N.Y. Real Property Law § 334 (2026)

§ 334. Maps to be filed; penalty for nonfiling. 1. It shall be the
duty of every person or corporation who, as owner or agent, subdivides
real property 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, to cause a map thereof, together with a
certificate of the licensed land surveyor filing said map attached
showing the date of the completion of the survey by said land surveyor
and of the making of the map by said land surveyor and the name of the
subdivision as stated by the owner, to be filed in the office of the
county clerk or, in any county having a register of deeds, in the office
of the register of deeds, of the county where the property is situated
prior to the offering of any such lots, plots, blocks or sites for sale;
and a duplicate copy of such map shall also be filed in the office of
the city, town or village clerk, where the property is situated, and, if
situated in a county maintaining a tax map department, a copy shall also
be filed with such department, before any such sale.
  2. All such maps must be printed upon linen or canvas-backed paper or
drawn with a pen and India ink upon tracing cloth or printed on mylar,
and must be a minimum of eight and one-half inches by eleven inches, and
a maximum of thirty-four inches by forty-four inches in size, except
that in the counties of Westchester, Putnam and Rockland all maps
presented for filing must be printed or drawn with pen and ink upon
tracing cloth or printed on mylar; except that in the counties of
Saratoga, Otsego, Dutchess and Monroe, all maps presented for filing in
the office of the county clerk must be printed or drawn with pen and
India ink upon transparent tracing cloth or printed on mylar or
polyester film or be photographic copies on transparent tracing cloth or
printed on mylar or polyester film and further, that such maps to be
filed in the counties of Saratoga and Otsego shall be not less than
eight and one-half inches by fourteen inches nor more than thirty inches
by forty-two inches in size; except that in the county of Clinton all
maps presented for filing in the office of the county clerk must be
printed or drawn with pen and ink upon tracing cloth or canvas-backed
paper or printed on mylar and must be either eighteen inches by
twenty-four inches or twenty-four inches by thirty-six inches in size,
and in the county of Putnam must be not less than twenty inches by
twenty inches and not more than thirty-six inches by forty-eight inches
in size, and in the counties of Warren, Sullivan and Greene all maps
presented for filing must be printed or drawn with pen and India ink
upon transparent tracing cloth or polyester film or printed on mylar or
be photographic copies on transparent tracing cloth or polyester film or
printed on mylar and further, that such maps to be filed in Warren
county, must be not less than eight and one-half inches by eleven inches
nor more than twenty-two inches by thirty-four inches, in the county of
Sullivan must be not less than eight and one-half inches by eleven
inches nor more than twenty-four inches by thirty-six inches and in the
county of Greene must be not less than twelve inches by eighteen inches
nor more than twenty-four inches by thirty-six inches and in the
counties of Westchester and Dutchess must be thirty-six inches by
forty-eight inches or less in size, and that such maps to be filed in
the county of Monroe shall be in any one of the following sizes only:
seventeen inches by twenty-two inches, twenty-two inches by thirty-four
inches or thirty-four inches by forty-four inches. Every such
subdivision map of property in the towns of Tonawanda, Evans, West
Seneca, Cheektowaga, Amherst, Lancaster, Grand Island, Aurora, Concord,
Collins, Alden, Newstead, Clarence, Elma, Orchard Park and Hamburg, Erie
county, located wholly or partly outside an incorporated village, shall
before the filing thereof as herein provided, have attached thereto in
writing, the approval of the town board of such town, and every such map
of property located wholly or partly in an incorporated village in such
town, shall, if located wholly within the village have attached the
approval of the board of trustees of the village, and if located partly
within a village and partly within one of such towns, have attached the
approval of both the town board of the town and the board of trustees of
the village.
  2-a. Notwithstanding any other provisions in this article, a county
clerk may adopt a system to receive and retain maps utilizing an
electro-mechanical, electronic or any other method they deem suitable
for receiving and retaining maps.
  3. Every such map of subdivided land, whether intended as an original
subdivision or as an alteration of a prior subdivision, shall have
endorsed thereon or annexed thereto at the time such map is offered to
be filed a certificate of the county treasurer or of an abstract and
title company and a certificate of the tax collecting officer of any
county, city, town or village wherein such property or any part thereof
is situate, stating that all taxes levied and unpaid and in addition,
all taxes which are a lien prior to the time such original or subsequent
map is offered to be filed, whether assessed against the entire tract of
land or against any lot or other part of such land, have been paid, and
a certificate of the county director of real property tax services that
the fee authorized by section five hundred three of the real property
tax law, if any, has been paid and the county clerk shall not file any
such map without such endorsements or certificates. All of such maps
shall be placed and kept, by some suitable method, in consecutive order
and shall be consecutively numbered in the order of their filing and
shall be indexed under the initial letters of all substantives in the
title of the subdivision.
  4. A 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 not less
than twenty-five dollars and not more than three hundred dollars for
each and every lot therein sold and conveyed by or for such owner prior
to the due filing of such map.
  Such penalty shall be recovered in an action brought by the city, town
or village in which the subdivision or part thereof is located.
  5. In case the lands sought to be shown upon the subdivision map are
contiguous to the navigable waters of the state and have frontage on
such waters, such map shall show the extension of the littoral property
line or lines of such lots, plots, blocks, sites or units from the
intersection of said line or lines with the high water mark into said
navigable waters of the state. Such map shall show sufficient data to
define the location of the riparian/littoral area associated with such
lots, plots, blocks, sites or units.
  6. All moneys recovered as penalties for the violation of this section
by town justices shall be paid to the state comptroller in accordance
with the provisions of section twenty-seven of the town law, and moneys
so recovered by village justices shall be paid to the state comptroller
in accordance with the provisions of section 4-410 of the village law.
The state comptroller shall retain one-third of such penalty and
transmit one-third to the town or village in which the remitting town or
village justice is located to be credited to the general fund of such
town or village. The state comptroller shall also send to the county in
which the property is located one-third of such penalty to be credited
to the general fund of the county.
  7. Except in a city with a population of one million or more, all
moneys recovered as penalties for the violation of this section by a
city court shall be paid to the chief fiscal officer of the city within
thirty days of receipt by the city court. Such chief fiscal officer
shall send one-third of such penalty recovered to the state comptroller
and one-third of such funds to the general fund of the county. The
balance shall be credited to the general fund of the city.