Legal Land Descriptions

This system was developed to describe essentially agricultural areas in an understandable and detailed manner up to a size of ten acres (4 ha). Cities, First Nations reserves, federal parks, former river properties and lands that were Hudson`s Bay Company posts were excluded from the survey. The system was based on a model used in the Midwestern United States. Both planes used a one-square-mile land unit. The Canadian system has been modified from the U.S. system to exclude road rights-of-way from agricultural land. In Canada, there were five variations in the system, mainly related to road adaptation and how longitude convergence was managed. The land system is an important part of American history and culture. Among other things, the standard expressions “lower 40”, “front 40”, “back 40” and “40 acres and a mule”, sometimes heard in American films, refer to the quarter section. The “lower 40” of a quarter section is the one at the lowest altitude, that is, in the direction of water drainage.

The “Lower 40” is often the location or direction of a stream or pond. The phrase “40 acres and a mule” was the compensation that the Freedmen`s Bureau apocryphally promised after the American Civil War. Under the 1785 Act, section 16 of each ward was reserved for school purposes and, as such, was often referred to as a school section. Section 36 was later added as a school section in the western states. [7] The various states and counties ignored, modified or supplemented this provision in their own way, but the overall (intended) effect was a guarantee that local schools would have an income and that community schools would be centrally located for all children. An example of land grants made specifically for higher education is College Township in Ohio. Note: Some legal descriptions are VERY complicated and require an experienced eye to fully “decipher” the information. This article won`t make you an expert overnight, but I think you`ll see how useful it is to have an introduction that clarifies a rather confusing topic. Regardless of the type of legal description, it is important to understand their impact, as they describe exactly what is included in the purchase and sale of a property. If you have any questions about your legal description, talk to your real estate agent or call your local Pioneer Title office – we`ll be happy to help! In the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which recognized the United States, Britain also recognized American rights to lands south of the Great Lakes and west of the Mississippi.

The Continental Congress passed the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the North-West Ordinance of 1787 to control the surveying, sale, and settlement of new lands. The original 13 colonies donated their western lands to the new Union to give land to new states. These include the countries that made up the Northwest Territory, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. The state that abandoned the most was Virginia, whose original claim included most of the Northwest Territory and Kentucky. Some of the western land was claimed by more than one state, particularly in the northwest, where parts of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut were claimed, all three having claimed land as far away as the Pacific Ocean. If you are writing a legal description, you can start with the municipality and the beach, or with the description of the section. No matter how you start, when writing the section description, always start with the smallest piece of land and move on to the larger piece. Legal descriptions can be confusing and difficult to read, but they are one of the most important parts of acquiring property. Before you sit down to read your legal description, there are a few things you should know. The PLSS is considered one of the main points of contention in the introduction of the metric system in the United States. The PLSS used the Gunter chain as a basic measure. In Canada, however, where surveying is based on the same units of measurement as American surveying, the metric system has been adopted without problems.

In Oregon and Washington, the rectangular survey system for the township and range is referenced to the north-south meridian of Willamette and the east-west baseline of Willamette. The lines intersect on Willamette Stone in the western hills of Portland, Oregon. The townships (typically 6 miles by 6 miles) are numbered, beginning with Township 1 North (the baseline) to the Canadian border and Township 1 South to the California border. The ranges are numbered west from the meridian to the Pacific Ocean and east to the Idaho border. The normal cantons are divided into 36 sections and further on into lots and aliquots. The full legal land description for a 160-acre property in eastern Oregon would be: SE1/4 of Section 14 in Township 14 South, Range 34 East, Meridian Willamette. However, there are some interesting exceptions. Texas, once an independent country, is mainly divided into “surveys” based on former Spanish land allocations.

In the Lone Star State, a legal description begins at a certain point of elevation (the starting point or POB) and runs from there as a “mixed-race and boundary” description. These sections are divided into neighborhoods, and sometimes the sections may have been divided into legal subdivisions and neighborhoods of legal subdivisions. The wards consisted of approximately 160 acres (about 65 ha), and the legal subdivisions were sixteen per section, or forty acres (16 ha) each. Townships, ranks, sections and legal subdivisions are numbered, while quarter sections and quarters of legal subdivisions are identified by their location by compass, i.e. southwest, southeast, northwest and northeast wards within a section. Townships are numbered consecutively from the U.S. border to the north, and mountain ranges are numbered westward from each meridian. There are zone lines at the prime meridian west of Winnipeg and thereafter at each meridian. The second line is at 102 degrees west longitude, then the four degrees west longitude. This makes it possible to identify the plots if the legal description of the land is known and understood. The lead and block survey system is a method used in the United States and Canada to locate and identify land, particularly for properties located in densely populated metropolitan areas, suburbs and suburbs.

It is sometimes referred to as a recorded cartographic measurement system or a registered map measurement system. Land and block rights descriptions are used when it comes to a parcel of land within a subdivision. A plated subdivision contains all the blocks and lots found in the specific development. From here you can find your plot and block in relation to your property. An example of this would look something like “Lot 5 of Block 1, Sunset Meadow Subdivision, according to the official platform of this one, registered on October 17, 2008.” The basic system was a grid. The boundaries of the main grid consisted of municipal lines parallel to the lines of latitude and a system of lines largely parallel to the longitudes. Within these east-west and north-south grid lines, which occur approximately every six miles (six miles plus road rights-of-way), the divisions that create blocks of land called sections are as close as possible to a thousand times one square mile, that is, 640 acres, or nearly 259 acres. Metes and Bounds is a legal real estate tenure system used to describe irregular parcels and veneered subdivisions. Metes are a measure of length and boundaries are limits. In addition, Metes and Bounds uses the storage system. The public land survey system is most often used on topographic maps published in the United States and has its roots in the first surveys of North America in the 1700s.

DCS differs from other coordinate systems in that it is more descriptive and less based on absolute position measurements. This is useful because it is a good way to give a quick approach to a location, but the main drawback is its lack of accuracy. A legal description is the method of locating or describing land in relation to the public survey system introduced by law in 1785 in accordance with the Articles of Confederation. After the end of the Revolutionary War, the U.S. government needed a way to describe land in the West to ensure location and sale.