Most buyers read the deed carefully and glance at the survey plan. It is the wrong way round. The deed tells you who owns the land and what has happened to it. The plan tells you what the land is, its shape, its boundaries, its extent and how you get to it.
Here is what to look at, in the order it is worth looking.
What a survey plan is, and who may make one
A survey plan is a measured drawing of a parcel, certified by a licensed surveyor. The framework behind it is the Survey Act, No. 17 of 2002, which sets out the powers and functions of the Surveyor-General, regulates how land surveys are carried out, and establishes a Land Survey Council to regulate the professional conduct of surveyors.
Two features of that Act matter to a buyer. On any question of land surveying or mapping, the Act makes the Surveyor-General’s decision “final and conclusive”. And a registered licensed surveyor is required to deposit certified copies of plans with the Surveyor-General within thirty days of certification, which is why a genuine plan has a life beyond the folder it arrives in.
Note what that does not say. Depositing a plan is not the same as approving it, and the Act’s approval provision is confined to cadastral maps and plans prepared for the state’s own systematic surveys. Approval in the sense a buyer usually means it, permission for what you intend to do with the land, comes from the relevant local authority, which is check 8 below and a different question entirely.
The nine checks
| # | What to check | What it goes wrong as |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plan number and date | A plan predating a subdivision, so the parcel drawn no longer exists |
| 2 | Surveyor’s name and certification | An uncertified sketch presented as a survey |
| 3 | The lot number | Reading the boundaries of the lot next to the one you are buying |
| 4 | Bearings and distances | A boundary that closes on paper but not on the ground |
| 5 | Stated extent | An extent that does not match the deed |
| 6 | Access or right of way | A parcel that is landlocked once the neighbour changes their mind |
| 7 | Adjoining lot references | Neighbours named who sold years ago, hiding a boundary change |
| 8 | Approval by the relevant authority | A plan that cannot be used for building approval or subdivision |
| 9 | The ground itself | Pegs and walls that do not sit where the drawing puts them |
1 to 3. The title block and the lot
The plan number and the date sit together, usually with the surveyor’s name. Take the date seriously. A plan drawn before a subdivision describes a parcel that has since been cut up, and the lot you are being shown may have been created afterwards by someone else entirely.
Then find your lot number. A single plan often carries several lots, and the deed should name yours explicitly. If the deed refers to a lot the plan does not show, stop there.
4 to 5. Bearings, distances and extent
Every boundary line carries a bearing, a direction expressed as an angle from north or south, and a distance. Together they define the shape. You are not expected to verify the trigonometry, but you should notice whether the plan gives them at all. A drawing with no bearings and no distances is an illustration.
Shape matters as much as size, and the plan is the only document that shows it. Two parcels of the same extent can be a usable rectangle and an unusable sliver. Look at the proportions, look at the road frontage, and look at whether the corners are square, because setbacks and building lines are applied to the shape rather than to the total.
The extent is the number everyone reads and few compare. Put it next to the extent written on the deed. If the deed says twenty perches and the plan measures eighteen and a half, that gap is 1.5 perches, or 408.4 square feet, and it belongs to somebody.
6 to 7. Access, and the neighbours
Access is the check to slow down on. Where the parcel does not front a public road, there should be a right of way drawn on the plan, generally as its own lot with its own width. Follow it on the drawing until it reaches a public road. If it stops on someone else’s land, the access depends on that person, and a plot without secure access is a different asset from the one you thought you were buying.
The adjoining lot references tell you who and what surrounds the parcel. Names that are decades out of date are not fatal, but they date the plan more honestly than the date box does.
8 to 9. Approval, and the ground
The plan should be approved by the relevant authority for what you intend to do with it. Building approval and subdivision both depend on it, and an unapproved plan converts a straightforward purchase into a delay of unknown length.
Then walk the land with the plan in your hand. Find the pegs. Find the corners. The CB Law Chambers guide to buying property in Sri Lanka sets out that the plan should be certified by a licensed surveyor, free of demarcation disputes, and current with recent amendments or subdivisions, and the only way to test the middle of those three is on site.
Where the deed system is being replaced
Sri Lanka is running two systems at once, and it changes what you are reading. Under the traditional system you register documents, and the deed chain is the evidence of ownership. Under the Registration of Title Act, No. 21 of 1998, the state registers ownership itself, against a cadastral map that records the parcel’s location, boundaries and extent.
The Registrar General’s Department reports that approximately one million title certificates had been distributed to landowners by 2025, and the Survey Department describes the cadastral map as a primary requirement for registering title under that Act.
So ask which system the parcel sits in. If a title certificate exists, the document you are checking is different, and the map behind it was made by the state rather than commissioned by a seller.
Where to take this next
Do the paper checks yourself, they cost nothing and they catch the lot number, the date, the extent and the access. Then get the boundary confirmed on site by a licensed surveyor, and put the plan and the deed in front of a notary or an attorney together. Only they can tell you what the documents mean for your transaction; this article sets out what to look at, not what it entitles you to.
A1 handles land across Colombo, Kandy, Gampaha, Kurunegala, Matara, Galle and Nuwara Eliya, on both sides of a sale. If you want a second read of what a plan is telling you before you commit, ask us, and where the answer needs a surveyor or a notary, we will say so rather than guess.