It's not just private companies you have to worry about doing this. After you buy a property my local government sends you an mandatory looking survey in an at

It's not just private companies you have to worry about doing this. After you buy a property my local government sends you an mandatory looking survey in an attempt to a) rat on the previous owner for un-permitted improvements b) build a case for valuing your house higher for taxes c) preemptively admit to non-compliance with city specific laws you probably don't know about yet. I was going to write a letter to the local newspaper but I thought better of drawing attention to myself that way.