Understanding the different types of deeds can help you make good decisions when it comes to buying property or understanding the legality of inheritance. All legal documents relating to the property and the real estate transaction must have exactly the same legal description. If discrepancies are found, it is a wake-up call for further investigation. For example, each community is six square miles, or 23,040 acres, and contains 36 square sections, each said to be one square mile (or 640 acres). Legal descriptions always state the county and state in which the property is located. There are 3 independent methods that can be used to determine the exact location and boundaries of a property: If a property is in a subdivision, the legal description can be very simple. It usually refers to one or more lots, the block (or blocks) on which the lots are located, in the name of the subdivision, the county and the state. The street is essentially the mailing address of the property, which includes the number and name of the house, city or village, state, and zip code. It is important to remember that the legal description is the only one that is legally sufficient to transfer the property described.
There will be a flat map showing the location and number of each batch. The county may have separate books of dishes that list subdivisions. Legal descriptions can be created using two reference systems: In this blog, we`ll talk about everything you need to know, including the legal description of real estate. A reporter allows you to draw your own legal description of the property, so the title finders had to extract the Metes and Bounds descriptions from the courthouse and the fellow`s book entries. The title search used this method to determine whether a document affected the property sought in the public record. Today, most of this is done by computer. A valid legal description should define a fully fenced property, i.e. the described dividing lines should meet at one point. It is usually prepared by a surveyor or other qualified professional. Real estate is defined as any property attached or attached to the property. The land itself also falls under this classification. The purpose of a legal description of real estate is to provide a means of identifying a property so that it can be fully identified on the basis of the legal description provided.
This often means using strict identifiers that don`t change over time. Your address is also far from a legal description, as it is unreliable and subject to change. As one of the most important pieces of information involved in real estate transactions, legal descriptions are important to understand before buying a property. You may be wondering why you need such a detailed description of a property and why you should hire someone to prepare it. Well, the short answer is: Because that`s the only way to provide a unique identifier for your property. A correction line is every 4. Community line – a distance of 24 miles – and the guide meridians that run from north to south at intervals of 24 miles from the main meridian and are exactly parallel to the main meridian, so that the difference in the area bounded by the correction lines and guide meridians – known as the government test – can be compared to the actual area bounded by the regular meridians. so that the difference can be compensated by reducing the size of the townships north and west of a quadrant. In this article, we will explain what a legal description is, why it is so important, when and how to use it. You want to make sure that you are the undisputed owner of the property you are buying.
And you may want to be able to transfer title without legal problems and claims from other people. For this reason, when you get to the point of signing a real estate contract, make sure you find the legal description of the property in the seller`s documents. Some legal descriptions are very simple and involve a lot and block in the name of a subdivision, but even these peculiarities can be wrong when checked by surveying equipment. If the legal description was copied and pasted from an outdated survey, it`s worth hiring a surveyor who can update this information for you. Although relatively rare, a real estate document may contain an inaccurate legal description due to outdated surveying methods. Surveys have become a much more accurate science with GPS, drones, and planned community development. Descriptions of Métis and markers were used in the original 13 settlements before the rectangular survey system was developed. A description of bounds and boundaries uses boundary lengths and angles that begin at the starting point (POB). A mete is a dividing line and the boundaries are the area surrounded by the metes – hence the name.
Starting with the POB, it describes the length of each boundary and the angle it forms with the previous boundary. This continues to the end point (POE), which is identical to the starting point, because all properties must have closed boundaries. In most states, property descriptions often include a reference to a community. This goes back to a survey plan drawn up by the federal government in 1785. Fractions larger or smaller than 1 square mile also occur for reasons other than the fact that the meridians are not exactly parallel, which often occurs because the rectangular survey was done by separate teams working independently, resulting in deviations of less than 6 miles between the different areas studied. Fractions can also be caused by physical difficulties when surveying the land, such as because part of it has been submerged in water or because a municipal boundary has been delineated by a state boundary. Areas smaller than the full quarter section of 160 hectares are said to be without government. The type of legal description you will find on a real estate document depends on factors such as the method of measurement, location, and type of property.
Each survey and block is part of a larger flat map that has a permanent reference monument or checkpoint. Correcting errors in the legal description can delay a property`s closure and cost additional time and money, but ignoring it can jeopardize an owner`s claim to the land. The legal description of the lot and block is the easiest to read for the average citizen. It is often used in planned land divisions and includes: Hi Jennifer, this 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. When you start describing a legal description, always start with the starting point. Another common acronym is PIQ (“property in question”). Any property you talk about or instruct becomes the property in question. Sometimes the legal description is attached to the document. If this is the case, the text of the document usually refers to the attached legal description. For example, the body of the document might refer to the property as “. the lands described in Schedule A.” Appendix A is appended to the document and contains the legal description.
Legal descriptions are essential to the process of buying land, so it`s just as important to know how to read the legal description of a property. When creating a legal description, you must use the exact legal description that was on the last deed of ownership. Each square mile is a section of 640 acres. Hi Raymond, you should always talk to a lawyer about legal documents, but I generally think it`s a good idea to copy a legal description as accurately as possible. The land surveyor must find three of the certified corners of the section – which are one kilometre apart – and travel there with his equipment according to the instructions in the legal description.
