JonS, this is actually a very simple question to answer, though I'm not surprised that not many players on the site know the protocol for this situation since it is buried deep in the site terms and so rarely has to be activated.
If a player surrenders after securing 18 or more SC's but before the Fall Build phase when he (or she) would be declared winner, an email is generated which goes out to the top 5 players on this site, including powerhouse names like gsmx and charliep007 and other stalwarts of the site.
Upon receiving this email, which contains all the needed and relevant information, the 5 then travel immediately to the surrendered players house. All five, by contract, will arrive there 24 hours after the surrender.
They then burn the house to the ground, sow the property with salt, tie the offending player to a chair and make him watch 14 hours of Jim Carey's 'The Cable Guy'. (no player has actually lasted 14 hours, usually chewing their face off after 6 hours.)
Simultaneous to this, the persons account is not only deleted, but super_dipsy activates one of his botnets and the player is erased from the internet.
Finally, one of the 5 player enforcers picks up the surrendered position (with a shield in place, you can never be too careful), and finishes out the victory as God intended.
Hope this helped clear this up. Sorry I don't have more time to answer. You'd really be interested in learning what happens when people ask incredibly obscure and contrived rules questions. That procedure's pretty cool too, but then, I guess you'll know soon enough anyway....... say 'hi' to WHS when you see him......
The reason I don't have time to explain more is that I have less than 24 hours to catch a flight. I'm looking forward to seeing my fellow Mods.