Legal Descriptions

Identifying the property that is the subject matter of a deed, mortgage, contract or any other agreement, is a critical component for enforceability. Back in the 17^th and 18^th century, the Boards of Proprietors, a few individuals who owned the majority of land in New Jersey, commissioned surveyors to survey and prepare maps or descriptions of their lands, which the boards wished to convey. Similar to today, larger tracts of land were divided into smaller tracts. The descriptions were, and still are based on land measurements taken by surveyors, who go on-site to the property to identify its boundaries.

There is a history of conflicting division lines between the Eastern Board of Proprietors and the West Jersey Board of Proprietors.  Over the centuries that have passed, there have been several instances where boundary line location disputes, overlaps and gores existed due partially to the less advanced systems of measures and recording that were relied on.  The records of both Boards are now with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).

A [legal] description identifies the land being conveyed in a particular instrument, used to indicate the delineation of boundaries, which separate a given parcel from the surrounding land. The description used in a deed, mortgage, or lease needs only to identify the property with reasonable certainty to constitute a valid conveyance. One court decision states, “It is not necessary that the description of property conveyed by a deed shall define it by the metes and bounds or by reference to a specific location, in order to pass title”.  Thus, a description by reference to a tax assessment map or by street address alone is usually adequate to pass title; however, such little information is not generally acceptable from a title insurance standpoint.

For purposes of insurability, the description used in a deed, mortgage, or lease should be as precise as possible. The best modes of describing land, from the title insurer’s standpoint, are metes and bounds and filed map descriptions.  Tax lot and block references are generally only accepted as a legal description when the property is conveyed by a municipality.

Metes and bounds descriptions are written versions of what is graphically set forth in a survey. It should contain a beginning point, which locates the starting place of the description, oftentimes with a readily identifiable point and end with “thence”, indicating there is more to come. For example, “BEGINNING at the point formed by the intersection of the westerly sideline of Main Street with the northerly sideline of Elm Street, thence,”. Next, the description should contain bearings and distances, which are the compass bearings indicating the location of the boundary lines with respect to “true” north and the length of the boundary lines in feet and inches. For example, continuing from the above beginning point the bearings and distances are listed for each boundary line as such, “ North 34 degrees 58 minutes 43 seconds east, 92 feet to a point, thence,”. There will generally be multiple lines of bearings and descriptions, sometimes ending with monuments or boundaries, such as a utility pole, intersections of roads, the boundary of a named person’s property, a stream, or sometimes even just a particular type of tree.  Finally, the description should end with closure, or the last boundary line in the description, returning to the beginning point, “South 55 degrees 10 minutes and 04 seconds East, 906.34 feet to the point or place of BEGINNING”.