1.3 Legal Descriptions and Surveys

Three Methods of Legal Description

A street address is not a legal description. The three legally sufficient methods are:

Metes and Bounds

A metes-and-bounds description traces the perimeter using monuments, directions, and distances. Two rules dominate the exam:

1. It must begin and end at the Point of Beginning (POB) — the description must close. If it does not return to the POB, the parcel is not fully enclosed and the description is defective.
2. Monuments (a fixed iron pin, a named oak tree, a river) control over distances if they conflict, because a physical monument is harder to fake than a written measurement.

Rectangular (Government) Survey System

The rectangular survey uses principal meridians (north-south lines) and base lines (east-west lines). The grid creates these standard units:

Sections within a township are numbered 1 to 36 in a boustrophedonic (serpentine) pattern: Section 1 is the NE corner, numbering runs west to Section 6, drops down and runs east, snaking back and forth, ending at Section 36 in the SE corner.

Acreage math from fractional descriptions

When a parcel is described as fractions of a section, multiply the fractions and apply them to 640 acres. Read the description right to left.

Worked example: "The NW 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Section 14."

• Multiply the fractions: 1/4 x 1/4 = 1/16.
• Apply to a section: 1/16 x 640 = 40 acres.

Second example: "The S 1/2 of the NE 1/4 of the NW 1/4."

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

Square-footage check: A 40-acre parcel = 40 x 43,560 = 1,742,400 sq ft. If asked for the price per acre on a $360,000 sale of that 40-acre tract: $360,000 / 40 = $9,000 per acre.

Datum, Benchmark, and Air Lots

Elevation matters for condominiums, multistory air rights, and subsurface parcels. A datum is an established reference point of elevation (the national geodetic datum is mean sea level). A benchmark is a permanent marked reference monument used by surveyors to measure elevations relative to the datum. Air lots and condominium units are described as volumes of space measured above a datum, with upper and lower elevation limits, plus a horizontal lot-and-block reference.

Trap: A condominium unit deed describes a cube of air (defined by elevations and the plat), not a slice of ground.

More acreage and price math

Fractional-section problems reward a fixed routine: multiply every fraction, multiply by 640, then carry the result into a price or per-acre question.

Compound example: "The N 1/2 of the NW 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Section 22."

• Multiply the fractions: 1/2 x 1/4 x 1/4 = 1/32.
• Acres: 1/32 x 640 = 20 acres.
• If this 20-acre tract sells for $250,000, price per acre = $250,000 / 20 = $12,500/acre.

Two-parcel example: A description reads "the SW 1/4 of Section 3 AND the NE 1/4 of the NW 1/4 of the same section."

• First tract: 1/4 x 640 = 160 acres.
• Second tract: 1/4 x 1/4 x 640 = 40 acres.
• Combined: 160 + 40 = 200 acres. At $3,000/acre the value is 200 x $3,000 = $600,000.

Square-foot bridge: To price a small lot per square foot from an acreage figure, convert with 43,560. A 0.5-acre lot is 0.5 x 43,560 = 21,780 sq ft; at $8 per sq ft it is worth 21,780 x $8 = $174,240.

Reading and locating a section

The township-and-range grid lets you locate any section. A township is identified by its position relative to a principal meridian (Range, east or west) and a base line (Township, north or south) — for example, "T2N, R3W" means the second tier of townships north of the base line and the third column west of the meridian. Within that 6-by-6 township, sections are numbered 1–36 in the serpentine pattern, with Section 16 historically reserved for public-school funding.

Choosing the right description method

Trap: A description that combines methods is valid; many recorded plats still reference an original metes-and-bounds perimeter for the whole subdivision, then assign lot-and-block numbers to the parcels inside it.