Periodically, an owner who is just looking for information calls or writes me with a question about how to measure (or map) his own property. A common question that comes up many times is: “How do I get my property records?” The second question they ask, usually after they have their description in hand, is, “How do I read this?”
People ask these questions for many reasons. Some wish to fence or fence their land, others out of pride of ownership, the desire for knowledge, or sometimes to protect themselves from the threat of encroachment. The information in this article won’t make you an expert overnight, and you’ll want a certified surveyor for any legal issues you may face, but it will help you better understand your property.
When reading your property description, you are reading about the imaginary lines that establish the “demarcation” (boundary) between your property and its neighbors, often referred to as “adjuncts.” An adjudicator may be another private property owner or a government agency that has a title interest, such as the street in front of your property.
You will see the property description in many formats. The most common are Lots, Meters or Limits. In some cases, the description may be a combination of the above three.
Briefly, when a larger parcel of land is divided into two or more parcels, it is called a subdivision. The owner is subdividing the property into lots. The description for each lot is usually created through a government plating procedure. This creates a process called “simultaneous conveyance” because all parcels (lots), at the time of county registration, share the same title rights.
For example, a property can be described as follows:
Lot 1, SMITH SUBDIVISION, City of Wheat Ridge, Colorado.
On the other hand, a description of Metes is written “in sequence,”with the lines that form the property’s perimeter, while a Boundaries description describes the property’s boundaries by calling for the “adjunct” description. Examples of an adjunct would be – “Bounded on the west by County Road 119about him to the east by the property of Jones”, or maybe a natural boundary like “the Silver River. These two types of descriptions are considered “sequential transports”, in which there are minor and major titles between adjoining lands.
To read the description of your property in the case of the lot description format, you would need a copy of the “Recorded“plan. If you don’t have one, you can buy a copy at your county seat. Look for the “Office of the Clerk and Recorder“. Most subdivision plates will provide you with the necessary geometry as shown next to your lot lines. Modern plates require that the direction and length of the lines that make up the perimeter of your lot be on the map of the platform, but for some platform maps, you may not find this. aspects and distances for each of the property lines. The bearing will indicate the direction. Distance (line length) is usually written in units of feet and are horizontal values. Your property deed will identify the lot’s unique nomenclature, and the plan map will demonstrate the geometric size, shape, and location along with bearings and distances that uniquely identify your lot.
We are going to simplify the reading for you. Think of a compass. The arrow header provides the direction with the numbers at the end of the arrow providing the amount of deviation from north. The bearings are deliberately placed in four quadrants of the circle. Bearings on your lot will almost always begin with the letter N or S, meaning North or South, with numbers in between, and end with the letters E or W, meaning East or West. For example, a heading of N 44 E means traveling along that line in the northeast quadrant of your compass bearing 44 degrees east of north. N 45 W means 45 degrees west of north. The beauty of a batch description is that all lines are created simultaneously.
to read a Description of the measureslike the example below, it is important to know that the sequence cannot be read out of order. If bearings and distances are given, then they should be read in the order they are printed. Sometimes the description will start with “From.. .” That is your starting point.
For example, you might see your description as: Beginning at a point 247 feet east of Jacobs Fork; thence N 51 W, 210 feet; thence N 44 E, 204 feet to a pine tree; thence S 48 E, 210 feet to a cement post; hence S 43 W, 204 feet to start point, containing 0.98 acres, give or take.
There may be other ways to provide the direction (heading) of the property, such as using angles from the previous property line. They can be recited as inside, outside, right, left, extension (continued) and many others.
to read a Description of the limits, the order of the lines being described is usually unimportant. If you are bounded on the north by a river, on the east by Highway 1, on the south by Jones, and on the west by Smith, the order as presented makes no difference. This type of description is often the most expensive and time consuming to define, because to perform a successful survey, you or the surveyor must investigate all other adjacent properties in the boundary description.
Again, the information in this article is not meant to make you an expert, and before you set out the expense to put up that shed slab or that first post hole, we recommend that you have your property inspected by certified professionals. However, with a little understanding, time, and a decent compass, almost anyone can understand the general layout of their property.