A recorded plat is the most useful document almost no buyer reads, and the most over-trusted document some buyers do read. It will tell you exactly where you cannot build. It will not tell you where the fence is.
This is the last of four posts on reading the public record on a Richmond-area property, alongside pulling the deed and chain of title, recorded easements, and mechanic’s liens.
What a plat actually is
When land is subdivided, a surveyor prepares a plat and it is recorded in the circuit court clerk’s office for the locality, under the rules in Chapter 6 of Title 55.1. Section 55.1-600 puts it in the county or city where the land lies, which for our market means one of six offices.
Your deed almost certainly refers to it. A description reading “Lot 14, Block C, Section 2” is pointing at a specific recorded drawing, and that drawing is the authoritative statement of your lot’s shape and dimensions.
The four things to look for
- Easement strips. Usually dashed lines with a stated width along a rear or side boundary. Drainage and utility easements are the common ones, and they are frequently wider than owners assume. You generally cannot build in them, and in some cases cannot put up a shed.
- Building setback lines. The minimum distance structures must keep from each boundary. This is the constraint that kills additions. A quarter-acre lot with generous setbacks on three sides can have a surprisingly small buildable envelope.
- The dimensions and bearings. Each boundary segment has a length and a direction. Together they should close, meaning they trace the perimeter and return to the start.
- The date and the surveyor’s certification. An old plat still governs the boundary, but it shows nothing built since, and it will not reflect a later boundary line adjustment.
About to offer on a house with a fence near the line? That is the exact case where a survey earns its fee. Our Richmond closing-timeline checklist shows where the survey decision falls in the contract sequence, before the contingency deadlines close. Ask us to send it.
How to actually get hold of the plat
There are three routes, in ascending order of reliability.
Ask the listing agent. Sellers frequently have the plat in their closing papers from when they bought, and a survey too if one was done. This costs nothing and takes one message. The weakness is that what you receive may be an old copy with no way to tell whether anything was recorded afterwards.
Pull it from the deed reference. Find the current deed, read the legal description, and note the plat book and page it cites. That reference is the plat’s filing address in the clerk’s records, and it gets you the recorded version rather than somebody’s photocopy. This is the method we walk through step by step in the chain of title post above.
Have the title company pull it. Once you are under contract, the title examination will locate the plat and any later recorded instruments affecting the boundary. This is the most complete route and the slowest, which is why it is worth doing one of the first two before you write the offer rather than after.
One practical warning. A plat you are handed by anyone other than the clerk’s office or a title examiner may not be the operative one. Boundary line adjustments, easement releases and resubdivisions are all recorded separately, and none of them changes the original drawing.
Plat against survey: what each one can prove
| Question | Recorded plat | Current survey |
|---|---|---|
| Where is the legal boundary? | Yes, this is what it is for | Yes, and locates it on the ground |
| Where is the fence, shed or driveway? | No | Yes |
| Is the neighbour’s structure encroaching? | Cannot tell you | Yes |
| Where can I build an addition? | Setback lines, yes | Confirms against what exists |
| Has the boundary been changed since? | Only if a later plat was recorded | Reflects current record |
The second and third rows are why plats mislead people. A plat is a statement of intent from the moment of subdivision. Forty years of fences, sheds, hedges and driveways happen afterwards, and none of them appear on it.
When the fence is in the wrong place
This is the most common boundary problem in older Richmond neighbourhoods, and the answer turns on time rather than on the drawing. Virginia Code section 8.01-236 provides that no person shall make an entry on, or bring an action to recover, any land unless within fifteen years after the right to do so first accrued.
Read plainly: a boundary that has been wrong for a long time may no longer be correctable by simply pointing at the plat. Whether that fifteen-year clock has run, and whether it ran against the current owner or a predecessor, is a fact-specific legal question. It is emphatically not something to resolve by measuring the plat yourself and having a conversation over the hedge.
What this means practically for a buyer: if a fence, drive or outbuilding near a boundary looks long-established, the time to get a survey and a lawyer’s read is before you are contractually committed, not after.
Where this comes up in our market
Two patterns. In the older city stock, small lots and a century of informal fencing mean encroachments are ordinary rather than exceptional. That is the story across the City of Richmond, particularly in the Fan and Church Hill, where rowhouse party walls and rear yards were laid out long before anyone recorded a modern plat.
The other pattern is acreage. In Goochland and Powhatan, boundaries run through woods, are marked by old iron pins or trees, and acreage drives price directly. A tax record that says 5 acres and a survey that says 4.3 is a real difference in money. If you are shopping Richmond-area homes with acreage, treat the survey as due diligence rather than an optional extra, and read it alongside what to check before you build on land near Richmond.
Questions Richmond-area readers actually ask
Is a recorded plat the same thing as a survey?
No. A plat is a survey that was recorded, usually when the subdivision was created, and it shows where the boundary is supposed to be. A current survey shows where things have actually been built. When the two disagree, the plat governs the boundary and the survey tells you the problem.
Do I need a survey to buy a house in Richmond?
It is not legally required and many purchases close without one. It becomes worth the cost when a fence, driveway, shed, pool or addition sits near a boundary, when the lot is irregular, when there is acreage, or when you plan to build.
What is a building setback line?
The minimum distance a structure must sit from each boundary, shown on the plat and set by the locality zoning. It constrains an addition, garage, deck or pool independently of how much land you own, and it is the reason a large lot sometimes cannot take a small extension.
My neighbour fence is on my land. What happens now?
It depends on how long it has been there. Virginia Code section 8.01-236 bars an action to recover land after fifteen years from when the right to bring it first accrued. A fence in the wrong place for two years and one in the wrong place for twenty are legally different situations, and the second needs a Virginia real estate attorney.
Who pays for a survey, buyer or seller?
In Virginia this is negotiable and it is usually the buyer, because the buyer is the party who wants the information. If a boundary problem is discovered, who pays to resolve it is a separate negotiation from who paid to find it.
Can I rely on the acreage in the tax record?
No. Assessment records exist to value property for tax purposes and their acreage and dimensions are frequently approximate. The recorded deed and plat govern. If you are buying land where acreage drives the price, the difference is worth money.
What does it mean if the legal description does not close?
A metes and bounds description should trace the boundary and return to its starting point. If the calls do not close, there is an error somewhere in the chain. It is not necessarily serious, but it needs a surveyor and a title examiner rather than an assumption.
Can a plat show something that no longer exists?
Yes, routinely. Plats are snapshots. An easement shown on a 1978 plat may have been released, and a later boundary line adjustment may have changed the lot without appearing on the original drawing. Always check for later recorded instruments.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Contracts, disclosure duties and title questions turn on the specific facts in front of you. For advice you can rely on, speak with a Virginia real estate attorney.
We pull the plat on our clients’ purchases as a matter of course, and we will tell you plainly when a survey is worth the money and when it is not. See how we work with buyers, or browse everything currently for sale.
