N.Y. Real Property Law § 335: Filing of maps and abandonment of subdivisions in Suffolk county; penalty for nonfiling

§ 335. Filing of maps and abandonment of subdivisions in Suffolk

county; penalty for nonfiling. 1. It shall be the duty of every person

or corporation, excepting church cemetery organizations, attached to a

religious parish within the county of Suffolk, who as owner or agent

subdivides real property in Suffolk county into lots, plots, blocks or

sites, with or without streets, for the purpose of offering such lots,

plots, blocks or sites for sale to the public, regardless of how they

are conveyed, to file or cause to be filed in the office of the county

clerk of Suffolk county a map thereof together with a certificate of the

surveyor endorsed on the face of such map certifying same to have been

made from an actual survey of the property that was performed by or

under the direction of said surveyor and the date of the completion of

the survey. Said certificate shall state that stone or concrete

monuments have been set at not less than two corners of every street

intersection as indicated on such map, provided, however, that where the

planning board or other governmental agency having jurisdiction over the

approval of said maps has required the subdivider to deposit with the

town or local governing body a performance bond or bonds to secure the

installation and completion of all site improvements, including setting

stone or concrete monuments in the streets as aforesaid, and

simultaneously with the filing of said map the subdivider files with the

county clerk a written certification from the town or local governing

body that such bond or bonds have been duly deposited and accepted by

the town or local governing body and that said bond or bonds expressly

include the setting of stone or concrete monuments as aforesaid, the

said surveyor's certificate may state that stone or concrete monuments

will be set at not less than two corners of every street intersection as

indicated on such map upon completion of the installation of said

streets and that the surveyor shall execute and deliver a further

written certification of the completion of such monumentation to both

the county clerk and the town or local governing body prior to and as a

condition for the release of said performance bond or bonds. All lots

and blocks on such map shall be numbered consecutively. Said map shall

set forth the courses, measurements and adjoining property owners with

sufficient definiteness to determine the location of said property and

the name of the subdivision as stated by the owner. Said name must

differ from any name already filed with the county clerk and must be

approved by the county clerk before the acceptance of the map. At the

time of the filing of such map there shall also be furnished to the

county clerk two copies of such map for each town and village in which

any portion of the mapped property is located. Such copies shall be duly

certified by him to be true copies of the original and one certified

copy shall be forwarded by said county clerk to the assessor or board of

assessors, as the case may be, of each town or village in which any

portion of said property is located. At the time of filing such map with

the county clerk an abstract of title of all of the property shown on

said map which shall cover a period of not less than the twenty years

last past the date it is submitted, certified by an attorney and

counselor at law of the state of New York, a title company duly

incorporated and authorized to transact business in the state of New

York or a competent searcher of titles, shall be presented to said

county clerk, and be filed in his office, unless the title to said

property has been duly registered pursuant to the provisions of the real

property law for the registration of titles to real property, in which

case this fact shall be set forth upon the original map together with

the number of the certificate of the title so registered. An index of

such abstracts and registrations shall be maintained to clearly indicate

the maps to which they refer. In the case of a tax title, the fee title

for a period of at least twenty years prior to the date of the tax sale

under which title is claimed must be submitted as a part of the

abstract. A key map, made to the scale of six hundred feet to one inch,

must appear on all maps submitted and must show one or more monuments in

the tract definitely tied to a given point or a monument set at the

point of the intersection of the side lines (as prolonged, if there is a

curve) of two established highways; said point or monument shall be that

which is nearest the proposed subdivision and shall not require a

measurement to be made across any portion of an established highway. No

re-mapping of subdivided property will be accepted for filing until

there has been filed with the county clerk a certificate of abandonment

and cancellation of the original map or the portion thereof to be

abandoned and cancelled in accordance with the provisions of this act.

Before a map will be eligible for filing, a certificate of the county

treasurer of Suffolk county or the report of a tax search by a licensed

title company must be submitted by the party presenting the map for

filing as a part of the abstract of title showing the payment in full of

all taxes due and payable at the date of filing. Such maps and abstracts

of title shall be filed as aforesaid and a copy of said map filed in the

office of the clerk of each town or village where any portion of said

property is located prior to the offering for sale of any lot, plot,

block or site thereon. All such maps must be printed or drawn upon

tracing cloth or linen or printed on mylar and must be of a standard

size of eighteen inches by twenty inches or thirty-six inches by twenty

inches and the original of such maps filed in said county clerk's office

shall be placed and kept by some suitable method in consecutive order,

be consecutively numbered in the order of filing and shall be indexed

under the initial letters of all of the substantives in the title of the

subdivision. However, he may maintain a record of such maps in a

microfilm format provided he supplies facilities for displaying said

maps through projection with microfilm to the aforesaid standard sizes.

The fee of the county clerk for such filing, certifying and indexing

each map and copy thereof, and abstract of title therewith and

forwarding copies of said map to the assessors, boards of assessors and

clerks of the towns and villages where the property therein described is

located, shall be ten dollars and be paid by the party presenting them

for filing. Failure to file any such map as required by the provisions

of this section shall subject the owner of such subdivision or of the

unsold lots therein, to a penalty to the people of the state of New York

of two hundred fifty dollars for each and every lot therein sold and

conveyed by or for such owner prior to the due filing of such map and

abstract of title as aforesaid. The requirements as provided for in this

section may be applied to the filing of each and every kind of map

submitted for filing which is not a subdivision map of real property, at

the discretion of the county clerk, and the filing fee of ten dollars

shall be paid for the filing of any non-subdivision map so submitted.

2. Every such subdivision map of property in any of the towns of

Suffolk county located wholly or partly outside an incorporated village

in such towns, shall, before the filing thereof, as hereinbefore

provided, have indorsed on the face thereof in writing the approval of

the planning board of such towns, or in the towns not having planning

boards, the approval of the town board. Likewise, every such subdivision

map of property located wholly or partly within an incorporated village,

shall before the filing thereof, as hereinbefore provided, have endorsed

on the face thereof in writing the approval of the planning board of

such village, or in a village not having a planning board, the approval

of the board of trustees. In addition, every such subdivision map of

property in any of the towns of the county of Suffolk, whether located

wholly or partly, inside or outside, an incorporated village in such

towns, shall before the filing thereof, as hereinbefore provided, have

endorsed on the face thereof in writing the approval of the county

department of health.

3. Whenever at least two years have elapsed since the filing of a map

of the subdivision of any tract of land into lots, plots, blocks or

sites, with or without opened or proposed roads, the owner of such

tract, or of any part thereof, may abandon and cancel the subdivision of

the property so owned by recording in the office of the county clerk a

written certificate of abandonment, duly executed and acknowledged,

which shall contain a description of the property to be abandoned, the

complete title or name of the map, the filing date and file number

thereof, except that no opened or proposed streets, other than those

entirely within the bounds of the property to be abandoned, or the area

within such bounds of streets which as laid out on said map come to a

dead-end within such bounds, shall be abandoned unless each owner of a

lot or interest in the subdivision consents to the abandonment thereof

by instrument in writing duly executed, acknowledged and recorded with

the certificate of abandonment; provided, however, that whenever at

least twenty years have elapsed since the filing of said map, the owner

of the property to be abandoned may, without such consent, abandon any

streets or portions thereof shown on said map and which are within the

bounds of the property to be abandoned if such streets or portions

thereof are neither opened, nor public highways, nor used by the public,

nor necessary for the use of owners, occupants or any other persons

having an interest in any part of the subdivision; but nothing herein

shall prevent an owner using or a seller of land from conveying part of

a lot, plot or site separately or together with an adjoining lot, plot

or site, subject to the provisions of local zoning ordinances. Whenever

there is on file more than one map of the property to be abandoned, such

property must be abandoned in the manner herein provided as to each of

such maps. A copy of each certificate of abandonment must be filed with

the assessor and/or board of assessors of each town and village wherein

any portion of the property to be abandoned is situated, and the

endorsement of approval by each such assessor and/or board of assessors

must be endorsed on the original of each certificate presented to the

county clerk for recording. An abstract of title to the property to be

abandoned covering a period of at least twenty years last past, and a

certificate of the county treasurer of Suffolk county to the effect that

there are no unpaid tax liens against such property, must be submitted

to the county clerk and be approved by him at the time the certificate

of abandonment and cancellation is offered for recording. Said

certificates and abstracts shall be filed in the county clerk's office,

a suitable index shall be kept of the same, and notice thereof shall be

endorsed by the recording officer upon the map therein referred to at

the time of recording the certificate of abandonment. Where the

endorsement of approval of the town or village assessor above referred

to includes a recitation to the effect that the municipality has duly

adopted an urban renewal plan pursuant to article fifteen of the general

municipal law which plan provides for adequate street access to all

properties within and adjacent to the planning area, and further that

the property to be abandoned is subject to said plan, and its

abandonment is required thereunder, the clerk shall accept and record

the certificate of abandonment tendered therefor regardless of the area

thereof, and notwithstanding that the property to be abandoned is a

portion of an opened or proposed street for which the consent to the

abandonment thereof required in this subdivision has not been obtained.

Upon the abandonment of subdivided property as herein provided such

property shall, for all purposes, be regarded as a single tract of land.

No abandonment of lot divisions shall be made under this section for the

purpose of reviving or making effective any other subdivision of the

same tract of land and no map may be reinstated as it was prior to the

filing of any abandonment certificate. The fee of the county clerk for

such filing and indexing each certificate and abstract therewith shall

be ten dollars and shall be paid by the party presenting them for

filing. Provided, however, that the Suffolk county board of supervisors

shall have full authority to abandon any subdivision of property or any

portion thereof which the county of Suffolk now owns or may hereafter

acquire through the sale of tax liens, by causing to be filed with the

county clerk of Suffolk county, a certificate of abandonment, duly

executed by the said county board, without regard to any of the other

foregoing requirements of this section. Nothing contained in this

section shall be construed to prevent the filing of a new map and

certificate of a subdivision of real property in the manner prescribed

herein, after, and in the area of, a subdivision or portion thereof

abandoned in accordance with the provisions of this section.