§ 17. Penalty for sales before plat approval.

Any owner, or agent of any owner of land located within the territory of a subdivision that is subject to the approval of a planning commission or governing body of a municipality who transfers, sells, agrees to sell, or negotiates to sell any land by reference to or exhibition of a plat of subdivision, or by any other use thereof, before such plat has been approved by the planning commission and governing body and recorded as approved in the office of the appropriate register of deeds, shall forfeit and pay a penalty of one hundred dollars for each lot or parcel transferred or sold or agree or negotiated to be sold. The description of such lot or parcel by metes and bounds in the instrument of transfer or other document used in the process of selling or transferring shall not exempt the transaction from such penalties or from the remedies provided in this section. The municipality may enjoin such transfer, sale, or agreement by an action for injunction, or it may recover the penalty by a civil action.