Unit Five: Land Description Notes

Legal descriptions are critical for defining property rights and must be handled with care.
Alterations or combinations of legal descriptions require adequate information from a surveyor or title attorney.

A licensed surveyor is trained and authorized to determine the legal description of any parcel of land.
Key documents prepared by a surveyor:
- Survey: This document states the property's legal description.
- Survey Sketch: This visual document shows the location and dimensions of the parcel.
A survey that shows the location, size, and shape of buildings on the lot is referred to as a spot survey.

Legal descriptions must be copied with extreme precision as inaccuracies may result in unintended conveyance of land.
Consequences of inaccuracy include:
- Potential damages associated with moving buildings and improvements.
- Title problems for buyers seeking to convey property in the future.
- Risk of losing commissions for real estate professionals due to improperly worded legal descriptions.
Attention to detail: Even punctuation in legal descriptions is critical.

Different surveys may have varying liabilities and warranties of accuracy.
An Improvement Location Certificate (ILC):
- May suffice for some purposes but is not a full survey.
- Prepared more quickly and at lower costs.
- Provides location of structures, improvements, easements, and encroachments relative to property boundaries.

Just like surface rights, rights to the air above a property must also be described.
Air Lots:
- Subdivision of airspace above land into specific parcels.
- Affected by condominium laws which require a registered land surveyor to prepare plat maps indicating:
- Elevations of floor and ceiling surfaces.
- Vertical boundaries of each unit with reference to an official datum.
Example of Legal Description in a Condo Context:
- "Unit blank, level blank, as delineated on survey of the following described parcel of real estate…"
- Includes specific descriptions of land measurements relevant to condominium developments.

Subsurface rights:
- Legally described similarly to air rights, but measured below a datum.
- Used for activities such as coal mining, petroleum drilling, and utility line location.
- Relevant for multi-story condominiums below ground level.

Datum:
- Defined as a point, line, or surface for measuring or indicating elevations.
For official measurements, the mean sea level at New York Harbor is used as a standard datum by USGS, but local datums are often adopted by cities.
Surveyors employ datums to determine structure heights and establish street grades.

Monuments:
- Serve as traditional markers for surface measurements such as concrete markers, metal pipes, or wooden stakes.
- Susceptible to environmental factors and vandalism, leading to potential inaccuracies.
Benchmarks:
- Permanent reference points noted by surveyors, primarily for marking datums.
- Typically consist of embossed brass markers set into solid bases (concrete/asphalt).

Basic Units:
Mile:
- 5,280 feet = 1,760 yards = 320 rods.
Furlong:
- 220 yards = 660 feet = 40 rods = 10 chains.
Chain:
- 66 feet = 4 rods = 100 links.
Rod:
- 16.5 feet = 5.5 yards.
Square Measurements:
- 1 square mile = 640 acres (calculated as $(5280 imes 5280) ext{ divided by } 43560$ ).
- 1 acre = 43,560 square feet.
- 1 cubic yard = 27 cubic feet ( $3 imes 3 imes 3 = 27$ ).
- 1 square yard = 9 square feet ( $3 imes 3 = 9$ ).
- 1 square foot = 144 square inches ( $12 imes 12 = 144$ ).

Understanding various land units is crucial in creating accurate legal descriptions.
Historical measurements of rods and chains have lesser importance today; however, critical ones to remember include:
- 1 mile = 5,280 feet
- 1 square mile = 640 acres
- 1 acre = 43,560 square feet.

Calculating costs for land requires consistency in measurement units.
Cost calculations must consider the units in which the price is given (e.g., dollars per square foot vs. dollars per acre).
Example Calculation for Cost of Land:
- For 3 acres at $1.10 per square foot:
- Convert acreage to square feet:
  $43,560 ext{ sq ft/acre } imes 3 ext{ acres } = 130,680 ext{ sq ft}$
- Multiply by cost per square foot:
  $130,680 ext{ sq ft} imes 1.10 ext{ /sq ft } = 143,748$
- For 17,500 sq ft at $60,000 per acre:
- Convert cost per acre to cost per square foot:
  $60,000 ext{ /acre } ext{ divided by } 43,560 ext{ sq ft/acre } = 1.38 ext{ /sq ft}$
- Multiply by number of square feet:
  $17,500 ext{ sq ft} imes 1.38 ext{ /sq ft} = 24,150$ .