Do I need a new survey to subdivide?
For the new lots, in effect yes: Virginia requires a subdivision plat intended for recording to be prepared by a certified professional engineer or land surveyor, who certifies the owner's source of title. Whether the parcel you keep needs a survey too depends on the county. Floyd County excuses it when the plat carries the divider's notarized statement and a surveyor's certification that it meets the county's lot requirements.
A plat headed for the clerk's office has to come from an engineer or a surveyor
The decision starts with a Virginia statute that leaves little room. Va. Code 15.2-2262 says every subdivision plat intended for recording must be prepared by a certified professional engineer or land surveyor, who endorses on it a signed certificate naming the source of title of the owner and the place of record of the last instrument in the chain of title.
So a subdivision is not something an owner can sketch and record alone. Earlier drawings are a different matter: the same section does not prohibit the owner, or the other planners and designers it names, from preparing a preliminary plat, while the final plat that is recorded comes from the engineer or surveyor. Every plat must also carry a statement that the platting is with the free consent of the owners, under Va. Code 15.2-2264.
What a plat is, as a document, is covered in what a plat is, and the full order of steps and review clocks is in how to subdivide land in Virginia.
Virginia's licensing statute puts subdivision work inside the surveyor's field: under Va. Code 54.1-400 the practice of land surveying includes the planning of land and subdivisions. Lowell's Virginia professional engineer license is a credential, not a service the brokerage sells, and the plat for a division comes from a surveyor or engineer, not from this office.
The new lots and the land you keep are two different survey decisions
Once the recorded plat is settled, the real question is how much of the parent tract the surveyor has to measure. Counties answer that differently. Floyd's ordinance draws its line between the lots being created and the parcel left behind; for the other localities, the county has to be asked.
| County and division | The new lots | The remaining parcel |
|---|---|---|
| Floyd, Standard Division | All newly created parcels must be shown on the plat and surveyed | No survey required if the plat carries the divider's notarized statement and a surveyor's certification that it meets the road frontage, lot size, width and depth requirements |
| Floyd, Family Division | Each new family parcel must be surveyed | No survey required if the plat carries the divider's notarized statement and the surveyor's certification that it is at least one acre and meets the road frontage or access requirement |
| Floyd, Large Lot Division | Minimum lot size of 25 acres, excluding the one Limited Access Lot allowed per plat; a 1-acre Limited Access Lot must show its existing dwelling, well and septic system on the plat | Ask Floyd County what the plat must survey |
| Pulaski | The entire property or affected properties must be surveyed if the individual property is less than seven acres, unless a plat of the property that includes metes and bounds is recorded in the Pulaski County Courthouse | Ask Pulaski County Planning and Zoning |
| Carroll | The final plat is prepared by a land surveyor licensed by the Commonwealth | Ask Carroll County Land Use and Planning, 276-730-3008 |
Pulaski's exception turns on a recorded plat that includes a metes and bounds description, which is a different thing from a deed description alone. Virginia's subdivision statute says that describing a lot by metes and bounds in the deed or other transfer document does not exempt the transaction from its penalties or remedies.
An older survey of the whole tract helps the surveyor, but the county decides what it excuses
Owners who already hold a boundary survey of the parent tract often hope it will carry the division. It gives the surveyor a record to start from, but none of the ordinances on this page lets an existing survey stand in for the plat a division needs.
Look at what Floyd actually excuses. The residual parcel escapes a new survey only when the plat itself carries two things: the divider's notarized statement and a surveyor's certification that the remainder meets the county's standards. A surveyor still signs for the remainder; the county simply does not require a survey of it. Whether an older survey gives the surveyor enough to make that certification is the surveyor's professional judgment, and whether the plat meets the ordinance is the county agent's.
How a survey's age affects whether it can still be used is covered in how old a survey can be and still be used. How the field work, the monuments and the plat are produced is in how land surveys work.
Moving a shared line, or selling before the plat, changes the answer
Two situations come up next to a division often enough to belong on this page: an adjustment of the line between neighbors, and an owner who wants a buyer signed before the plat is done.
Moving a line has its own statute. Va. Code 15.2-2275 lets a locality allow lot lines to be moved or altered through a valid recorded plat, or vacated by a deed the governing body or its designee approves in writing, and it leaves easements and utility rights-of-way along those lines in place unless everyone holding an interest consents. An agreement between neighbors about where a line runs is a separate instrument, covered in what a boundary line agreement is.
Selling first does not skip the plat. Where a subdivision ordinance applies, Va. Code 15.2-2254 ties selling land of a subdivision to an approved, recorded plat, with an exception and limits of its own, and a fine for each lot sold in violation. What a partial sale waits on, and what the statute does and does not stop, is set out in whether you can sell just part of your land.
Not sure what survey your division will need?
Tell Lowell the county, the acreage and what you have on paper, and he will point you to the surveyor's questions and the county rule that decide how much of the tract gets surveyed. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions this raises
Does the surveyor check who owns the land before the plat is recorded?
The statute requires a certificate on every plat intended for recording, signed by the engineer or land surveyor who prepared it, setting out the source of title of the owner and the place of record of the last instrument in the chain of title. That is a statement about the record, not a title insurance policy. Questions about whether title is clear go to a title examiner or an attorney.
If Floyd County does not require a survey of the land I keep, will my remaining acreage be exact?
Not necessarily. For a Standard Division, Floyd's exception rests on the divider's notarized statement and a surveyor's certification that the residual parcel meets the road frontage, lot size, width and depth requirements (for a Family Division, that it is at least one acre and meets the road frontage or access requirement), not on a new measurement of the whole remainder. If you need an exact figure for the land you keep, for a later sale or a loan, ask the surveyor what it would take to survey the residual as well.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- 15.2-2262, preparation of subdivision plats intended for recording Code of Virginia
- 15.2-2264, statement of free consent on plats Code of Virginia
- 54.1-400, definition of the practice of land surveying Code of Virginia
- 15.2-2275, vacating or relocating lot lines Code of Virginia
- 15.2-2254, recording plats and selling land of a subdivision Code of Virginia
- Subdivision Ordinance, amended through April 14, 2014 (plat preparation, boundary line adjustments) Carroll County, Virginia
- Land Division Ordinance, effective January 1, 2026 Floyd County, Virginia
- Unified Development Ordinance, July 2025 Pulaski County, Virginia