The plat and parcel number behind a tractWhat each record fixes, where each is kept, and why GPIN is a borrowed name here
Every tract has at least two identities on paper: a recorded drawing of its lines and a number that indexes it for the tax rolls and the land records. This guide takes them apart, shows where they meet, and shows where each one stops.
Look a tract up three ways and notice which answer the county stands behind
Take a tract in Carroll County and look it up three times: by its parcel number at the Commissioner of the Revenue, on the county's Web GIS, and in the plats recorded at the Circuit Court Clerk's Office. All three describe the same ground. They are not equally authoritative, and the county says so itself.
By the number. Carroll County's Commissioner of the Revenue identifies, locates and estimates the value of all property in the county for tax purposes and keeps the mapping updates and corrections on the tax identification maps and the GIS parcel layer. The county's own pages call the tract's identifier a Tax Map/Parcel ID number. That number finds the tract on the tax maps and the assessment records.
On the GIS. The county's Web GIS asks users to agree to its terms before entering, and its opening notice says the map layers and data are for general reference only and that recorded plats and deeds are the authoritative source for legal acreage and ownership. Grayson County's WebGIS is blunter about where its lines came from.
The property lines you see on this map were originally created from hand drawn maps.
Grayson County, WebGIS
In the plat book. Virginia lets circuit court clerks record plats and maps, at the clerk's discretion, in a book known as the plat book. In Carroll County that is the Clerk of the Circuit Court, 605-1 Pine Street, A230, Hillsville. A recorded plat is the drawing a deed can point to, and it is the record the county's own map defers to.
All three are meant to point to the same tract. Where they can stop agreeing is on the line itself and the acreage inside it, because an assessment map is drawn to index and value parcels, while a recorded plat is drawn to fix a division. For legal acreage and ownership, the county's notice has already said which one it treats as authoritative, and where a line runs on the ground is a surveyor's question.
A plat fixes the division, and its maker certifies where title came from
A plat, in Virginia's planning statutes, is a drawing of land divided or to be divided, and the statute's own wording is quoted in the plat glossary entry.
A subdivision plat meant for recording is not an informal sketch. Va. Code 15.2-2262 requires it to be prepared by a certified professional engineer or land surveyor, "who shall endorse upon each plat a certificate signed by him setting forth the source of title of the owner of the land subdivided and the place of record of the last instrument in the chain of title." So the drawing carries a pointer back to the deed the owner holds.
A boundary survey plat carries more, including recording references for the owner and every adjoiner and, for rural property, the area in hundredths of an acre; the full list 18VAC10-20-370 sets belongs with how a boundary survey is done.
A file can hold more than one kind of drawing, from a recorded subdivision plat to a survey plat to a compilation from old deeds, and telling them apart is covered in what a plat is and which kind you are holding.
The number indexes the tract for the assessor and, in some places, the clerk
The parcel number belongs first to the tax side of the county. In Carroll County the tax identification maps that carry it are maintained by the Commissioner of the Revenue, at 605-7 Pine Street in Hillsville, real estate phone (276) 730-3030.
The number follows the tract into the land records where the locality has set up a system for it. Va. Code 17.1-252 says circuit court clerks in localities with a unique parcel identification system must require that a deed or other instrument relating to an interest in real property bear, on its first page or in the cover sheet submitted with it, "the tax map reference number or numbers, or the parcel identification number (PIN) or numbers, of the affected parcel or parcels." The clerk may also index the instrument by that number.
GPIN is a real term, defined by a county outside this footprint
GPIN is a county's own name for its parcel number, not a statewide one, and the primary definition behind it comes from Prince William County, which is not one of the localities this office serves.
Prince William's grid method and its ten digits are covered in the GPIN glossary entry; in that system the number follows the lines rather than fixing them.
The Virginia provisions quoted on this page use other words. The recording statute speaks of a tax map reference number or a parcel identification number (PIN), and the boundary survey standard speaks of a tax map designation or geographic parcel identification number. Carroll County says Tax Map/Parcel ID number. So in this footprint GPIN is a borrowed name, and asking the county for its tax map or parcel number gets the right record. The short version of this is in what a GPIN is.
Where the two records meet, and what neither one proves about a line
The plat and parcel number meet on paper in two places: the first page of a deed and the face of a survey plat.
The deed's first page
Where the locality has a unique parcel identification system, the number quoted above from Va. Code 17.1-252 goes on the first page or the cover sheet.
The subdivision plat
The preparer's certificate quoted above ties the drawing to a recorded deed.
The boundary survey plat
The plat shows the parcel number, where one is available, for the surveyed tract and its neighbors, beside the recording references for the owner and each adjoiner.
That cross-referencing is what lets a title examiner, a surveyor and an assessor all find the same tract. It is not the same as proving where the tract's lines run, and the county map notices quoted at the top of this guide say as much.
A number, then, identifies. A recorded plat describes. Where the corners sit on the ground today is a boundary survey question, and how that work is done, from the record search to the monuments, is explained in how land surveys work.
A new division runs through an approved, recorded plat
The two records matter most when an owner wants to change a line, because a division is where the plat stops being history and becomes a requirement.
Virginia's default definition of a subdivision is narrow: unless a local ordinance defines it otherwise, it means dividing a parcel into three or more lots of less than five acres each for transfer of ownership or building development, or any division involving a new street. Carroll County's subdivision ordinance reaches further, and the county's land use page says so directly.
Any division of a lot or parcel of land is considered to be a subdivision and the subdivider must comply with the regulations found in the Subdivision of Land ordinance.
Carroll County, Land Use and Planning
In Carroll, subdivision plats must be approved by the Subdivision Agent or the Planning Commission before they are recorded in the Circuit Court Clerk's Office. Statewide, where a subdivision ordinance applies, no subdivision plat may be recorded until the locality's designated agent approves it, and no clerk may record one that has not been approved. The steps to that approval are laid out in how to subdivide land in Virginia.
The sale rule in the same section, Va. Code 15.2-2254, applies where the ordinance does, and it has an exception and a proviso that belong with it. Its item 3 reads: "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." It continues: "However, nothing herein contained 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." A metes and bounds description in the transfer papers does not exempt the transaction from the section's penalties or remedies. Whether and how a piece can be carved off and sold is taken up in whether you can sell just part of your land.
Once approved and recorded, a final plat has a statutory life. Under Va. Code 15.2-2261 an approved final subdivision plat that has been recorded is valid for not less than five years from approval, or a longer period the designated agent sets at approval, and one from which part of the property has been conveyed to third parties (other than to the developer or the local jurisdiction) remains valid indefinitely unless and until part of it becomes subject to a vacation action. That rule concerns the plat's approval. It says nothing about how old a survey can be.
Ask about your plat and parcel number
Send a few details and Lowell will come back with an honest read. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Good questions, straight answers.
Which record does Carroll County's GIS notice treat as authoritative for legal acreage and ownership?
The recorded plats and deeds. Carroll County's Web GIS says its map layers and data are for general reference only and that recorded plats and deeds are the authoritative source for determining legal acreage and ownership. Where a line actually runs on the ground is a land surveyor's question.
Does a boundary survey plat in Virginia have to show the tax map number?
When one is available, yes. Virginia's minimum standard for land boundary surveys, 18VAC10-20-370, lists the parcel's tax map designation or geographic parcel identification number, where one is available, among the items the plat must show, along with the owner of record, recording references and a description of each monument found and set.
Why does a boundary survey plat list recording references for the neighbors?
Virginia's minimum standard for land boundary surveys, 18VAC10-20-370, requires the plat to show the owner of record with recording references and the names of all adjoining owners of record with recording references. Those references point to instruments in the clerk's office, so a reader can check the drawing against the recorded deeds for the tract and for each tract that touches it. What a survey found on the ground is the surveyor's to explain.
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: plat and subdivision defined Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 15.2-2262: subdivision plats prepared and certified Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 15.2-2254: approval before recording, and the sale bar with its exception and proviso Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 15.2-2261: validity of recorded final subdivision plats Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 17.1-236: the plat book Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 17.1-252: tax map reference or parcel identification number on a deed Virginia General Assembly
- 18VAC10-20-370: minimum standards for land boundary surveys Virginia Administrative Code
- Land Use and Planning (subdivision plats and approval) Carroll County, Virginia
- Commissioner of the Revenue (tax identification maps and GIS parcel layer) Carroll County, Virginia
- Land records Carroll County Circuit Court Clerk's Office
- Circuit Court: Clerk of the Circuit Court address and phone Carroll County Circuit Court Clerk's Office
- Web GIS public access notice Carroll County, Virginia
- WebGIS Grayson County, Virginia
- GIS frequently asked questions (GPIN) Prince William County, Virginia