North Dakota Code § 57-02-39

Irregularities of land to be platted into lots if required
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If any tract or lot of land is divided into irregular shapes which can be described only by 
metes and bounds, or if any addition or subdivision which already has been platted into blocks 
and lots and subsequently sold into parts of blocks or lots which can be described only by metes 
and bounds, or if the courses, distances, and sizes of each lot or fractional lot are not given or 
marked upon the plat so that the precise location of each lot and fractional lot can be 
ascertained accurately, surveyed, or laid out, the owner of such tract or tracts, upon the request 
of the county auditor, shall have such land platted or replatted, as the case may be, into lots or 
blocks according to deeds on record. If such plat cannot be made without an actual survey of 
the land, the same must be surveyed and platted and the plat thereof recorded. If the owners of 
any such tract refuse or neglect to cause such plat and survey, when necessary, to be made 
and recorded within thirty days after such request, the county surveyor, or some other 

competent surveyor, upon the request of the county auditor, shall make out such plat from the 
records of the recorder if practicable, but if it cannot be made from such records, then the 
surveyor shall make the necessary survey and plat thereof, and the county auditor shall have 
the same recorded, but no such plat may be recorded until approved by the city engineer of the 
city affected thereby, and if there is no city engineer, then by the county surveyor. A certificate of 
the approval of such plat must be made by the officer making the same endorsed on the plat or 
map. Such certificate also must be recorded and forms a part of the record. When such plat has 
been duly certified and recorded, any description of the property in accordance with the number 
and description set forth in such plat must be deemed a good and valid description of the lots or 
parcels of land so described. No such plat or description may bear the name or number which 
already has been applied to any plat or description previously made and recorded as a part of 
any such city. When the owner of such land fails to comply with the provisions of this section, 
the cost of surveying, platting, and recording must be paid by the county, upon allowance by the 
board of county commissioners, and the amount thereof must be added to the taxes upon such 
tracts or lots the ensuing year. Such taxes, when collected, must be credited to the county 
general fund. The surveyor making such survey or plat is entitled to receive for services in 
making the same the compensation allowed by law for doing other county surveying or platting, 
and such fees become a legal charge upon such tracts of land.

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