Legal Descriptions and Metes-and-Bounds Surveys

Legal Descriptions and Metes-and-Bounds Surveys

Every real property appraisal begins with the unambiguous identification of the subject real estate. Real estate is fixed in location, indestructible, and legally distinct. To value real property, appraisers must know precisely what physical parcel of land is being appraised, where its boundaries lie, and what property rights attach to it.

The Legal Role of Real Property Descriptions

A critical distinction in professional appraisal practice exists between an informal street address and a formal legal description:

• Informal Street Address: A postal designation (e.g., 742 Evergreen Terrace) created primarily for mail delivery, emergency services routing, and municipal convenience. Street addresses are subject to change by local governing bodies, do not define property boundaries, and cannot establish the exact physical perimeter of the estate.
• Legal Description: A legally recognized written statement that identifies a specific, unique parcel of real property to the total exclusion of all other land on Earth. A legally sufficient description enables a licensed surveyor to locate the physical property boundaries on the ground without relying on outside oral evidence.

In American real estate and appraisal practice, three primary survey methods generate legal descriptions:

1. Metes and Bounds System
2. Government Rectangular Survey System (Public Land Survey System - PLSS)
3. Lot and Block System (Recorded Subdivision Plat)

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1. Metes and Bounds Survey System

The Metes and Bounds system is the oldest method of land surveying in the United States. Derived from English common law, it was the primary system used in the original Thirteen Colonies, along with Maine, Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Texas. It remains widely used across the nation today to describe irregularly shaped tracts, rural acreage, and unplatted parcels.

Core Mechanics: Metes, Bounds, and Calls

• Metes: Measures of linear distance (e.g., feet, chains, rods; historically $1\ \text{chain} = 66\ \text{feet}$ and $1\ \text{rod} = 16.5\ \text{feet}$). Modern practice uses decimal feet.
• Bounds: Directions or terminal boundaries establishing compass bearings and adjoining natural or artificial monuments.
• Calls: The individual, sequential boundary statements that define each leg of the perimeter. A complete metes and bounds description consists of an ordered series of calls running clockwise or counterclockwise around the property.

Point of Beginning (POB)

Every metes and bounds description must begin at a clearly identified, permanent, and fixed location known as the Point of Beginning (POB). If the description starts at an established government survey marker or street intersection that is not on the property boundary itself, it will include an initial commencing call that travels from that benchmark to the true POB:

"Commencing at an iron pin found at the monumented center line intersection of State Route 12 and Miller Road; thence North $89^\circ 30' 00''$ East along the centerline of Miller Road a distance of 450.00 feet to the true POINT OF BEGINNING..."

Once the POB is established, the survey proceeds through a series of boundary calls before returning to the POB.

Compass Bearings and Angles

Metes and bounds calls express direction using quadrant bearings. A circle of $360^\circ$ is divided into four $90^\circ$ quadrants: Northeast (NE), Southeast (SE), Southwest (SW), and Northwest (NW). Bearings are measured starting from the stated north-south bearing basis, which may be true, grid, magnetic, or an assumed survey basis, swinging toward either East or West:

• Each degree ($1^\circ$) contains 60 minutes ($60'$).
• Each minute ($1'$) contains 60 seconds ($60''$).
• A bearing can never exceed $90^\circ 00' 00''$.

Monuments and the Hierarchy of Boundary Calls

Monuments are fixed physical markers used by surveyors to establish boundary corners:

• Natural Monuments: Rivers, streams, trees, ledges, or crests of ridges. Natural monuments are subject to avulsion, erosion, disease, and shifting.
• Artificial Monuments: Concrete posts, iron pipes, surveyor pins with registered plastic caps, brass discs set in bedrock, or stone markers.

When legal descriptions contain conflicting or ambiguous terms, survey retracement often uses a Hierarchy of Calls, subject to the deed, original survey evidence, and jurisdictional law:

1. Natural monuments take precedence over all other evidence.
2. Artificial monuments take precedence over courses and distances.
3. Bearings (directions) take precedence over linear distances.
4. Linear distances take precedence over stated acreage.
5. Stated acreage is considered the least reliable element and serves merely as descriptive metadata rather than a boundary-defining metric.

Mathematical Closure

The foundational legal requirement of any metes and bounds description is closure. The final boundary call must return precisely to the Point of Beginning:

"...thence South $89^\circ 30' 00''$ West a distance of 250.00 feet to the POINT OF BEGINNING, containing 2.450 acres of land, more or less."

If the final call fails to meet the POB, the description suffers from a lack of closure, creating an open polygon. Failure to close is a discrepancy requiring investigation. It does not by itself determine whether a conveyance is void; a surveyor or title professional must evaluate the controlling evidence and appropriate correction.

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