Reading Legal Land Descriptions

Hi Jennifer, that sounds like a mess! In complicated situations like this, you should contact a title company and/or land use attorney to check what the correct legal description is and where the correct property boundaries are. Ultimately, you own what is in the legal description of your deed. To transfer ownership of immovable property, the deed must contain a clear legal description of the property that identifies it. In order to have a valid mortgage on a property, the mortgage must also contain this legal description. One of the most critical (and confusing) pieces of information that go into a land deal is the legal description. Quick question about legal property descriptions in TN. If you put the legal description of the title on a title policy or warranty deed, does the legal description have to exactly match the capital letters, punctuation, abbreviation and symbol? For example, instead of R-O-W for right of way, is ROW acceptable? Is it appropriate to use the «No» designation in lot descriptions? (Lots 7 and 8 vs Lots 7 and 8) I know it`s a stupid question, but it`s a discussion we`re having. Fraction: This type of legal description describes a property by dividing it into sections. For most states — Texas is an exception — the public land survey system or township system is used to organize and describe land.

Property descriptions may appear to be written in a foreign language. Understanding how plots are identified helps to read specific land definitions. Most land in the United States was subject to the Public Land Survey System (PPLS), which was launched in 1787. This survey «divided» the land and divided the parcels into squares of 640 hectares called sections. Most descriptions are linked to sections and defined in aliquot parts. Because the land is round, some sections are less than the typical 640 acres. Government lot descriptions are used in these sections. Lands incorporated within city limits use blocks and land descriptions.

Look for the section of the document that says «described as.» In this section of the document, the country described refers to a specific part of a section. An example is «Northeast Southeast (NESE)». Letter abbreviations are used for clarity in definitions, where N stands for north, S for south, E for east, and W for west. These parts of sections are called aliquot parts. The sections are also used in land descriptions in the northwestern part of Georgia that was once part of the Cherokee Nation territory. However, they are not part of the PLSS and are irregular in shape and size. See Cherokee County, Georgia for more information on historical reasons. If you have an outdated survey, you may have an outdated legal description. A surveyor can describe the land by dividing the sections into fractions, usually starting with quarter sections. The Public Land Survey System was not the first to define and implement a survey grid. A number of similar systems have been established, often with terms such as section and church, but not necessarily in the same way.

For example, the Holland Purchase lands in western New York State were surveyed in a township grid prior to the creation of the PLSS. In colonial New England, land was often divided into squares called cities or townships, and then divided into parcels called lots or sections. [2] Block and lot descriptions are different from civic addresses. Block and lot descriptions differ from status lot descriptions. The title officer and surveyor will detect any legal description issues and clear the cloud on the title prior to closing. Once established, even an imperfect grid remains in place, mainly because the monuments of the original survey, once restored, have a precedent against subsequent surveys. [3] If that`s wrong, then you`re not really legally the owner of what you think you`re doing. For this reason, 40 acres is a common size of land for land in the United States – a strip of land has 16 blocks of 40 acres of land. If you are trying to describe your country in section terms, you can do so by taking the section number (e.g. section #20) and adding it to the beginning of the municipality as section 20, municipality 2 south, zone 2 east (S20, T2S-R2E). OR: It can describe a piece of land by dividing the section into fractions.

It uses landmarks and distances to measure the perimeter of the property described in the legal description and is based on the physical characteristics of its geography as well as directions and distances. When you start reading legal descriptions, you will notice that there are different types of legal descriptions. Note: Some legal descriptions are VERY complicated and require an experienced eye to fully «decipher» the information. This article won`t make you an expert overnight, but I think you`ll see how useful it is to have an introduction that clarifies a rather confusing topic.