Raymond F. Phillips BS PSMPasco County

Legal Descriptions a guide to reading and

writing them

Originally the transfer of property was done by the seller and buyer walking the perimeter of the land and observing the monuments at each corner, known at that time as bounds, or if such monuments were not there they set one. In 1640 the Plymouth Colony required by law that a notice of the conveyance of land was to be recorded.

History of Legal Descriptions

The Land Ordinance of 1785 was enacted on March 4 and passed on May 30th of 1785, and became known as the “United States Land Surveying System” which eventually divided up all of the land not included in the original thirteen colonies into theoretically 6 mile square townships. The use of sections with the township range numbers and the name of the meridian made the description of land much easier, faster and provided a self sufficient non duplicating vehicle for indexing the land. Ohio was the first state to be divided this way.

Land Ordinance of 1785

Illustrating the United States Rectangular Land Survey System

Legal Descriptions can be broken down into three kinds.

1. Fractional (The West 200 feet of the NW ¼ of the SW ¼ of Section 10, Township 24 South, Range 18 East, Pasco County Florida.)

2. Metes and Bounds (Thence N.00°15’26”E. along the westerly right of way of U.S. Highway 19, 200.00 feet to a point of curvature.)

3. Lot and Block (Lot 1, Block 2 of the Plat of Longleaf Unit One as recorded in Plat Book 70, Page 18 of the public records of Pasco County, Florida.)

Legal Description Fundamentals

* In Pasco County all Deeds and Plats are recorded with the Clerk of the Circuit Court.

A description of the outline of a certain area is the proper grouping of words which delineates one specific piece of land and which cannot apply to any other piece of land.

The Definition is correctly stated as land description, it is generally called “legal” because it must stand up under the law and litigation.

The main parts of a description are the caption and the body, and sometimes there are qualifications such as exceptions, reservations, and additions.

Descriptions

Materials needed a pen a piece of unlined paper a measuring device and the legal description.Consider the following description:

The South 300 feet of the West 660 feet of the Southwest ¼ of the Southwest ¼ of the Northwest ¼ of Section 18, Township 25 South, Range 17 East.

The way to read this is backwards; Start with the Township Range then the Section. Draw a box for the section, quarter it move to the Northwest 1/4 of it quarter that, move to the Southwest ¼ of that quarter it. From the west line of that quarter draw a parallel line 660 feet away (which should be the east line of that quarter.) A section is nominally 1 mile, half that or the length of the NW ¼ would be 2640, the length of the SW ¼ of the NW ¼ would be half that or 1320, the length of the SW ¼ of the SW ¼ of the NW ¼ would be half that or? 660. Then from the southern line of that ¼ draw a parallel line 300 feet north and that 300x660 foot box is our parcel.

Fractional Descriptions how to read

Section 18

Township 25 South

Range 17 East

NW 1/4

SW 1/4

Technically the lines are drawn from the mid points of the “Squares”, and I have yet to find a perfectly square, or even 1 mile section.

You might not know it but most of this work was done before the civil war in Florida and they were stretching actual 66’ long chains to measure. Avoiding trees, alligators, Indians and irate settlers such that alot of the section lines are not straight and have bends at the halfway point.

All the error was moved to one side or the other in a range, and to the top in an effort to make most of the sections nearly a mile square. With that 12 of the 36 sections are either wider, or thinner than the standard section and those are divided differently one has to look at the original maps (Which survey has a copy) to determine where the error went.

We need to know how to read fractional descriptions because there is still a lot of property in the county with descriptions written this way.

Exceptions for Alligators and Indians

Do you recognize where we are?

Metes and bounds descriptions were created before there were Sections, Townships and Ranges. These laid out the boundary of real property that was quite often described as from the White Oak tree along the stone fence southerly to the middle of Thomas Creek, thence along Thomas Creek westerly to Turnip Road, thence northeasterly along Turnip Road to the crest of Thomas hill, thence Southeasterly to the White Oak tree.

All metes and bounds descriptions must start and end at a uniquely identifiable recorded point that there can be no question about.

Are the following examples acceptable? Beginning at the intersection of the west right of way line of

U.S. highway 19 and the north line of Section 18, Township 26 South, Range 16 East.

Beginning at the Northwest corner of Lot 2 of the plat of Phillips Acres as recorded in Plat Book 2, Page 34 of the Public Records of Pasco County Florida.

Beginning at the Northwest corner of the Northwest corner of Section 18 Township 26 South Range 16 East.

From fractional to metes and bounds

Point of Commencement: This is a known point uniquely identified and recorded such that there is no question as to its identity or location. This is often used at the beginning of a description when the Point of Beginning cannot be uniquely identified.

Point of Beginning: The actual point in a legal description that starts or ends the description of the actual parcel and not how to get to the parcel.

Some Definitions:

Bearings are angular measurements from the polar meridian and are described in angles of 90 degrees or less.

Bearings

NE

SESW

NW

N 90° E orS 90° E

N 90° W orS 90° W

S 00° E orS 00° W

N 00° E orN 00° W

Curve descriptions must consist of at least 3 parts of the curve. For our sake the chord bearing and chord distance or (chord) makes it easier for us to read.

Curve to the right or left. This explains which direction to the radius point, and therefore which direction the arc curves.

Parts of a curve:

Curves

A

CL

D

CBR

A=Arc the length of the curve along a constant distance from the radius point.CB=Chord bearing the direction from PC to PTCL=Chord length the distance from PC to PTR=Radius the distance from the Radius point to the PC or PT

D=Delta or Central Angle, the angular distance from the PC to the PT.PC point of curvature the beginning of the curvePT point of tangency then endpoint of the curve.

PC

PT

Armed with a protractor, a scale and a blank piece of paper now plot the following legal description.

Beginning at the NE corner of Tract 1 of the plat of Tampa Tarpon Springs Land Company as recorded in Plat book 1 page 60 of the Public Records of Pasco County Florida. thence N.56°47’30”E. a distance of 300 feet; thence, S.33°12’30”E a distance of 150 feet; thence S.56°47’30”W. a distance of 300 feet; thence N.33°12’30”W. a distance of 150 feet to the Point of Beginning.

Exercise

NE corner Tract 1

N.56°47’30”E., 300’

S.56°47’30”W.,

300’

N.33°12’30”W

.

150’

S.33°12’30”E.

150’

The arrows show the direction of the angle from the vertical.

A boundary or description is a physical thing with actual boundaries dividing property such that those things that define the boundary hold.

Calls are descriptive conditions on the length of a line which hold precedence over the distance. Such as “to the Northeast corner of lot 1.”

Courses are defining descriptive linear limits which hold precedence, over the direction or bearing of a line. Such as “Thence along the easterly right of way line of Leonard Road the following 3 courses.”

Conditions are limits based on other priori recorded rights. Such as “Thence N. 57°03’30”E, 100.00 feet to the West boundary of the lot recorded in Official Records Book 4567, page 65 of the public records of Pasco County, Florida. Thence along said West boundary S. 32°56’30”E. a distance of 250.00 feet.”

Calls, Courses and Conditions

As we said earlier why we call them Legal Descriptions is that they must stand the test of law and litigation.

The Clerk of the Circuit Court of Pasco County is where all recorded deeds are filed. I say recorded because a deed can be legal when it is executed, signed by the grantor and sealed by a notary public, even if it is not recorded.

Another note on recording; by State Statute the Clerks office has to record anything you submit for record, even if it’s a statement on how the Cubs are the most awesome baseball team ever. Not all deeds that are filed actually convey property. It must be determined if the individual who “Conveyed” the property had the right to. If there is any question as to the right people usually file what is known as a quit claim deed.

Quit Claim deeds grant to the grantee any rights the grantor had to the property but do not warrantee that they had rights to begin with.

According to State Statute there are only 3 people who can write legal descriptions. The land owner, a lawyer and a surveyor. Needless to say there are alot of real estate agents who must have a law degree…

Recording Deeds

This was the most basic class I could give on legal descriptions. There are many more limitations and permutations that cause difficulty in reading legal descriptions.

I can at another time cover what happens when two legal descriptions walk into a bar…

Thank you!

Questions?