1.3 Legal Descriptions and Surveys

Legal Descriptions and Surveys

A legal description identifies a parcel so precisely that only one piece of land on earth fits it. Street addresses are never sufficient on a deed. Three methods are accepted nationally.

1. Metes and Bounds

The oldest method; metes are distances and bounds are directions. It begins at a point of beginning (POB), traces each course (e.g., "N 45 degrees E, 200 feet to an iron pin"), and must return to the POB. A description that fails to close back to the POB is defective. Monuments (an oak tree, an iron pin) and bearings define the courses.

2. Rectangular (Government) Survey

Also called the PLSS, it uses principal meridians (north-south) and base lines (east-west). Their intersections create a grid of townships.

Sections are numbered 1-36 starting in the NE corner, snaking west then east row by row.

3. Lot and Block (Recorded Plat)

Used in subdivisions: "Lot 12, Block 4, of Sunnydale Subdivision, as recorded in Plat Book 9, Page 22." It references a recorded plat map and is the most common urban method.

Acreage Math - Worked Problems

There are 640 acres per section and 43,560 sq ft per acre. Read fractions from right to left and multiply.

Problem 1: How many acres in the "NW 1/4 of the SE 1/4" of a section?

• 1/4 x 1/4 = 1/16 of a section.
• 640 acres x 1/16 = 40 acres.

Problem 2: How many acres in the "S 1/2 of the NE 1/4 of the SW 1/4"?

• 1/2 x 1/4 x 1/4 = 1/32.
• 640 / 32 = 20 acres.

Problem 3: A buyer pays $3,500 per acre for the "E 1/2 of the NW 1/4" of a section.

• 1/2 x 1/4 = 1/8; 640 / 8 = 80 acres.
• 80 x $3,500 = $280,000.

Elevation: Datums, Benchmarks, Monuments

• A datum is a defined point of elevation (the U.S. Geological Survey datum is mean sea level) used to describe air lots for condominiums and subsurface rights.
• A benchmark is a permanent reference marker (often a brass disk) tied to a datum.
• A monument is a fixed object (natural or man-made) marking a metes-and-bounds corner.

Trap: a street address or tax-assessor parcel number is not a legal description, even though both are commonly used informally. Only the three formal methods - or a metes-and-bounds, plat, or PLSS reference - belong on the deed.

Reading the PLSS Grid and More Acreage Math

The rectangular survey trips candidates because it nests units. Anchor on three numbers: a township is 36 square miles and holds 36 sections; a section is 640 acres; and there are 43,560 square feet per acre. Everything else is fractions.

Townships, Ranges, and Correction Lines

Township lines run east-west and are measured north or south of a base line; range lines run north-south and are measured east or west of a principal meridian. A township is named by both — e.g., "T2N, R3W" is the township two tiers north of the base line and three tiers west of the meridian. Because the meridians converge toward the poles, surveyors insert correction lines and guide meridians every few townships so the grid stays close to six miles on a side. Within a section, the NW, NE, SW, SE quarters each hold 160 acres; halves hold 320.

More Worked Acreage Problems

Problem 4: A parcel is the "NE 1/4 of the NW 1/4 of the SW 1/4" of a section. How many acres?

• 1/4 x 1/4 x 1/4 = 1/64.
• 640 / 64 = 10 acres.

Problem 5: A rectangular lot is 150 ft by 290.4 ft. How many acres?

• 150 x 290.4 = 43,560 sq ft.
• 43,560 / 43,560 = 1.0 acre exactly.

Problem 6: A developer buys the "W 1/2 of the SE 1/4" (80 acres) at $6,000/acre and splits it into half-acre lots. Cost per lot of raw land?

• 80 acres x $6,000 = $480,000 total.
• 80 / 0.5 = 160 lots; $480,000 / 160 = $3,000 per lot.

Choosing the Right Method

Trap: Reading the fractions left to right inflates the answer. Always multiply right-to-left and convert to acres last — the most common wrong answer doubles or halves the correct acreage because the test-taker dropped one quarter.

Air Lots, Condos, and California Subdivision Maps

Vertical (air) descriptions matter for condominiums and high-rises. A condominium unit is legally described as an air lot — a defined cube of space bounded by elevations measured from a datum, referenced to a recorded condominium plan. The common areas are owned as tenants in common.

In California, dividing land into five or more parcels triggers the Subdivision Map Act (local map approval) and, for the consumer-protection side, the Subdivided Lands Law (Business and Professions Code 11000 et seq.), under which the DRE issues a public report that must be given to buyers before a sale closes. A salesperson selling new subdivision lots must deliver that public report — a frequently tested California overlay on the national legal-description material.

A Worked Combined Description Problem

A developer buys the "N 1/2 of the NE 1/4" (80 acres) and the adjoining "NW 1/4 of the NE 1/4" (40 acres) of the same section. Total = 80 + 40 = 120 acres. At $9,500/acre the raw land costs 120 x $9,500 = $1,140,000. If the developer maps it into half-acre lots, that yields 120 / 0.5 = 240 lots. Combining adjacent legally described parcels under one owner is assemblage; any resulting value uplift is plottage (see Chapter 3).

Trap: A condominium is described by an air lot referenced to a recorded condo plan and a datum, not by metes and bounds of the ground. A question that tries to describe a 14th-floor unit purely by surface bounds is wrong.