Deposited plans: what they show and where to get yours

When land is subdivided, a surveyor draws up a plan and it's registered with the land titles registry. Each lot on the plan gets a number, so Lot 41 in DP 1277564 identifies one parcel and no other.

The plan shows the lot boundaries with their bearings and lengths, each lot's area, road frontages, neighbouring lots, and the position and width of easements. It doesn't show houses, fences, trees, ground levels or pipes. A deposited plan isn't a contour or detail survey: that's a separate job a surveyor does on site.

One deposited plan usually covers the whole subdivision, so expect to find your lot among its neighbours rather than on a page of its own.

• NSW: land is described by lot and DP, and strata units by lot and strata plan (SP). The NSW title reference is the lot and plan itself, such as 41/1277564, and the title names the plan as the title diagram.
• WA: titles may refer to a Plan, Diagram, Deposited Plan, Strata Plan or Survey-Strata Plan.
• SA: Deposited Plans (DP), Filed Plans (FP), Community Plans and Strata Plans. The title shows a diagram reference.
• ACT: Deposited Plans for land and Units Plans for units.
• Other states use different names: Victoria has the plan of subdivision, lodged plan and title plan; Queensland the survey plan and registered plan; Tasmania the sealed plan and diagram; the NT the survey plan.

It's on your title, your council rates notice and your contract of sale. In NSW you can also look up the lot and DP for an address on the government's free property maps, such as the NSW Planning Portal's spatial viewer.

On a NSW title, entries in the Second Schedule that quote the DP number usually point to easements or restrictions created when the plan was registered. Their terms are in the plan's 88B instrument, and their positions are on the plan.

Plans are scanned images, and older ones can be hard to read. You'll need the plan number.

Title Registry doesn't sell plans yet. At launch we sell the title search, which gives you the lot and plan number and lists everything registered against the land, and the Title + Full Report, which explains each entry in plain English. Buy the plan itself from the registry or a broker for now.

• Building or extending: easements shown on the plan are usually areas you can't build over without consent. Your designer, certifier or council will want the plan and the instrument that sets out the easement terms.
• Buying: check that the lot's dimensions and area match what's being sold, and look for easements running through the yard or along the driveway.
• Boundary disputes: the plan gives the legal dimensions, but only a registered surveyor can mark where the boundary sits on the ground. Fences aren't always on the boundary.