involved, we feel it was justified and a good value.

The job went well. Matt did a great job! I would use him again and refer him to others.

Contacted Matt by phone, but then did rest of correspondence on the computer.  He faxed me a very thorough contract, which we signed and returned.  We made an appointment for him to come to do the corner survey. Matt came out when promised, and started right away to do his job. He is a licensed Surveyor in the State of California and takes his job very seriously.  Takes his timeand does a complete search before he is satisfied.  We were very happy with his work, and would recommend him highly.

The subject lot is located in an old San Diego neighborhood and many corner markers cannot be located. Having said that, Mr. Sawyer's work was on time and on budget. The quote was competitive and Mr. Sawyer showed up on time as well completing the assignment on time. His services are well worth it and I will call him on future projects.

Matt was very professional, thorough, and was willing to answer my many questions regarding the process and land boundaries in general. The work was done quickly and follow through was great. I originally only asked for a corner survey but then later needed a full topography survey for a landscape architect. Matt was the first and only person I called as I knew it would be done right, quickly and easily. I would definitely use Matt again.

Matt was excellent in all areas of working with him from when I first contacted him through receiving his final survey reports. He worked hard one whole day finding the needed posts (I am not sure of the terminology) and had preliminary results with the area we wanted to know the most. Then, he came back another day (this was before and after the 4th of July holiday) a few days later for another part of a day to finish. He was very accommodating because of our schedule since we live in another state and were there only a few days. His reports were very professional and detailed. He uses the newest survey equipment (which used six satellites for accuracy). We would definitely use Matt again and recommend him highly.

It went well.  Matt was right on time and went to work.  He periodically informed me of some of his findings as he went along. After he completed the survey Matt explained some fine points again.

My lot was surveyed in the 60's and the stakes were driven into the ground.  No one knew were the lot lines really were.  Mark was able to use the plat reference point to figure out where they should be and was able to find the original stakes that were about 6 inches underground.  Mark was very professional and easy to deal with.  He showed up when he said he would.  It was harder than it sounds.  Mark took some measurements and had to go back to his office to do some work.  He came back the next day and dug up (exposed) all four corner stakes and marked then so I could find them. I would definitely use him again.

I needed a survey to help me determine if my neighbors neglected trees were encroaching on my property.
Matt was easy to work with and very professional.
He performed a survey of my property and filed the map with the city. He answered all of my questions, even when I called him with additional questions several months after the job was complete. He is a class act & I would recommend him based on his quality of work, professionalism, and his ability to effectively communicate the results of his surveys.

When I contacted Sawyer Land Surveying I worked directly with the owner, Matt Sawyer, who was very professional.  He has excellent communication skills.  A contract was provided to me in advance of the work so there would be a clear understanding of the work to be performed and the price.  A date and time was set for the service.    When rain was forecast for the day the service was to be performed, Matt communicated with me that it would be best to push the date of service to the next week, if that did not cause me any problems.  The day of the service he was punctual (yes, he showed up when he said he would!) and dressed professionally.  The equipment he had with which to perform survey appeared to be state of the art GPS positioning equipment, not the old fashion tripod and scope.  He was happy to explain how the system worked.  He completed the survey he clearly marked the property boundaries with a surveying pin (which was marked with his license number).  The pin is  located in the center of an “X” etched in the sidewalk and alley so that the boundaries can always be located.  Matt also walked around my block to locate other survey markings, as part of his research.  At the completion of the survey Matt also filed a Corner Record to the County of San Diego so that the information will be on file.  Matt then followed up by providing me a PDF copy of the Corner Record filed with the County so that I would have one for my records.  Finally he contacted me to ensure I was satisfied with the service provided.   I highly recommend Sawyer Land Surveying, and  Matt Sawyer.

Matt spend 6 days completing our lot survey. It was not as expected but he stayed with his set contract price. He also is very detailed and professional and did an excellent job. As a bonus Matt is a really nice guy. We would highly recommend Matt / Sawyer land Surveying.

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