1. CHAPTER 2: PROPERTY RIGHTS AND LEGAL DESCRIPTIONS LEGAL FORMS OF LAND DESCRIPTION FORMS OF CO-OWNERSHIP

2. Legal Forms of Land Description
Metes and Bounds
Subdivision Plat Lot and Block Number
Government Rectangular Survey

3. 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. Methods of Land Description: Metes and Bounds
A sequence of directed distances:
Compass directed “walk around property”
Establishing point of beginning is critical
Oldest form of acceptable land description
Most flexible form
Most difficult to interpret
Should be made or interpreted only by surveyors

5. Metes and Bounds Description: Example

6. 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

7. Subdivision Plat Lot and Block: Example

8. 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.

9. 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 north-south 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

10. Baselines and Principal Meridians of the United States

11. A Township

12. Tallahassee Jacksonville Township: Range 27 E, Tier 24 S Orlando
Tallahassee Principal Meridian
Tallahassee R 26 E 27 2 1 W
T 2 N
Jacksonville
Base Line
T 1 N
T 1 S
T 2 S
Township:
Range 27 E,
Tier 24 S R 2 E 1 W
Orlando 6 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 11 10 12 18 13 14 15 16 17 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
T 24 S
T 23 S
NW 1/4
of NE 1/4 NW
1/4 SW SE

13. Subdividing a Section

14. Other Forms of Land Description
Reference to documents other than maps
Informal reference
Assessor’s parcel number
Note that these are NOT legal forms of land description

15. 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

16. Forms of Ownership
Sole ownership (estate in severalty)
Tenants in common
Joint tenancy
Community property
Partnership
Corporation

17. Advantages of Sole Ownership
Flexibility
No sharing of profits

18. Disadvantages of Sole Ownership
Capital intensive
No shared expertise in decisions
Full responsibility and liability

19. 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).

20. Three owners with unity of possession
Tenants in Common
Tenants in Common
One parcel of land;
Three owners with unity of possession C A B
What happens if C dies?
C’s heirs B A

21. Joint Tenancy
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:
Unity of time - joint tenancy must be created simultaneously
Unity of title - joint tenants acquire their interests from the same source (ex. Same deed or will)
Unity of interest - joint tenants own one interest together and each joint tenant has exactly the same rights
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)

22. Three owners, four unities (PITT): Possession, Interest, Time, Title
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? C A B

23. Co-ownership in Marriage
Tenancy by the Entirety
Community Property
Separate Property
Note: in the event of divorce, these forms of ownership convert to tenancy in common.

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. Other Forms of Ownership
Partnership
Corporation
Trust