Legal Descriptions: Metes and Bounds

Recently, a legal description found its way across my desk that piqued my interest. I thought I would share a few  ideas about it.  A piece of property can be described in many ways, but the three most common forms are: lot and block, metes and bounds, and aliquot parts.  The metes and bounds description usually has a point of commencement, a point of beginning and makes a closed geometric figure.  For example, Smith's property might be described as:

Start at the Big Rock by the Old Church and go North 10 feet, West 10 feet, South 10 feet and East 10 feet.


This description makes a closed, geometric figure.  If one of the called distances were substituted with a distance of 8 feet, the previous square would now have an opening of 2 feet somewhere along the boundary.  This would result in a non-closure, a bust, or an error of closure.  What it really means is that there is an error in one of the calls. The error could be in any of the distances or a combined error of a bearing and a distance or maybe more.  The converse of this is also true, and here's the real kicker.  If a metes and bounds description, like the example above, makes a closed geometric figure, then each of the calls is proven to be correct.  Some exceptions exist, but very, rarely.  The value of a metes and bounds description is that it can be proven to be correct.  To rephrase: a closing metes and bounds description proves the validity of each of the called angles and distances.  A valuable tool to say the least.  Being able to prove mathematically, that a particular angle, bearing or distance is valid and accurate can turn out to be the missing puzzle piece when determining a property boundary.  It's not just the subject property description that I'm talking about.  Many times, calculating the adjoining property description can be just as helpful.
Here's a perfect example: an unrecorded subdivision of 8 parcels in a box canyon community are all described by metes and bounds descriptions.  The legal description of the subject property (the one I'm surveying) contains a scrivener's error that was perpetuated from the last set of transactions.  The subject property description doesn't close.  This is a problem that doesn't repair itself easily.  The solution: calculate the closure of each of the adjoining parcel descriptions to prove their validity and apply the resulting adjoiner angles and distances to the subject property.  Then, make notes and sketches describing the calculations to prove your results.  Maybe I would recommend a new legal description to be written based on those results.  Maybe a new legal description isn't necessary if the scrivener's error is an obvious blunder, and  can be verified by evidence found in the field.
The bottom line:  checking closure on a metes and bounds description is the first step in determining a property boundary.  This week, the words "more or less" within a metes and bounds description eliminated the possibility of checking its validity.  However, the adjoining descriptions, combined with the field evidence, clarified the subject property boundary.  
Problem solved.
more to follow

Acres of Area..... or Inches of Indefinite Boundary

In the past week or so, I have encountered two separate instances in which properties were casually (think casual friday) described by realtors, seller, buyers and others in terms of acres.  In one instance a 38  acres parcel turned out to only have 35 acres.  In another instance, a potential buyer wanted to make an offer on a home on three acres only to find out that the land included with the home was sitting on a one acre parcel and the other two acres had a separate legal description.  The potential buyers were unsure what one acre, two acres or three acres looked like.  To be honest, estimating acreage is difficult, at best, without the benefit of recorded distances associated with the property.  Secondly, just because a legal description has been confirmed to contain one acre, it is difficult to convey that information, over the phone per se, to a realtor or buyer standing in the backyard.  If the confirmed one-acre legal description isn't verified on the ground to see, the buyer and/or realtor might assume the fence line is the edge of the one acre parcel when in fact it isn't.

Background

     I'm from Houston originally, moved to Florida to finish high school, then graduated from the University of South Florida.  Upon graduation, and with no plans, I bumped around for a few months until I got a call from the National Park Service.  An application I had filled out in haste more than 6 months prior had come to fruition.  The job was in Grand Junction, Colorado at the Colorado National Monument as a seasonal park ranger.  I'd never been to Colorado as an adult and was completely blown away.  I'd never seen anything so big.   From that point on, I made it my goal to live and work here....... only took me 13 years.
     After renting a house here in Arvada for a year, we were able to buy a home, just a few blocks away.  My surveying business, Huffman Surveying, has been slow to get going, but improving with each passing season. (I know, seasons right?)
More later.

Welcome!

Welcome and enjoy.
I thought I would start with a little back ground information.  More to follow!