Introduction to Legal Descriptions of Property
Property descriptions are a fundamental part of real estate deals in Texas. The property description is the part of the deed—also known as a deed document—that details what piece of real estate is sold. It does this by providing a legal description of the property. The legal property description should contain the following aspects: The property description serves to define what the buyer received and what the seller transferred. The property description needs to be extremely precise to prevent serious errors in conveyance. These errors may lead to disputes between buyers and sellers or claims by lenders. Legal property descriptions are a separate aspect of a real estate transaction and should be approached as such. In general , legal property descriptions can be placed in two categories: those based on a survey of the property and those that only describe the property using references to nearby landmarks. Legal property descriptions that reference the original developer plans are often referred to as subdivision legal property descriptions. Therefore, a subdivision legal property description lists the name of the subdivision, its location, and its lot and block numbers. For established subdivisions, the back of the official plat document should explain how to read a legal property description. Most official subdivision plats are 24 inches by 36 inches. This document should be on file in the county the property is in. Texas property owners can find legal property descriptions for property anywhere in the state. The official subdivision plat is a public record that all Texas residents can access.
What is in a Property Description
Metes and Bounds
The metes and bounds is a common type of description in older subdivisions, many of which date back to the mid-20th century and earlier. Metes are distances; bounds are directions. The surveyor indicates distance in feet and direction in angles. Here is an example:
"commencing at a point 100 varas South of the NW corner of Accession Survey Number 121, Section No. 12 a stake for a place of beginning from which a 2" iron pipe bears North 5 degrees East, a distance of 313.6 ft. …"
Lot and Block
Most real property in Texas today will be described by lot and block. This system is fairly simple and easy to follow, but it does take some time to learn. Lots and blocks are often given numbers or letters, but can also be described by their tract number in the deed records. They are always found in a larger parcel commonly known as the subdivision or the addition. For example:
"An undivided interest in lots 37 and 38, Block 12, of … Amarillo, Section No. 18, City of Austin …"
Government Surveys
Government surveys exist primarily in rural areas and western parts of Texas. They divide land into townships and sections. This is probably the least "home-friendly" way of describing land as neither of these measurements means anything to most people. In this case the best approach is to try to locate the property based on the distance and direction from some known feature. Here’s an example:
"A 0.85 acre tract of land out of Section 29, Abstract 813, Williamson County School Land and being 3291.6 varas North 33 degrees 15 minutes 30 seconds West from the original West corner of Section 29, said point also bears South 66 degrees 44 minutes 30 seconds East a distance of 1765.2 varas …"
Legal Description of Property in Metes and Bounds
Metes and bounds describes land:
In order to accurately describe a piece of land using this method, you would have to have a compass and state the number of degrees each directional turning is and the distance of each side.
If you look at the picture of Land’s End in Port Aransas you will see that it is not square or rectangular. To apply metes and bounds to this location, you would have to describe the clockwise direction of each side of the property in degrees. So, from the front corner to the front corner, you might say 90-degrees south 74.32 feet. Instead of a getting into degree of difference for front corner to back corner, you would go around the whole tract of land and get a total measurement in square feet. From the picture above, it appears that the side of the structure along Land’s End is probably a bit more than 30 degrees and a bit less than 45 degrees for each side. The point is that this non-linear description is hard to understand without a map or picture to refer to.
The legal concept of metes and bounds is derived from English common law systems. Metes comes from the Latin word "metire" which means to measure. Bounds derives from the old English word "bund", which means to bound. In most areas of the United States, a metes and bounds description is where a tract of land is entirely described by way of specific measurements of distance and direction. They are usually measured from a known landmark called a monument. Monuments can be man-made or natural. Only one surveyor originates the description and the other surveyors will follow that surveyor’s description.
Sometimes the metes and bounds description can be short distances. For example, from corner post one, you go 15 feet east to corner post two, then, 10 feet south to corner post three… Historically, surveys used metes and bounds to delineate properties. However, problems arose when referring to monuments and measuring distance within rural or wooded areas where things changed, such as the growth of vegetation over the years, or if there was an illegal fence constructed by a neighbor. Despite its historic use, you will find that most real estate tracts in Texas have a rectangular survey with a plat and a metes and bounds description.
This type of property description is still used in Texas and other states, but it is most common in rural, unplatted areas because it is very easy to do, cheap to produce, and can be surveyed by one surveyor, rather than the standard practices in Texas which require a survey map to be completed by a team of surveyors.
Lot and Block Surveys
Lot and block is a term that identifies a type of property survey commonly used within developed urban areas, and subdivided urban areas. The lot and block method is commonly used in the city or suburb to identify single lots contained within a plat. Lots typically comprise an entire legal lot, but may be multiple legal lots, or multiple parcels covered by a single lettered block. Like the metes and bounds system, it identifies the parcel in terms of a legal description via a plat filed with the county. The difference with this method is that the town planner has already labeled each block with a letter; and the plat identifies a seven letter identifier for the legal description of the lot as ABCDEFG, specifying the block with a letter.
In Texas, the lot and block method is also known as recorded plat. Most of these parcels are recorded in the deed records of the county. So, when you encounter a legal description that contains a lot and block, such as Lot 25, Block 2 of Eleven Oaks Garden, then you know it is a lot and block.
These designations are often found in subdivisions built after 1909 in urban Texas, and along heavily developed rural areas, such as the Texas Gulf Coast area. Rarely will you find a lot and block description in areas such as the Texas Hill Country or rural central Texas areas, where lots were subdivided in the 19th century or before.
Reading Legal Descriptions
Interpreting legal descriptions can be a challenge even when you’re a surveyor or a title attorney. Most surveys cross-reference back to the legal description which will typically be in the title commitment. This is helpful. Read the legal description — it will tell you the lot, block, subdivision and the county. Now compare that information to the survey. The survey should show the lot, block and subdivision. It should also help you identify where the property is located in the subdivision. It is very important to line up what the surveyor says about the property with what the title policy says about the property. They need to match, but at times they won’t.
The other problem that surveyors and title attorneys both encounter is trying to figure out what the legal description means. We have all heard the old adage that, "All roads lead to Rome." In the surveying world we have a similar saying when it comes to legal descriptions: All legal descriptions do not necessarily point to the same "place." There are several legal description formats used in Texas. You need to be able to interpret a legal description to understand what parts you need to have for any purpose — whether that is obtaining title insurance , performing a property analysis, preparing a deed, or relying upon a survey.
There are several common errors in interpreting legal descriptions. Some of the most common are: A legal description may have exceptions. Exceptions may be to easements in the property, rights of mineral owners, title defects, rights of third parties, and the like. Clarity is important when drafting exceptions. When in doubt about what exceptions need to be made, ask the title company. When interpreting exceptions, remember "unless stated otherwise" or "except as noted." Exceptions may contain a lot of legalese (like most legal documents) but try to put them into practice – determine what is excluded from what you will receive.
A legal description need not be perfect. Just because there is a mistake in the legal description doesn’t mean you cannot locate the property. However, there are limits to which such descriptions can be fixed. A mistake reading N for B would be one thing to fix; a mistake reading east for west along a boundary line would likely be another thing entirely.
Problems Related to Property Descriptions
When it comes to Texas legal descriptions of property, some common issues are typos and/or obsolete records. For example, the Texas General Land Office publishes a compendium of "obsolete" references. The county clerk’s office or the county appraisal district occasionally make mistakes in the index for those items. In san Antonio, for example, the Bexar appraisal district site regularly times out, and doesn’t allow you to access a document instantly. There is little value in having a link to your property deed on the appraisals district website, if the link is always broken. It is a rare circumstance indeed where the city and / or county website are reliable.
Similarly, the appraisal district’s records often contain errors. Sometimes it all stems from typos made when a Clerk or Appraisal District Staff Person is trying to correctly index a legal description for a property. Sometimes the ready source of identifying location data is by linking to a document stored on the appraisal district’s website. Yet if the internet is down or the link is broken, or if the description is somehow incorrect, this lead can turn out to be a dead end. It is also common for the appraisal district to index a property according to a residential build rather than the block or subdivision. In this case, the indexer will refer you to the subdivision plat, but often the plat is fractionated into many parts, so how do you know that the plat you have located is the correct one? Sometimes the platted location is wrong. These all serve to increase the cost of developing title insurance, and may result in a delay in the closing date while the issue gets sorted out. It is almost a certainty that the legal description is inaccurate or incomplete if it is not substantially identical to the legal description found at the county clerk’s office in the chain of title. A double-check of the title history is in order, if this occurs.
The consequences of relying on an invalid or incorrect legal description are severe. For starters, a person acquiring ownership or improved property with an incorrect description would not acquire any rights to the property. Put another way, for example, if the property is around the corner from the one you thought you purchased, and you are following the legal description, you cannot assert rights to the property which is around the corner, even if the right to that property was conveyed on the deed.
A related problem is the failure to properly index and number the paragraph which contains the legal description, and the use of an obsolete reference to an old plat. This is not an uncommon event. Good legal description drafting practices, including numbering and paragraphing, and a thorough review of the history of the property will help protect against such errors. A frequent pitfall is referring to an owner’s replat of a reverse subdivision in the index, but not providing a way to locate the replat. On this author’s farm, we came across a property on our road last week which had no water and no access to the water. As you can imagine, the prospective purchaser was delighted to get an updated legal description, correcting the incomplete description used in the earlier title report.
The best way to avoid consequences is to engage in well-planned review, double-checking the work of yourself and your staff, and having a dedicated team of professionals on your side to assist.
A Professional Can Help
The many complexities and potential pitfalls of the description of property when dealing with Texas real estate make it a very important consideration; one that should not be taken lightly or without proper consultation. Engaging the services and expertise of an experienced Texas surveyor and Texas real estate attorney goes a long way in providing an accurate, uncomplicated and enforceable legal description that fits your needs, thereby avoiding unpleasant surprises later on.
Conclusion
This comprehensive guide to Texas legal descriptions of property has covered a wide range of topics, from the basic legal requirements of a legal description in Texas to complex issues such as metes and bounds, subdivisions, easements, and boundary disputes. We also discussed some frequently asked questions surrounding legal descriptions, including the importance of hiring a qualified real estate attorney and the role of a professional land surveyor in the process. In summary, a legal description of property is a crucial component of any Texas real estate transaction. These descriptions can be complex , and it’s essential to have a clear understanding of what they entail to ensure that you are protected in any real estate deal. If you are unsure about the legal description of your property, or if you are involved in a complex property issue, it’s important to consult with a qualified real estate attorney. With their expertise and knowledge, you can navigate the intricacies of Texas property law and ensure that your interests are represented. Remember, if you ever find yourself in a situation involving the legal description of property in Texas, it’s always best to seek legal counsel. They can help you understand the situation and guide you through the legal process to ensure that your rights and interests are protected.