Legal Description Of Property

Definition of "Legal Description of Property"

Mary Ann Izzarelli real estate agent

Written by

Mary Ann Izzarellielite badge icon

Ebby Halliday Realtors

The legal description of property is a legal instrument to determine as best as one can, the physical boundaries and characteristics of a plot of land and the housing built on top of it. Its goal is for someone to completely identify a property just by reading the description provided, and it generally comes attached to lease agreements to guide possible disputes in the future. A legal description of property is mostly found in sales contracts, deeds, and mortgages.

Real estate lawyers are usually the ones responsible for the legal description of property, and – when doing one – they typically focus on aspects that don’t change much over the course of time. So, for instance, a street address is not the most common identifier in a legal description of property because street names do change a lot. So, no “the property is in the intersection of Old Guy Street with Brand New Name Street”, as time changes, and even the most popular name can be traded for any number of reasons - not to mention the street can cease to exist due to urban development or even natural disasters.

Some legal descriptions of property cover the quantity of land in acres, but the most common way of going about this document is making a description of the land itself through fractional designations that divide (and describe) the land in sections. This concept of locating or describing land is actually very old and has been around since 1785 when it was established by law under the Articles of Confederation as a way to divide the land in relation to the public land survey system. Its initial purpose was to determine farms and big real estate into “townships”, but as time went on and our society developed and started fragmentizing space within space, it grew more specialized and complex.

It is very important to have a professional do your legal description of property when doing the title transfer of your house because if it’s improperly done, the sale of the home can be marked as invalid due to improper land description.

Real Estate Tip:

You know who can connect you with a trustworthy lawyer to help out not only on the legal description of property but several other documents? A real estate agent! And we have the best ones! Contact a local one now!

image of a real estate dictionary page

Have a question or comment?

We're here to help.

*** Your email address will remain confidential.
 

 

Popular Real Estate Terms

An upper limit on the interest rate that can be charged in a variable rate mortgage over its life. For example, a variable rate loan is initially offered at 7% loan rate, and its interest ...

Mortgage in which the interest rate charged by the lender can vary according to some reference index not controlled by the lender, such as the interest rate on 1-year U.S. T-bills or the ...

Net amount of cash than an investor requires from an income-producing property, after taxes, for a period of time, usually a year. It is computed by accumulating all rental receipts for the ...

Statutes stipulating that the property of deceased individuals is distributed in a way that assumes that property during marriage is jointly owned and equally shared by the spouses ...

The definition of adjoining properties describes two or more real estate properties, lots, or parcels that shared a boundary. A property that shares a common border with another is ...

Property boundary demarcated by the curb. ...

A broad definition of termite clause is a provision in a contract for the sale of real property that gives the purchaser the right, at his or her expense, to have the property inspected for ...

A step's edge. ...

Expenditure to make a specific security or real estate transaction. Real estate transaction costs include survey costs, mortgage points and origination fees, recording fees, state transfer ...

Popular Real Estate Questions