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What a plat shows, what it doesn't, and how to find the one for your land.
A plat map, or property plat, is a drawing prepared by a land surveyor that shows the boundaries of a piece of land. Georgia's Plat Act, O.C.G.A. § 15-6-67, uses almost those exact words: a plat is "a drawing prepared by a land surveyor that describes and depicts real property boundaries." You'll also hear it called a plat, a survey plat or a plat of survey, and in everyday use those all mean the same document.
One may already exist for your land. This guide covers what a plat shows, how it differs from a deed, a survey and the county's online map, and how to track yours down. Already holding one and puzzled by the markings? Our guide on how to read a survey plat goes through them one by one.
The Plat Act lists what a plat has to state when it's filed for record, which makes a good checklist for any plat you're holding:
Older plats were drawn under earlier rules, so yours may not have every item. The rest of the sheet is the drawing itself: each boundary line with its direction and length, the acreage, the markers at the corners, the neighboring owners' names, any apparent encroachments, and any easements or rights-of-way the surveyor located.
These four get mixed up all the time, and each one answers a different question.
| Document | Where it comes from | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Plat | A land surveyor | A scaled drawing of the boundaries: how long each line is, which way it runs and what marks the corners. It can be recorded with the clerk. |
| Survey | A land surveyor | The work behind the drawing: the records research, the fieldwork and the surveyor's conclusions about where the lines are. The plat is how that work gets documented. |
| Deed | The owner transferring the land signs it, and it's recorded with the clerk | Who the land was transferred to, with a written description of it. A deed transfers ownership. A plat doesn't. |
| Tax map | The county tax assessor | A rough picture of parcels, built for valuing property. It's handy for finding a parcel number, but it isn't survey grade. |
People sometimes say "plat map" when they mean the county's online parcel map. If someone sends you a link to qPublic or a county GIS site, that's usually a tax map, and the lines on it can be off by many feet. Some county sites also link a scanned plat, so check that you're looking at a surveyor's signed drawing. We explain why tax maps fall short in finding your property lines in Georgia.
The Plat Act's definition covers a map, condominium plat, subdivision plat, as-built survey, easement survey and retracement survey. Here are the four you're most likely to run into:
You may also see "land plat" or "plat of survey." Those are other names for a plat, not separate kinds.
That phrase can mean a few things, so it's worth asking which one somebody wants.
A plat carrying the surveyor's certification. Every plat filed for record in Georgia today needs a certification box, signed by the land surveyor, with the surveyor's seal in it or next to it. In that box the surveyor certifies that the plat meets the state's minimum technical standards for property surveys. Making that certification fraudulently is a misdemeanor under the Plat Act.
A plat certified for a lender, title company or agency. The Plat Act allows added certifications on a plat, and some parties ask for their own.
A certified copy from the clerk. This is a copy of a plat already on record, certified by the Clerk of Superior Court in the county where it's recorded.
If someone asks you for a certified plat, find out which they mean. A new plat or an added certification takes a surveyor. A certified copy takes a request to the clerk's office. What these typically cost is in plat prices in Georgia.
The plat of your property might be sitting in a file at home. Work through these in order:
It happens. Plenty of older tracts were only ever described in words, in a deed that calls out each line in turn, and some plats were drawn but never recorded. A search can also come up empty because the plat sits under an earlier owner's name or predates the online index, so check with the clerk before you decide there isn't one.
If there truly isn't one, a property survey will create it. The surveyor works from your deed and the deeds next door, looks for the evidence in the field and draws the plat.
On paper, yes. A plat shows where the surveyor located your lines on the date it was prepared, including the direction and length of each one and what marks each corner. It can't show what's changed since then, like a new fence, an addition or a widened road, and it won't tell you where the corners are in the grass unless you can find the markers it describes.
So an older plat gives you a lot to go on, and sometimes it's all you need. If you're building, selling or working through a boundary dispute, you'll want a surveyor to confirm the lines on the ground, usually with a boundary survey. Once the lines are established, property line marking puts them where you can see them.
A land surveyor. That's built into the Plat Act's definition, and a plat filed for record has to carry the surveyor's signature and seal. State law limits that seal, too. Under O.C.G.A. § 43-15-22, it can go on a plat only when the surveyor personally did the work, or when employees did it under the surveyor's direct daily supervision and the surveyor thoroughly reviewed it.
You can check any Georgia surveyor's license with the License Search on the state board's website. At S&S Land Surveying, every plat is signed and sealed by William "Bart" Sims. He's licensed in Georgia as a Professional Land Surveyor and has over 40 years of experience.
To plat a piece of land is to have a surveyor make a plat of it, and the word usually comes up when land is being divided or put back together. The right path depends on what you're doing:
Start by asking the city or county what it requires, because local rules decide how much review your plat needs. How to subdivide land in Georgia lays out the order things happen in.
That depends on what you need. A copy of a plat that's already recorded costs a small clerk's fee. A new plat comes with a survey, and whether it's included in the survey price or billed separately is the biggest reason two quotes disagree. Our guide to plat prices covers all of it, and our land survey cost guide has typical ranges for the survey itself.
Plat is a word for a map or plan of land. Merriam-Webster defines it as "a plan, map, or chart of a piece of land," typically one showing features such as lots. As a verb, to plat land means to make a plat of it.
Not quite. The survey is the work: the records research, the fieldwork and the surveyor's conclusions about the lines. The plat is the drawing that documents it. People often use the words interchangeably, since a plat is usually what you receive when a survey is finished.
Yes, though it isn't the kind that transfers ownership. That's the job of a deed. A plat signed and sealed by a licensed surveyor is a professional record of where the lines are, and once it's recorded it becomes part of the county's public land records.
Recorded plats are. They're filed with the Clerk of Superior Court for the county the land's in, and the state's Plat Index lets you search them across Georgia. A plat that was prepared but never recorded stays with whoever holds it, usually the owner and the surveyor.
Not one you can record. Georgia's Plat Act defines a plat as a drawing prepared by a land surveyor, and it has to carry the surveyor's signed certification and seal. You're welcome to sketch your land for your own use, but that sketch isn't a plat.
A plat book is the clerk's volume of recorded plats. A plat reference gives you the county, the book and the page, which is all you need to pull that plat from the record.
It can be done if the plat met the rules when it was drawn. Georgia's Plat Act lets a plat prepared before May 8, 2017 under the earlier rules be recorded, as long as it's submitted electronically. A newer plat has to meet the current requirements.
Need a new plat, or not sure the old one is enough? S&S Land Surveying is based in Cedartown and works across Georgia. Call us at 678-873-3119 or request a free estimate online.
General information, not legal advice. This guide is general information about land surveying in Georgia, not legal advice. Property rights, boundary disputes, recording requirements and permitting vary by county and depend on the specific facts of your property. A licensed surveyor establishes where your boundary falls. Questions about your legal rights should go to a Georgia real estate attorney.