Table of Contents
What is considered a legal description of property?
A legal description is the geographical description of real estate that identifies its precise location, boundaries and any easements for the purpose of a legal transaction, such as a transfer of ownership. A legal description is kept with the deed and filed with the county clerk or county tax assessor.
What are the three most common types of legal descriptions?
Three types of land descriptions are used in the United States: (1) government rectangular survey description, (2) platted descriptions, and (3) metes and bounds descriptions.
What is a legal lot description?
A legal description is a description of real property by a government survey, a metes and bounds survey, or by lot numbers of a recorded plat. The description must be complete enough that a parcel of land can be located and identified based on what is written.
Which method of legal land description utilizes latitude and longitude?
The rectangular survey system specifies locations by using a rectangular coordinate system — hence, the name — that consists of principal meridians that run north and south and identifiable by longitude, and base lines that run east and west, identifiable by latitude.
What is the most accurate legal description?
Metes-and-bounds, Government survey system, And lot and block description. Most accurate method to describe both regular, and irregular shaped parcels. based on distances (metes) ,and directions, (bounds) metes and, bounds descriptions begin, and end with starting point called the point of beginning POB.
How do I write a legal land description?
Legal land descriptions are written as in the following example: SW 24-38-20-W5 – southwest quarter of section 24, township 38, range 20, west of the 5th Meridian.
Is a survey a legal description?
A legal description can take different forms including reference to a government survey, metes and bounds, or a lot and block of a subdivision.
How does a legal description of a property work?
A legal description of property is a way to define or accurately pinpoint where a particular piece of property is located. A street address also identifies a physical location but not in the same way that a legal description defines it.
How to describe the size of a parcel of land?
If we were to designate a particular parcel of property that’s been evenly divided, one might refer to an area encompassing 20 acres as the south half of the southwest fourth of the southeast fourth of Section 32, T1N. This would be a very easy parcel of land to find on a map.
How many acres are in a legal description?
Land is divided into sections, and each section is 640 acres. The legal description pinpoints the location of the subject property within its particular Township, Range, and Section, which might also involve degrees and distance.
Can a street address be a legal description?
A street address also identifies a physical location but not in the same way that a legal description defines it. In fact, they sometimes don’t even match. Some legal descriptions are very simple and involve a lot and a block within a subdivision name, but even these specifics can be wrong when verified by surveying equipment.