Legal Description

Most people locate a house by using the street address and this is sufficient for most purposes.  A street address, however, is insufficient for legal documents affecting the ownership of land.  Further, street addresses frequently change as streets are renamed or builders change the direction of houses on a lot.  Appraisals, sales contracts, deeds, security deeds, and mortgages need more accuracy than a street address provides.

 

The legal description of land describes land in such a way that a competent surveyor could find its boundaries using nothing more than the description.

 

There are 3 types of legal descriptions.  They are:

 

•Metes and bounds legal description

•Lot and block legal description

•Government survey system

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