What is a plat?
A plat, in Virginia's planning statutes, is the schematic representation of land divided or to be divided. Owners meet two kinds: a subdivision plat, prepared by a certified professional engineer or land surveyor and approved by the locality before it can be recorded, and a surveyor's boundary survey plat showing lines, monuments and area. A county GIS parcel map is neither, and Carroll County's viewer says as much.
Three drawings of one tract, and the two the law treats as a record
Lay three drawings of the same tract on a table: the recorded subdivision plat, a boundary survey plat, and a printout from the county's GIS viewer. They can look alike, lines around a shape with numbers along the edges. Only the first two are records, and they record different things.
The legal sense of the word comes from Va. Code 15.2-2201, and the short version sits in the plat glossary entry. Surveyors also produce a plat for every land boundary survey, under a separate regulation.
| Subdivision plat | Boundary survey plat | County GIS view | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who draws it | A certified professional engineer or land surveyor, who certifies the owner's source of title | The surveyor who performed the survey, under seal, signature and date | The county's mapping office |
| Who approves it | The locality's designated agent; in Carroll County, the Subdivision Agent or the Planning Commission | No subdivision approval; the regulation sets minimum standards | No one; it is a reference layer |
| Where it lives | Recorded at the circuit court clerk, in a plat book at the clerk's discretion | In the owner's file, and in the land records when recorded | On the county website |
| What it shows | How the land is divided into lots | The lines and corners the surveyor found and set, sealed as correct to the best of the surveyor's knowledge | A reference outline; Carroll County names recorded plats and deeds as authoritative |
The subdivision plat is approved first, and then it can be recorded
A subdivision plat exists because a locality's subdivision ordinance requires one, and Carroll County treats any division of a lot or parcel as a subdivision.
Its weight comes from the steps the statutes set. It is prepared by a certified professional engineer or land surveyor. It goes to the locality's designated agent for approval before it can be recorded. In Carroll County the approval comes from the Subdivision Agent or the Planning Commission before the plat is recorded in the Circuit Court Clerk's Office. The sequence from sketch to recording is set out in how to subdivide land in Virginia, and the draft that comes before approval is the preliminary plat.
The approval also governs selling. Va. Code 15.2-2254 says:
No person shall sell or transfer any land of a subdivision, before a plat has been duly approved and recorded as provided herein, unless the subdivision was lawfully created prior to the adoption of a subdivision ordinance applicable thereto.
Va. Code 15.2-2254, item 3
Item 3 goes on to say that nothing in it shall be construed as preventing "the recordation of the instrument by which such land is transferred or the passage of title as between the parties to the instrument." Item 4 adds that a metes and bounds description in the instrument of transfer "shall not exempt the transaction from the penalties or remedies herein provided." What that means for carving off one piece is worked through in whether you can sell just part of your land. An approved and recorded final plat also has a statutory validity period, which concerns the approval and not the age of any survey.
The boundary survey plat records lines and corners, not approval
A plat from a boundary survey answers a different question: where the lines of an existing parcel run on the ground. It records no locality's approval of a division. What gives it weight is the minimum standard the surveyor works to, 18VAC10-20-370, and the list of what that plat must show is set out in how a land survey works.
Which drawing is in the file decides what an owner can do with it
The GIS printout is the easiest of the three to get, and it carries the least weight. Carroll County's Web GIS asks users to agree to its terms before entering and says plainly where the authority lies.
WHEN RESEARCHING REAL ESTATE, RECORDED PLATS AND DEEDS ARE THE AUTHORITATIVE SOURCE FOR DETERMINING LEGAL ACREAGE AND OWNERSHIP.
Carroll County Web GIS, public access page
So the question to ask of any drawing is simple: does it carry a recording reference in the clerk's office, and if it is a survey, a seal, a signature and a date? A subdivision plat recorded under a subdivision ordinance shows a division the locality approved. A sealed boundary survey plat tells a buyer where the lines were found. A map printout tells a buyer where to start looking. How a plat and a parcel number work together across those records is laid out in the plat and parcel number behind a tract.
When a tract may be divided, the plat is where the arithmetic of lots turns into a document. What a tract can hold before anyone draws one is a feasibility question, covered on the page about land development and feasibility. The approval path for a particular division in Carroll County runs through Carroll County Land Use and Planning, and the plat itself is a surveyor's or engineer's work; Bowman Real Estate does not prepare plats or surveys.
A recorded plat in the file for a tract you own or are buying?
Send the county and the plat's book and page if you have them. Lowell will talk through what the plat establishes for the tract and what still has to be read on the ground. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions this raises
Is every drawing in a plat book a subdivision plat?
No. Virginia lets each circuit court clerk record plats and maps in a plat book at the clerk's discretion, so the book is not limited to approved subdivisions. The drawing itself says what it is: a subdivision plat intended for recording carries the certificate of the engineer or surveyor who prepared it, stating the owner's source of title, and a boundary survey plat must say whether it rests on a current field survey or is a compilation.
Where are recorded plats kept in Carroll County?
With the Clerk of the Circuit Court at 605-1 Pine Street, A230, Hillsville, 276-730-3070, the same office that records deeds and other land records. Carroll County's land records page lists plats and surveys from July 1, 1842.
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.
- Va. Code 15.2-2201, definitions of plat and subdivision Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 15.2-2262, plats prepared by a certified professional engineer or land surveyor Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 15.2-2254, approval and recording of plats before sale Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 17.1-236, plat book Virginia General Assembly
- Land Use and Planning, subdivision plats Carroll County, Virginia
- 18VAC10-20-370, minimum standards for land boundary surveys Virginia Board for Architects, Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, Certified Interior Designers and Landscape Architects
- Web GIS public access and site sign in Carroll County, Virginia
- Clerk of the Circuit Court Carroll County, Virginia
- Circuit Court land records Carroll County, Virginia