1.3 Legal Descriptions and Surveys

Why Legal Descriptions Exist

A street address ("123 Main St") is not a legal description, it can change and is not precise enough to convey title. A valid deed needs a legal description that identifies one and only one parcel. Three systems are accepted nationally:

1. Metes and bounds
2. Rectangular (government) survey
3. Lot and block (recorded plat)

A description may combine methods (a metes-and-bounds call within a rectangular-survey section), but any one of the three, used correctly, legally suffices.

Metes and Bounds

This oldest method describes a boundary by distances (metes) and directions/angles (bounds), starting and finishing at the point of beginning (POB).

Key rules tested:

• The description must close by returning to the exact POB. If it does not return, the parcel is not enclosed and the description is defective.
• Monuments (a river, a stone, an iron pin) historically marked corners; where a monument conflicts with a stated distance, the monument generally controls.
• It is the preferred method for irregularly shaped parcels that do not fit a grid.

Example call: "Beginning at the iron pin at the NE corner of Lot 4; thence S 90° W 200 feet; thence S 0° E 150 feet; thence N 90° E 200 feet; thence N 0° W 150 feet to the point of beginning." That traces a 200 × 150 = 30,000 sq ft rectangle.

Rectangular (Government) Survey

Used in about 30 states, this system overlays a grid of principal meridians (north-south lines) and base lines (east-west lines).

Sections within a township are numbered 1 to 36 in a boustrophedonic (back-and-forth) pattern, beginning with Section 1 in the northeast corner and ending with Section 36 in the southeast corner.

Worked fraction problem: How many acres in the "NW¼ of the SE¼ of Section 12"? Multiply the fractions by 640: ¼ × ¼ × 640 = 40 acres. Each additional "quarter of" divides by 4, so chained fractions are simply multiplied together times 640.

Lot and Block (Recorded Plat)

The modern subdivision method. A developer records a plat map in the county; each parcel is then described as "Lot 7, Block C, Sunnyvale Subdivision, as recorded in Plat Book 12, Page 45." The recorded plat carries the detailed survey, so the deed reference can be short.

Acre conversion drill: A buyer is told a lot is 0.75 acre. Square footage = 0.75 × 43,560 = 32,670 sq ft. Reverse it: a 21,780 sq ft lot = 21,780 ÷ 43,560 = 0.5 acre. Memorize 43,560, it is the most frequently used number on the math section.

Worked Example: Chained Rectangular-Survey Fractions and Price

The survey-fraction question is a near-certain national-math item, and it is often combined with a price-per-acre calculation. Read the description from right to left, and remember the whole section is 640 acres.

• Tract: "the E½ of the NW¼ of the SW¼ of Section 20."
• Acreage = ½ × ¼ × ¼ × 640 = 640 ÷ 32 = 20 acres.
• The seller asks $7,500 per acre, so the price = 20 × $7,500 = $150,000.
• If a buyer instead wants only the N½ of that 20-acre tract, that is ½ × 20 = 10 acres, costing 10 × $7,500 = $75,000.

Work the fractions first to get acres, then apply the rate. Each additional "of a quarter" divides by four and each "half of" divides by two; multiply all the fractions, then multiply by 640.

Vertical Descriptions and Datums

Legal descriptions can also run vertically, which the exam tests through condominiums and air-rights conveyances. A datum is an established reference plane (the U.S. Geological Survey datum is mean sea level), and a benchmark is a permanent marker whose elevation relative to the datum is recorded. Surveyors describe a condominium unit, a sub-surface parking level, or sold air space by reference to elevations above and below a datum.

• A condo deed identifies the unit number on a recorded condominium plat plus its elevations, defining a three-dimensional cube of space.
• Air rights above a parcel are described by their lower and upper datum elevations and the surface footprint they sit over.

Keep the vocabulary straight: a monument marks a horizontal corner on the ground, while a benchmark marks a vertical elevation reference. The exam frequently swaps the two definitions in a distractor.

Choosing the Right System and the Role of the Survey

The exam may ask which description method fits a situation. Use lot and block for a parcel inside a recorded subdivision; use metes and bounds for an irregular or rural parcel with no platted lots; use the rectangular (government) survey in the roughly 30 public-land states where the township grid was laid out. A description that fails to close (return to the point of beginning) or that depends on a vanished monument is defective and clouds title.

A survey is the on-the-ground measurement that produces or verifies the description; a plat is the recorded map of a subdivision. When a buyer worries about an encroachment or an uncertain boundary, the correct professional is a licensed surveyor, not the agent, and the purchase contract can be made contingent on a satisfactory survey. Remember that a street address or tax-parcel number is a convenient label but never a legal description sufficient to convey title.