What is the process of creating a plat? It begins by identifying the land that will be affected by the plat, and ordering a title search, title examination, and ultimately a title commitment for that land. This is necessary because the party who’s going to plat the land needs to know what title matters affect that land. Most particularly, it is important to determine all ownership interests, easements that may cross or affect the land, roadways that run through or around the land, and parties with interests that encumber the affected land.
Surveyor
Once record title matters have been identified, the title commitment will be turned over to a surveyor, who will take the metes and bounds legal description of the land, compare it to the commitment and the title matters that affect the land, and plot everything into a survey that also depicts the intended lot and block boundaries that will appear on the plat.
That survey is what will become the proposed plat. The proposed plat is then passed along to the city or county surveyor for approval. The city or county surveyor will review it and make certain that the subdivisions contained in the plat are legal. Why is this important? Because some cities, towns and counties restrict subdivision of the land. For example, there may be instances when a parcel is not permitted to be less than an eighth of an acre, or some other minimum size. The city or county surveyor will review lot size to make sure it is in compliance with the local requirements. They will be reviewing density of the lots that are described on the plat. They will be ensuring that the plat contains required details and that it meets all of the statutory requirements including size of the page it’s printed on, font size, ensuring that all the necessary parties will be signing it, and so forth.
Work with Your Team of Professionals
Be sure to work with your surveyor to ensure that the plat is filed properly. Surveyors are experienced in creating and filing plats and so will be a useful resource, along with your title company, in helping to ensure that you have the necessary details in that plat, and ensure that it will be accepted for recording without incident.