A title insurance policy would be meaningless if you didn’t know what property it insures. It is important in land development to understand the role of legal descriptions and the different kinds that are commonly used.The legal description provides accuracy and consistency over time, serves to prevent boundary disputes and problems with chain of title, and facilitates the transfer of ownership. The first step in creating a legal description is a survey conducted by a licensed surveyor. A legal description is the finished, stamped and recorded product. The acid test of a valid legal description is that a licensed surveyor can locate and identify the parcel using only the legal description. Title companies and the courts will not recognize documents that reference informal property descriptions like common street addresses. Legal descriptions in real estate contracts: Therefore, formal legal descriptions are necessary for a valid contract, conveying title, or recording any instrument for real property. Since a formal legal description is required for a valid contract, it must be accurate. Most Purchase and Sale Agreements contain a fill-in section where the common street address of a property is inserted. Looking more closely, there will also be a fill-in section where the necessary formal legal description is inserted. Legal Description – “Attached hereto as Exhibit A.” Types of Legal descriptions: Sometimes formal legal descriptions can be quite lengthy, so they might be attached as an exhibit on the Purchase and Sale Agreement. If you are in real estate for any amount of time you will need to be familiar with all forms of legal descriptions created from the survey. The survey will be conducted on site to measure boundaries, lot lines, distances and the area of a property. They can also identify encroachments of a neighbor and/or identify easements. This is a very common form of legal description used for a formal plat subdivision. First, the perimeter of the plat is identified and then the land within the plat is segmented into blocks and lots by the surveyor. The civil engineer submits the blocks and lots in the plat application with the county. Lot 2, Block 3, Addison Addition, Fictional County, North Dakota Metes and Bounds legal description: Example of a Lot & Block legal description: When the plat is approved and recorded the blocks and lots become part of the legal description, and are so referenced. Metes is a reference to distance and direction – Bounds references landmarks or monuments. This type of legal description is usually the longest since you start at a “point of beginning, then follow direction, angles and distance to monuments or landmarks, and then return to the point of beginning for closure. The rule in Metes and Bounds is that the property must be fully enclosed, i.e. You must return to the point of beginning. Rectangular Survey (Government Survey) legal description: Example of a Metes and Bounds legal description:īeginning at the Northeast corner of the Southwest Quarter of the Southwest Quarter of Section 36, Township 26, Range 16, Fictional County, Kansas thence East along the North line of said Southwest Quarter, a distance of 158.5 feet. Rectangular surveys go way back to the year 1785, but you still commonly see them. They are also known as government surveys since they were originally created as a standard way of describing lands to be acquired by the Federal Government during the westward migration. Rectangular surveys are based on principal meridians and base lines. Principal meridians run north and south, base lines run east and west. The principal meridians and base lines are used to establish and define ranges and townships within. If you have read my post “The Difference Between Real Estate and Real Property” Air Lots - don’t forget about measuring elevation: The W1/2 of the SW1/4 of Section 22, Township 14 South, Range 6, East of the 4th.
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