Guide · Records
Florida plat maps: how to find the plat for a lot
A plat is the recorded map that divided land into lots, blocks and streets, and in Florida it sits with the county clerk under a plat book and page. Find that reference in the lot's legal description, then pull the page from the clerk. A lot in an "unrecorded" subdivision has no plat to find.
What a plat is, by law
Chapter 177 of the Florida Statutes defines a plat or replat as a map or delineated representation of the subdivision of land, and a subdivision as a division into three or more lots. Section 177.091 lists what every plat must show. Among the items:
- the section, township and range, and a description of the land platted;
- each lot and block number, with survey data to place every line;
- streets and rights-of-way, and easements with their stated use;
- the dedications, and the purpose of every area dedicated to the public or the owners;
- the permanent monuments set on the ground;
- any land inside the boundary marked "Not a part of this plat";
- a notice that the recorded plat is the official depiction of the subdivided land, and the clerk's certificate of recording.
How to find the plat for one lot
- Read the legal description. A platted lot reads as a lot, a block and a subdivision name, and often the plat book and page.
- Learn the county's way of writing it. Lee runs it together, as PB34PG127. Miami-Dade writes PB 126-42, book then page. Duval puts the book and page first, as 58-108, before the rest. St. Johns does the same with a slash, as 122/28-37 for a plat on several pages.
- No reference? Use the name. Search the clerk's plat records by the subdivision name, with its unit or phase number.
- Pull the page from the clerk. Then check whether the land was replatted later, since a replat redraws the lots, and the law counts a resubdivision as a subdivision too.
How often the legal names the plat
| County's own full legal description, measured 1 November 2026 | Parcels with one | Plat book in it | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Osceola | 214,203 | 179,906 | 84.0% |
| Highlands | 112,683 | 94,606 | 84.0% |
| Duval (book-page written first) | 403,883 | 336,589 | 83.3% |
| Pasco | 320,361 | 261,720 | 81.7% |
| Citrus | 147,708 | 106,524 | 72.1% |
| Polk | 435,489 | 309,412 | 71.0% |
| St. Johns (book/page written first) | 168,434 | 104,347 | 62.0% |
| Lee | 561,143 | 333,548 | 59.4% |
| Miami-Dade | 936,573 | 551,121 | 58.8% |
| Sarasota | 306,908 | 34,912 | 11.4% |
| Hillsborough | 527,486 | 3,541 | 0.7% |
| Pinellas | 433,529 | 172 | 0.04% |
Counted as PB, P.B., PLAT BOOK or PLAT BK followed by a number, or, in Duval and St. Johns, the book and page at the start of the text. The rest of each county's parcels include acreage described by metes and bounds or by section, condominium units, or platted lots whose legal names only the subdivision, as in Hillsborough and Pinellas. A share here is a floor: a reference written some other way is missed.
Where it stops
- Unrecorded subdivisions. Lots sold off a developer's map that was never recorded say UNREC in the legal: 24,583 in Polk, 23,045 in Pasco, 17,675 in Citrus, 12,918 in Pinellas. There is no plat to pull, and the lot rests on its own deed description.
- The state roll cuts it short. The state's legal field holds 30 characters, and 5,559,241 parcels fill it, so the plat reference is often cut off. Use the county's full text where it has one: 35 counties publish it.
- A plat is not a survey. It shows the lots as drawn when the land was divided. Where the lines sit on the ground today is a surveyor's job; see property lines are not a survey.
- Easements outside the plat. A plat shows what was dedicated with it; later easements are separate documents, covered in finding easements on Florida property.
On Map Views
The report's property section shows the subdivision name, the roll's 30-character legal, the county's full legal where it publishes one, and the section, township and range; the Sections and townships layer draws that grid on the map. In the search, "Subdivision has" finds every parcel in a subdivision by its recorded or common name. "Legal description has" searches only the roll's short legal, so a plat book number cut from it will not match. The report's sales list gives each deed's book and page, for the trip to the clerk.
The recorded plat at the clerk of the circuit court is the official depiction of a subdivision; the county property appraiser writes the legal description on the roll. Chapter 177 is as the Florida Senate publishes it, read on 1 November 2026. The counts are ours.