Closing on a house can be stressful. Not only are you buying arguably the most expensive thing you’ll ever buy in your life, but there are also a lot of moving parts in the closing process—inspections, appraisals, mortgage applications, and mountains of dense paperwork.
One of these important documents is the legal description of property, or legal description of real estate. This legal description sets out exactly where your property begins and ends and is what everyone refers to when a property is for sale or if any issues about the boundaries of the property arise.
If you’re buying a home, your legal description records exactly what parcel of land you’re buying so your property rights can be enforced. It also tells the mortgage lender exactly what you are buying so that they can accurately assess the land’s value and finance your home loan.
How is a legal description written?
There are two main types of legal descriptions of property. The first is called a metes and bounds. The second is a lot and block description.
A metes and bounds describes the boundaries of a property using a system that relies on physical features of the land and geography, such as roads, water features, and prominent landmarks and buildings. It sets the boundary of the property based on relative distance and direction from these features, and often uses complex jargon. It can be very difficult to read unless you are a surveyor or have previous experience with legal descriptions.
A lot and block description is much simpler. It’s often used for smaller parcels of land—called plats—and states the subdivision where the property can be found, describes the acreage or other physical dimensions of the land, and may also list boundaries, but not in as much detail as the metes and bounds. These plots were usually drawn up, mapped, and labeled in a more systematic manner, so it’s clearer for a layperson than the metes and bounds.
Legal descriptions can also help you if there is any confusion about shared borders, such as a shared fence, vegetation, or any other concerns. Therefore, it’s especially important that the legal description of property is accurate when buying a home in a rural area, a new construction, or a land lot.
How do I read the legal description of property? It almost seems like a different language!
The legal description is very confusing to understand, but once you grasp its contents, you’ll have an advantage if you sell the property or take out a second mortgage. More importantly, you can feel secure in knowing exactly what you’re getting in your current purchase.
If you are reading a lot and block description or any legal description that identifies the property by lot number, it’s pretty straightforward and often has a visual diagram of the lot.
However, a metes and bounds description is a running block of text that describes the perimeter based on a set point. It starts with a landmark such as a river or building, then references the boundary line of the property in relation to that landmark. Then it continues to describe the boundaries in terms of north and south.
For example, it may list the northern boundary first, and then describe a second boundary in terms of north. Instead of saying, “45 feet East,” the description will say, “North 90 Degrees East 45 feet.” The description will continue this way around the perimeter of the land parcel’s boundaries until it returns to the origin point.
While this type of language is meant to be whole and self-referential, it is confusing to navigate. Speak to your real estate agent to help walk you through it, and you’ll be able to make sense of it in no time.
Unless, of course, it wasn’t written properly.
What if the description is unclear–or just plain wrong?
Describing a property’s boundaries in relation to a landmark comes with obvious shortcomings. Both natural and human landmarks change all the time and this can make a legal description outdated. In addition, legal descriptions have been relayed from one person to another, and then another, becoming a long game of Telephone. If a property has changed hands many times, it’s almost guaranteed that the legal description will need to be corrected, or at least clarified.
There are other reasons a legal description can be inaccurate. The description may be inconsistent with itself or ambiguous in determining a starting point. It may fail to create a closed shape, in which case you definitely cannot simply connect the dots to complete the perimeter. In this instance, you may need to have a court define the property. Often courts have a system of ranking relative points in order of reliability, with natural landmarks first, human-made landmarks second, adjacent tracts third, and so on.
If you find inconsistencies with your legal description of property, speak to your real estate and potentially a real estate lawyer to explore how to resolve the issue.
Where can I find the legal description of my property?
If you have a house under contract, you should be able to obtain the legal description from the title company that handled the home’s last sale. Even if the property isn’t under contract, most sellers and title companies will provide you with a copy if you just ask.
Occasionally, you may have to look up the legal description of property yourself, particularly if you aren’t working with an agent. If you are going to look up the legal description yourself, the first place to start is your county tax assessor. Many tax assessors’ offices contain a copy of the legal description of a property so they know how much property taxes to levy. This legal description is also usually part of the deed or an appendix to it.
Not every county tax assessor keeps legal descriptions of properties, but they are the best place to start. Call your local tax assessor’s office and ask. If they don’t handle deeds or legal descriptions, they can send you someplace that does—often the county recorder’s office.
