CHAPTER 2:
PROPERTY RIGHTS AND
LEGAL DESCRIPTIONS
LEGAL FORMS OF LAND DESCRIPTION
FORMS OF CO-OWNERSHIP
4-1
Legal Forms of Land Description
1. Metes and Bounds
2. Subdivision Plat Lot and Block
Number
3. Government Rectangular Survey
4-2
Methods of Land Description:
Metes and Bounds
 Metes=distances and bounds=boundaries
 Used for surveying land in the original 13
colonies and to describe irregular parcels of
land originally described by rectangular
survey.
 The beginning point is marked by a
monument (natural or artificial) and may
also point out one or two other markers as a
means of triangulation.
4-3
Methods of Land Description:
Metes and Bounds
 A sequence of directed distances:
• Compass directed “walk around property”
• Establishing point of beginning is critical




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Oldest form of acceptable land description
Most flexible form
Most difficult to interpret
Should be made or interpreted only by
surveyors
Metes and Bounds
Description: Example
4-5
Methods of Land Description:
Subdivision Plat Lot and Block Number
 Subdivision survey map in public
records identifies lot by block and lot
number
 Lot and block number sufficient to
describe parcel
 Dominant form of urban land
description
 Map shows numerous features
4-6
Subdivision Plat Lot
and Block: Example
4-7
Methods of Land Description:
Government Rectangular Survey
 Employed in most states to describe rural and
suburban land with major exceptions being the 13
original colonies along with Hawaii and Texas
 Surveying with this system began in 1785 by
direction of Congress and falls under the
responsibilities of the Bureau of Land Management
and Department of the Interior.
 Surveyors were instructed to locate and mark by
monuments a series of 35 points.
 To date, 1.5 billion acres have been surveyed from
the Florida Keys to Point Barrow, Alaska and East
Liverpool, Ohio to San Diego with 2.6 million section
corners marked.
4-8
Methods of Land Description:
Government Rectangular Survey
 Basic reference points
• Baseline
• Principal meridian
 Measures of distance
• Range lines (east and west boundaries of a township numbered consecutively from the principal meridian)
• Tier lines (north and south boundaries of a township)
 Units
• Township - six mile square (can be squarely oriented northsouth or can be six miles square but not both)
• Section - a one mile square with 36 sections in a township
• Check - a 24 mile square composed of 16 townships - used to
correct for the expansion of the southern boundaries
4-9
Baselines and Principal Meridians
of the United States
4-10
A Township
4-11
Tallahassee Principal Meridian
Tallahassee
T2N
T1N
Base Line
Jacksonville
T1S
T2S
NW 1/4
of NE 1/4
NW
1/4
SW
1/4
4-12
SE
1/4
R R R R
2 1 1 2
WW E E
Township:
Range 27 E,
Tier 24 S
6
5
4
3
2
1
7
8
9
10
11
12
18
17
16
15
14
13
19
20
21
22
23
24
30
29
28
27
26
25
31
32
33
34
35
36
Orlando
T 24 S
T 23 S
R
2
6
E
R
2
7
E
Subdividing a Section
4-13
Other Forms of Land Description
1. Reference to documents other
than maps
2. Informal reference
3. Assessor’s parcel number
•
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Note that these are NOT legal
forms of land description
Advances in Surveying
• The development of Global Positioning
system in the 1980s for the military and its
eventual civilian use has changed the nature
of the way we navigate, create maps, and
describe land.
•Descriptions of land boundaries can be
much more precise due to GPS technology
but can also initiate more disputes over land
boundaries
4-15
Forms of Ownership
•
•
•
•
•
•
4-16
Sole ownership (estate in
severalty)
Tenants in common
Joint tenancy
Community property
Partnership
Corporation
Advantages of Sole Ownership
•Flexibility
•No sharing of profits
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Disadvantages of Sole Ownership
•Capital intensive
•No shared expertise in decisions
•Full responsibility and liability
4-18
Tenants in Common
•Each owner has an undivided interest in the whole
property.
•Each owner’s interest does not have to be the same
size.
•Each owner can independently sell, mortgage, give
away, or dispose his individual interest.
•Tenancy in common is established in the deed by
naming co-owners as tenant in common.
•Each co-owner is responsible for his proportionate share
of property taxes, repairs, upkeep, etc.
•If a co-owner dies, his interest passes to his heirs or
named devisees.
•No right of survivorship (the remaining co-owners do
not acquire the deceased’s interest unless they are
named in the will).
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Tenants in Common
Tenants in Common
One parcel of land;
Three owners with unity of possession
A
C
B
What happens if C dies?
A
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B
C’s heirs
Joint Tenancy
•
•
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Right of survivorship - when one joint tenant dies, his
rights to the property are extinguished and the other
joint tenants are left as owners.
Four unities must be present:
1. Unity of time - joint tenancy must be created
simultaneously
2. Unity of title - joint tenants acquire their interests
from the same source (ex. Same deed or will)
3. Unity of interest - joint tenants own one interest
together and each joint tenant has exactly the
same rights
4. Unity of possession - all joint tenants have use of
the entire property, and no individual owns a
particular part of it (Note: unity of possession is
the only unity essential to tenancy in common)
Joint Tenancy
Joint Tenancy with Right of Survivorship
A
B
C
One parcel of land;
Three owners, four unities (PITT):
Possession, Interest, Time, Title
If C dies?
A
4-22
C
B
Co-ownership in Marriage
•
Tenancy by the Entirety
• Community Property
• Separate Property
•
4-23
Note: in the event of divorce,
these forms of ownership
convert to tenancy in
common.
Advantages of Tenancy by the Entirety
•Protects one spouse from conveying
or mortgaging the couple’s property
without the knowledge of the other
•Provides some protection against
forced sale of property to satisfy a
debt judgment against one of the
spouses
•Features an automatic right of
survivorship
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Disadvantages of Tenancy by the
Entirety
•Provides for no one except the
surviving spouse
•May create tax problems
•Does not replace the need for a will
to direct how the couple’s personal
property should be disposed
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Community Property
•Ten states recognize community property
(comes from Spanish and French laws)
•Spouses contribute equally and jointly to the
marriage and should share equally in any
property purchased during the marriage.
•Each spouse can name in his or her will the
person to receive his or her 1/2 interest. It
does not have to go to the remaining spouse
but does in most cases by default if no other
heir is stated.
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Separate Property
•Property owned before marriage
and property inherited after
marriage by gift, inheritance, or
purchase with separate funds is
known as separate property and
is exempted from community
property.
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Other Forms of Ownership
•Partnership
•Corporation
•Trust
4-28