(a) Whenever a land surveyor performs a survey that results in a new legal description or creates a new tract of land, a survey plat shall be recorded with the register of deeds in the county where the survey was located within 90 days after completion of the survey. The survey plat shall be certified with the seal and signature of a land surveyor. The land surveyor who signed and sealed the survey plat shall be responsible for recording the survey.

(b) Except for subdivision plats, the board of county commissioners may, by resolution, designate an alternative county office for the filing of survey plats for archival purposes. If a county office other than the register of deeds is designated for the filing of survey plats, then that office shall maintain an index of all surveys by section, township and range, and surveys of platted lots shall be indexed by subdivision. The cost of filing the survey plat at the alternate county office shall not exceed the cost of recording the same or similar documents at the register of deeds.