Legal Description for Grant Deeds

¶ … grant deed transfers ownership of real estate and implies certain promises from the seller to the buyer, such as that the title has not already been transferred to someone else or been encumbered, except as set out in the deed. The deed contains the names of the old and new owners and a legal description of the property and it is signed by the person transferring the property.

A legal description is a precise description of real property by government survey, metes and bounds, or lot numbers of a recorded plat. The legal description also includes a description of any portion of the property that is subject to an easement or reservation. The description must be complete enough that a particular parcel of land can be located and identified.

For example, the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) employs a grid system based on township, range and section numbers. The following is an example of a legal description using the PLSS: S. 1/2 NW 1/4, NE 1/4, S6, T75N, R14E. Legal descriptions are generally read from front to back (or, right to left); therefore, this description would be read, "The south 1/2 of the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section six, township seventy-five north, range fourteen east." The easiest way to interpret a legal description is to move from back to front (or, right to left). To determine where the property is, the description must be broken down into each of its elements, starting with the most general labels (township and range) and moving to the smallest, most specific labels (sections, half sections, and quarter sections).

By referring to the applicable grid, the township number and the range number for the property can be identified. The range number identifies how many grid cells the property is to the east or west of a starting point. The township number identifies how many cells the property is to north or south of a starting point. Each parcel of land identified by a township and range number is further divided into sections. The cells are numbered "boustrophedonically," or "as the cow plows," which means that the numbers wrap around in an "S" shape -- the original surveyors found it easier to apply the numbering system in this manner. Sections are further divided into half sections and quarter sections in order to identify parcels of land that are smaller than an entire section. Quarter sections can be divided further into two parts or four parts. A quarter section that has been divided into four parts is called a quarter-quarter section.