1.3 Legal Descriptions and Surveys

Legal Descriptions and Surveys

A street address is never a legal description. A legal description must identify a parcel so precisely that a surveyor can locate its exact boundaries. Three methods are accepted nationally:

Metes-and-bounds rule: the description must start at a well-marked point of beginning (POB) and, after tracing every course, return to that same POB. If it does not "close," the description is defective.

Rectangular (government) survey measurements

This is the most calculation-heavy exam topic. Memorize the building blocks:

• 1 acre = 43,560 square feet
• 1 section = 1 mile square = 640 acres
• 1 township = 6 miles square = 36 sections
• A township is divided into 36 sections numbered 1-36 in a back-and-forth (boustrophedonic) S pattern: Section 1 is the NE corner, numbering runs west to 6, drops down, runs east to 12, and so on, ending at Section 36 in the SE corner.

Township/range lines: Lines running east-west are township lines (measured north/south of the base line). Lines running north-south are range lines (measured east/west of the principal meridian).

Worked acreage calculation

To size a parcel from a fractional call, multiply the fractions and then multiply by 640 acres (the size of a section).

Description: "The NE 1/4 of the SW 1/4 of Section 14."

Step 1 — multiply the fractions: 1/4 x 1/4 = 1/16.

Step 2 — multiply by the section size: 1/16 x 640 = 40 acres.

Two-tract example: "The N 1/2 of the SE 1/4 (1/2 x 1/4 = 1/8 -> 80 acres) and the SW 1/4 of the SE 1/4 (1/4 x 1/4 = 1/16 -> 40 acres)." Total = 80 + 40 = 120 acres.

Tip: Read the call backwards (start with the section, then the largest fraction) to visualize the shrinking box.

Vertical descriptions

For condos, air lots, and subsurface rights, surveyors measure elevation from a datum (an established reference plane, often mean sea level) using benchmarks (permanent marked reference points). A monument is a fixed physical marker (iron pin, road, stream) used in metes-and-bounds.

Choosing and reading the right method

A question may hand you a description and ask which method it uses or what is wrong with it. Pattern-match on the cues: compass bearings and distances returning to a point of beginning signal metes-and-bounds; township/range/section language signals the rectangular survey; a lot and block referencing a recorded plat signals lot-and-block.

A second worked acreage problem

Description: "The S 1/2 of the NW 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Section 22." Read it backwards and multiply the fractions: 1/2 x 1/4 x 1/4 = 1/32. Then multiply by the section size: 1/32 x 640 = 20 acres.

Price-per-acre follow-on: If that 20-acre parcel sells for $310,000, price per acre is 310,000 / 20 = $15,500/acre. Examiners often chain a description into a math question, so be ready to convert fractions to acres and acres to dollars in one problem.

Townships, ranges, and correction lines

Because the earth curves, range lines would eventually converge, so the survey system inserts correction lines (every 24 miles) and guide meridians to keep townships close to 6 miles square. You will not compute these, but recognize the vocabulary. Within a township, government (fractional) lots account for sections that are not a full 640 acres — typically along a lake, river, or the north and west tier.

Datum, benchmarks, and the closing connection

For multi-level ownership (condos, air rights, parking decks) the surveyor measures vertical position from a datum and ties it to a benchmark. A monument — an iron pin, a road, a stream — fixes a metes-and-bounds corner on the ground. A faulty or movable monument is a classic reason a description is challenged. On test day, remember a street address is never a legal description, and a contract relying only on an address is technically defective even if courts may reform it.

One more chained description-to-value problem

Examiners frequently chain a legal description into both an acreage and a dollar question. Problem: "The NW 1/4 of the NE 1/4 of Section 8" sells for $4,200 per acre. Acres = 1/4 x 1/4 x 640 = 40 acres; value = 40 x $4,200 = $168,000. If a buyer then splits off "the N 1/2" of that 40-acre tract, the split is 1/2 x 40 = 20 acres.

Work outward systematically: convert the call to acres first, then apply the per-acre price, then handle any further fractional split. The reliable anchors are 640 acres per section and 43,560 square feet per acre; nearly every government-survey math item reduces to those two constants combined with simple fraction multiplication.