1.3 Legal Descriptions and Surveys

Legal Descriptions and Surveys

A legal description identifies a parcel with enough precision that a surveyor can locate its exact boundaries. A street address is not a legal description. The three accepted national systems are metes and bounds, the rectangular (government) survey system, and the lot-and-block (recorded plat) system. Many parcels use more than one method.

Why it matters: the legal description in a deed controls what is conveyed. An error can void a conveyance or create a costly boundary dispute, so agents must never invent or shorten a description.

Metes and bounds

The oldest system. It starts at a fixed point of beginning (POB), traces directions (bounds) and distances (metes) using monuments (natural or man-made markers), and must close by returning to the POB. If it doesn't return to the POB, the description is defective.

• Metes = measured distances (e.g., "thence N 45 degrees E, 200 feet").
• Bounds = directions and boundaries (a road, a stream, an adjoining parcel).
• Monuments prevail over stated distances when the two conflict.

Metes and bounds dominates in the original 13 colonies and other states never surveyed by the federal grid.

Rectangular (government) survey system

Based on principal meridians (run north-south) and base lines (run east-west). Land is gridded into:

Ranges are columns of townships east/west of a meridian; township tiers are rows north/south of a base line.

Worked example: "The NE 1/4 of the SW 1/4 of Section 10." Read right to left, dividing 640 by each fraction's denominator:

• 640 / 4 (SW 1/4) = 160 acres
• 160 / 4 (NE 1/4) = 40 acres

Every additional fractional call divides the remaining acreage.

Lot-and-block and vertical descriptions

The lot-and-block (recorded plat) system describes a parcel by its lot number and block within a subdivision plat map recorded in the county. It is the simplest and most common system in developed/urban areas: "Lot 7, Block 3, Sunny Acres Subdivision, as recorded in Plat Book 12, Page 45."

For multi-story interests there are vertical measures: air rights, subsurface rights, and datum (a benchmark elevation, commonly mean sea level) used to describe condominium units and air lots.

Worked numeric: How many lots of 8,712 sq ft each fit in a quarter-quarter section? A quarter-quarter = 40 acres = 40 x 43,560 = 1,742,400 sq ft. 1,742,400 / 8,712 = 200 lots (before roads/setbacks). Always subtract land for streets in a real subdivision.

Correction lines, monuments, and conflict rules

Because meridians converge toward the North Pole, the government-survey grid cannot stay perfectly square. Surveyors insert correction lines (guide meridians and standard parallels, roughly every 24 miles) to reset the spacing; the leftover irregular parcels along the township's north and west edges are called government lots and rarely equal a clean 40 acres.

When calls conflict, the exam tests a strict order of priority:

1. Natural monuments (a river, a large boulder) win first.
2. Artificial monuments (an iron pin, a road) come next.
3. Courses (directions) then distances.
4. Names and finally area/acreage are lowest priority.

So "to the centerline of Mill Creek" controls even if a stated distance says 210 feet and the creek is actually 215 feet away.

Choosing a system and reading a complex call

No single system is universal. Urban subdivisions almost always use lot-and-block because the plat is already recorded and is easy to reference in deeds. Rural and agricultural land in the 30 "public-land" states uses the rectangular survey. The original colonies and unsystematic tracts use metes and bounds. A single deed may combine them, for example using metes and bounds to carve an irregular piece out of a surveyed section.

Practice the right-to-left method on a layered call: "The W 1/2 of the NE 1/4 of the SE 1/4" of a section. Start at 640 acres. SE 1/4 = 640 / 4 = 160. NE 1/4 of that = 160 / 4 = 40. W 1/2 of that = 40 / 2 = 20 acres. Each fraction divides the running total, never the original 640.

Numbers to memorize and common pitfalls

A handful of conversions appear on nearly every legal-description question:

• 1 acre = 43,560 sq ft
• 1 section = 1 sq mile = 640 acres
• 1 township = 36 sections = 36 sq miles
• 1 mile = 5,280 ft; 1 sq mile = 27,878,400 sq ft

Pitfalls to avoid: do not add the fractions (W 1/2 plus NE 1/4 is not 3/4 of a section); multiply or divide sequentially. Do not assume a section is exactly square at the township edges, where government lots adjust for the meridians' convergence. And never treat a street address or tax-parcel number as a legal description in a deed; only metes and bounds, rectangular survey, or recorded lot-and-block satisfy the requirement that a surveyor be able to locate the exact boundaries from the words alone.