Legal Description
A legal description is the precise, standardized way your property’s boundaries are defined in legal documents — it’s the technical language that identifies your exact parcel of land, and it’s way more specific than your street address.
Your mailing address tells the mail carrier where to go. Your legal description tells a surveyor, attorney, or title company exactly which piece of earth you own, down to the foot. It appears on your deed, mortgage, title insurance policy, and property tax records. Without it, there’s no way to legally prove where your property starts and stops.
Three Types of Legal Descriptions
Metes and bounds describes the property by directions and distances: “Beginning at the iron pin on the northeast corner, thence south 200 feet…” It’s the oldest method and common in the eastern U.S. Lot and block references a recorded plat map: “Lot 14, Block 3, Sunshine Estates.” It’s the most common in subdivisions. Government survey (rectangular survey) uses townships, ranges, and sections: “NW 1/4 of Section 12, Township 3N, Range 4E.” It’s standard in the western and midwestern U.S.
Errors in legal descriptions cause real problems. A missing digit, wrong direction, or incorrect lot number can mean the deed actually describes your neighbor’s property — or a vacant lot across town.
Watch out: Always compare the legal description on your purchase deed with the one on the title commitment and the property survey. They should match exactly. If there’s any discrepancy — even a small one — flag it before closing. Correcting a legal description after the fact requires a corrective deed, which costs $200-$500 in legal fees and recording costs.
Metes and bounds descriptions are especially prone to errors because they rely on compass bearings and physical landmarks that can change. A description referencing “the old oak tree at the northeast corner” fails when the tree falls. Modern surveys update these descriptions with GPS coordinates and permanent markers, but older deeds may still contain ambiguous references that create boundary disputes decades later.
You can find your property’s legal description on your deed (recorded at the county recorder’s office), your property tax statement, or your title insurance policy. Most county assessor websites list legal descriptions for free. See the glossary for related terms like survey and plat map.
Can I use my street address instead of a legal description on legal documents?
No. A street address is not legally sufficient to identify a property in deeds, mortgages, or other recorded documents. Multiple properties can share similar addresses, and addresses can change. The legal description is the only universally accepted way to identify a specific parcel. Your attorney or title company will ensure the correct legal description appears on all closing documents.