Real Estate Legal Descriptions and Measurements

Methods for Describing Real Estate

• Identify methods for describing real estate.

• Explain the process involved in identifying and measuring property rights (above and below surface).

• Key terms: air lots, baselines, benchmarks, datum, legal description, line and block method, meet and bounds method, monuments, plat map, point of beginning, principal meridians, ranges, rectangular government survey system, sections, survey tiers, township lines, township.

Legal Sufficiency

• A street address is usually not precise enough to define the perimeter of land.

• A street address doesn't indicate property size or where it begins/ends.

• For real estate transactions, property description must be legally sufficient for enforceability in sales contracts, leases, deeds, or mortgages.

Legal Description

• A legal description is a detailed way of describing land in a document accepted in a court of law.

• Based on information collected through a survey: boundaries are measured by calculating dimensions and area to determine the exact location.

• Courts state a description is legally sufficient if it allows a surveyor to locate the property, defining exact boundaries.

Basic Methods to Describe Real Estate

• Three basic methods:

  • Meet and bounds method

  • Rectangular or government survey method

  • Lot and block method

• Methods can be used independently or combined.

• Some states use one method, others use all three.

Technology and Land Description

• Technology allows for greater precision in land measurement and record keeping.

• Satellite-based geographic information systems (GIS) locate land boundaries/objects accurately.

• Computer-assisted design (CAD) programs create maps, marking a new era in land description.

• The National Geospatial Advisory Committee was created in 1994 to coordinate geographic data acquisition and access.

• The Federal Bureau of Land Management and the USDA Forest System were tasked in 1998 with developing the National Integrated Land System in cooperation with state, counties, and private industries.

Meets and Bounds Method

• The meets and bounds method is the oldest in the United States.

• It was used in the original 13 colonies and states being settled during the rectangular survey system development.

• "Meets" means to measure, and "bounds" are linear directions.

• The method relies on a property's physical features to determine boundaries and measurement.

• A meets and bounds description starts at a designated place called the point of beginning (POB), which is also where the description ends.

• From the POB, the surveyor proceeds around the property's boundaries, recording linear measurements and natural/artificial landmarks (monuments) and directions.

• The description always ends back at the POB to enclose the track.

Monuments

• Monuments are fixed objects identifying the POB, corners, or ends of boundary sections and intersecting boundaries.

• In colonial times, monuments might have been natural objects (stone, tree, lake, stream) or artificial markers (street, fence).

• Today, monuments are often iron pins or concrete posts placed by the US Army Corps of Engineers, other government departments, or surveyors.

• Measurements often include "more or less" because monument location is more important than the distance between them.

• Actual distance between monuments takes precedence over linear measurement.

• Surveyors give final meets and bounds description in terms of cardinal points and distance, including a statement to the point of beginning to ensure closure.

• Historic Meets and Bounds description example:

  • "A tract of land located in Red Skull, Boone County, Virginia described as follows: Beginning at the intersection of the east line of Jones Road and the south line of Skull Drive, then east along the south line of Skull Drive 200 feet, then south fifteen degrees, east two hundred and sixteen and a half feet more or less to the center thread of Red Skull Creek, then northwesterly along the center line of said creek to its intersection with the east line of Jones Road, then north a hundred and five feet more or less along the east line of Jones Road to the point of beginning."

Technological Advances and the Meets and Bounds Method

• Meets and bounds descriptions can be complex and difficult to understand due to detailed compass directions or complex lines.

• Natural deterioration/destruction of monuments can make boundaries hard to identify.

• Technological advances (computers, lasers, satellites, GPS) lead to resurgence in property description using points of reference in Meets and Bounds descriptions.

• A surveyor marks the starting point and walks around the property to close it up, then describes it.

Rectangular (Government) Survey System

• Established by Congress in 1785 to standardize land description acquired by the federal government.

• Divides land into rectangles, providing land description by describing the rectangle where the land was located.

• Based on two sets of intersecting lines:

  • Principal meridian: runs north and south.

  • Baseline: runs east and west.

• Both are located by reference to degrees of longitude and latitude.

• Each principal meridian has a name/number and is crossed by a baseline.

• Each principal meridian and corresponding baseline are used to survey a definite area of land indicated on a map by boundary lines.

• There are 37 principal meridians in the United States. Each describes only specific areas of land by boundaries.

• No parcel of land is described by reference to more than one principal meridian.

Tiers and Ranges

• Tiers: Lines running east and west parallel to the baseline and six miles apart are called township lines. They form strips of land called tiers.

• Tiers are designated by consecutive numbers north or south of the baseline.

• Ranges: Land on either side of a principal meridian is divided into six-mile-wide strips by lines that run north and south parallel to the principal meridian.

• North-south strips are called ranges, designated by consecutive numbers east or west of the principal meridian.

Townships

• Horizontal township lines and vertical range lines intersect, forming squares or townships.

• A township is six miles square and contains 36 square miles.

• Each township is given a legal description:

  • Designation of the tier.

  • Designation of the range.

  • Name/number of the principal meridian.

• Example: Township 3 North, Range 4 East of the Fourth Principal Meridian (abbreviated as Township 3 North Range 4 East Of The Fourth Principal Meridian).

Sections

• Each township has 36 square miles and 36 sections.

• Each section is one square mile.

• 640 acres = 1 \text{ square mile}

• Sections can be divided into halves and quarters.

• Drawing Example:

  • A section is drawn.

  • A section equals 640 acres which equals one square mile.

  • If the section is divided in half, each is 320 acres.

  • If the section is quartered, each quarter is 160 acres.

  • If Southwest quarter is quartered, each quarter is 40 acres.

• Cardinal Directions:

  • Top = North

  • Bottom = South

  • Left = West

  • Right = East

• Orientation:

  • Top Left = Northwest Section

  • Top Right = Northeast Section

  • Bottom Left = Southwest Section

  • Bottom Right = Southeast Section

• Descriptions:

  • The Southeast quarter of the Southeast quarter of the Southwest quarter means that it's divided into 10 acre spots.
    *Process of working out sections:

  • Draw a big square, mark North, South, West and East

  • This is one section within a township and equals 640 acres

  • Draw a horizonal line - now there are two sections and each one is 320 acres

  • Draw a veritcal line - now divide thesection into four sections. Each one is 160 acres

  • Section at Top Left is Northwest, Bottom Left is Southwest, Top Right is Northeast Corner, Bottom Right is Southeast Section.

  • The process of reading from these various sections will go from right to left.

Additional Details

• Townships are subdivided into sections/subsections (halves and quarters).

• Each township contains 36 sections. Each section is one square mile or 640 acres with 43,560 square feet in each acre.

• Sections are numbered 1-36. Section number one is always in the northeast corner and goes left like a lawnmower.

• Section 16 was set aside for school purposes and is commonly called the school section.

• Sections are divided in half (320 acres) and quarters (160 acres) divided into halves and quarters.

• The Southeast quarter of a section (160 acre tract) is abbreviated as Southeast quarter.

Math Shortcut for Calculations of Acres

• Multiply all denominators, then divide that number into 640.

• \text{Example: Southeast quarter, Southeast quarter, Southeast quarter of section one}

  • 4 \times 4 \times 4 = 64

  • 640 / 64 = 10 \text{ acre tract.}

Reading the Rectangular Survey Description

• Start at the end and work backward (right to left).

• Example: the south half of the Northwest quarter of the Southeast quarter of Section 11.

• To locate, rain Township 3 North, 8 North, Ring 6 West Of The Fourth Prince Meridian.

• Detailed Process:

  • Search for Fourth Prince Meridian on a map.

  • Find township using regional map.

  • Locate Section 11.

  • Divide the section into quarters.

  • Divide the Southeast quarter into quarters.

  • Divide the Northwest quarter of that into half.
    So to work out how many acres, 2 times 4 = 8 and 8 divided by 640 = 80 acres

Legal Descriptions

• Legal descriptions should always include the name of the county and the state where the land is located.

• A person should copy and paste the disc into any contract, in order to keep the legal format.

Lot and Block Method

Third type of legal description.

• This system uses lot and block numbers referred to on a plat map that's found in the public records of the county where the land is located.

• The plat map is a map of the town, a section, or subdivision indicating the location and the boundaries of individual properties.

• The Lot and Block method is most commonly used in subdivision and urban areas. *Plat maps:

  • These show sub divisions, and maps of each lot, with house locations to be drawn on.

Process the Survey

Survey is Performed in two steps:
* Large parcel of land described by meets and bounds or by the rectangular survey.
*Then, it is broken into smaller parcels into a lot and block.
*Result: A lot and block description always refers to a prior meets and bounds or rectangular survey description.
*For each parcel, the lot refers to the numerical designation of any particular parcel. In comparison, the block refers to the name of that subdivision under which the map is recorded.
*Started the Block reference from the early nineteen hundreds when a city block was the most common type of subdivided property.
Line and block System:
*Starting with the preparation of a subdivision plat by a licensed surveyor.
*The plat, the land is divided by numbered/lettered lots, blocks, streets, and access roads for public use are indicated.
*Land size and street details need to be described completely and comply with all local rules and requirements.
*Sign and approved, the subdivision plat is recorded in the county where the land is located.
*When describing land from a recorded subdivision plat, three identifiers are used

Example

Lot 71 that the house sits on: Happy Valley is Estate 2, the lot here, Located in a portion of the Southeast Corner which is Section 20 3, Township 7 North, Range 4, East of the store, Crystal Meridian.

Measuring Property Rights

*Surface Rights must be identified, surveyed, and described.
*Land includes space above ground.
*Parcels and Airspace can be measured at any level.

Subsurface Rights

Space below the ground also has measurements. i.e.: measuring elevation is very important, where 50 ft above ground is much different than 50 ft below ground level

Additional Measurements:
*Measurements must be correctly worded in the contracts. These descriptions should be copied without changing them.
*Legal descriptions should be altered/ combined with any additional information from the surveyor.
*They do this using two documents:
* Survey: states' property legal description.
* Survey sketch: Shows the location and the dimesntions of the parcel
Spot Survey:
When a survey also shows location, size, and shape of building the lot

Legal descriptions should be copied with extreme care, they damage is suffered from incorrect description from if a building needs to be move, etc.

Measuring Elevations:

Legal descriptions should be copied with extreme care This is important since an incorrectly worded legal description in a sales contract may result in the conveyance of more or less land than the parties intended. This could be the case of buildings, properties, and a risk for commision damages because the person is hurt from something worded improperly

Air Lot:

In the same way the land is measured/ divided. When they are subdividing the land to air slots. Laws passed in all states means there must be surveyors that show the elevation of the floor and ceiling, as well as teh vertical boundries to an official datum.
i.e: unit floors can up to 50 ft above the datum, and the seieling to 69 ft above. THERE needs to be seperate plat maps for every floor in that condominium buliding.
i.e legla description of the condominium:
Unit 20 on Level 4. Okay. North 99 feet of the west half of Block 4, in Sutton Division Number 5 in the east half of the Southeast Quarter of Section 24, Township 3 South Range 68 West Of The Sixth Prince Moridian, Denver County, Colorado.

Subsurface Rights:

can be legally decribed in the same way as airg rights, by measuring belowe the datum

Datum and Landmarks Definitions:

Datum: a point, line, and surface of the elevations being measured
Monuments: tradition used to mark surface between the points, i.e: marker set in concrete, a steek reinformcing bar, metal pipes
Benchmarks: are monuments that have been estbalished as a permnanent reference point thorughout of the US
Land unit Measurement:
Mile: is importnat to highlight and be noticed
Square Miles: is important to hightlight and be notices also
Acre: is the final one to notice
Important notes;:
1 sq mile = 640 acres, one acre = 43, 560 swaure feet