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Writer's pictureDanny Rodic

Legal Descriptions of a Property - What Are They?


Boundary Retracements by Apex Land Surveying and Mapping LLC

Legal descriptions play an incredibly crucial role in land surveying, helping to accurately define property boundaries and land ownership. Whether you are buying, selling, or transferring property, ensuring that you have an accurate legal description is essential to prevent disputes, confusion, and other issues.


Apex Land Surveying and Mapping LLC specializes in providing precise legal descriptions as part of our comprehensive land surveying services. We are also here to help our clients understand what exactly a legal description is and why it is so important.


What is a Legal Description?

Property pin with boundary retracement services

With regard to land surveying, a legal description is a detailed, written description of a property's location and boundaries that is accepted in legal documents. These descriptions are used in, but not limited to, deeds, contracts, and land records to identify a parcel of land. 


A precise legal description is critical, particularly during property transfers (conveyances), as it ensures that the correct piece of land is being conveyed. In addition to property boundaries, legal descriptions can also define easements, rights of way, and other interests on a property.


From our perspective as a professional land surveyor, it is the accuracy and clarity of a legal description that is most paramount. At Apex Land Surveying and Mapping LLC, we are highly trained to create descriptions that leave no room for ambiguity. This is to ensure that the property is clearly defined for all future transactions.


Who Prepares Legal Descriptions in Land Surveying?

Land surveying helps you obtain legal descriptions of your property.

Legal descriptions are typically prepared by two types of individuals: licensed professional land surveyors like Apex Land Surveying and Mapping LLC, and other parties such as attorneys or landowners. Here is a deeper look into the roles of each of those:


Licensed Professional Land Surveyors - A licensed professional land surveyor is trained to prepare detailed legal descriptions that are precise and comprehensive. These descriptions include vital information such as monuments, boundary lines, adjoining properties, and other relevant details. Land surveyors create a description that can be followed and retraced on the ground with no confusion or ambiguity.


At Apex Land Surveying and Mapping LLC, we pride ourselves on providing the most clear and legally sound legal descriptions to benefit our customers in the Colorado Springs area. By focusing on even the finest details, the highest standards of accuracy are always met!


Legal Descriptions Prepared by Others - Although anyone—such as attorneys or even landowners—can prepare legal descriptions, it is generally not advisable to do so without professional expertise. Legal descriptions prepared by non-surveyors may lack many crucial details, leading to ambiguous boundaries or errors. These mistakes lead to significant problems later on, especially boundary disputes that were avoidable or difficulty retracing property lines during a survey.


To avoid these issues, it is recommended to always work with a licensed professional land surveyor like Apex Land Surveying and Mapping LLC when creating or reviewing a legal description. Our expertise ensures your legal descriptions are reliable and most importantly, error-free.


Key Elements and Process of Writing a Legal Description

For a legal description to be effective and legally sound, it should include four main components:


Trusted land surveyors ensure your property's legal descriptions are accurate.
  • Caption

  • Body

  • Qualifying clauses

  • Augmenting clauses


These elements ensure the description is complete and leaves little room for error. But before drafting a legal description, we first determine the purpose of the description. It is important to note that the legal description you receive deals with the boundaries of the land and is not concerned with ownership. 


The description must be clear, concise, and free of errors, with proper spelling and punctuation. Often, a graphical exhibit is attached to provide a visual reference as well, which can be helpful in understanding the property's layout.


Trusted and Accurate Legal Descriptions from Apex Land Surveying and Mapping LLC

Legal descriptions are essential for ensuring the proper transfer and identification of land. Working with licensed professionals like Apex Land Surveying and Mapping LLC ensures that your property’s legal description is thorough, accurate, and easy to understand. We follow a meticulous process to ensure that every legal description we prepare adheres to these best practices


Don’t forget that our team can also provide you with the various land surveying and mapping services that you need for your land development project here in Colorado Springs! Our services include Land Survey Plats (LSPs), Improvement Survey Plats (ISPs), ALTA/NSPS Land Title Surveys, Improvement Location Certificates (ILCs), Topographic Surveys, and more.


Contact us today by clicking here to learn more about how Apex Land Surveying and Mapping LLC can assist with your land surveying needs!

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