Legal Descriptions — Texas Real Estate

Overview

A valid deed requires a legal description sufficient to identify the property with certainty. A street address does not qualify. Texas uses three methods of legal description.

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Method 1: Metes and Bounds

The oldest system, used for irregular tracts and older Texas surveys (especially in East Texas and original Spanish land grants).

Structure: 1. Start at the Point of Beginning (POB) — a fixed, identifiable monument 2. Describe each boundary line by direction (bearing) and distance 3. Return to the POB (the description must "close")

Bearings: Written as N or S + degrees + E or W (e.g., "N 45° 30' E, 150 feet"). The bearing starts from North or South and rotates toward East or West.

Monuments: Can be natural (trees, rivers) or artificial (iron pins, concrete markers). In Texas surveys, original monuments set by the original surveyor typically control.

Republic of Texas Land Grants: Many Texas properties date to Spanish or Republic-era grants. These use metes and bounds with varas (a Spanish unit = approximately 33⅓ inches). The Texas exam may test vara conversions: 1 vara ≈ 2.78 feet; 5,645.4 square varas = 1 acre.

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Method 2: Rectangular Survey System (Government Survey)

Texas is unusual: most of its land was NOT surveyed under the federal Public Land Survey System because Texas retained its public lands upon statehood (1845). However, the rectangular survey system is still tested as general knowledge for the national portion of the exam.

Key Units

| Unit | Size | |---|---| | Township | 6 miles × 6 miles (36 square miles) | | Section | 1 mile × 1 mile (640 acres) | | Half section | 320 acres | | Quarter section | 160 acres | | Quarter-quarter section | 40 acres |

Section Numbering

Section 1 is in the northeast corner of the township. Numbering goes west across the top row, drops down, then east, then drops and goes west again (boustrophedon pattern), ending with Section 36 in the southeast corner.

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Method 3: Lot and Block (Recorded Plat)

The most common method in developed Texas communities. Land is subdivided and a plat (map) is recorded in the county deed records.

Legal description format: "Lot 5, Block 2, Oak Creek Estates, an addition to the City of Austin, Travis County, Texas, according to the plat recorded in Volume 88, Page 14, Plat Records of Travis County, Texas."

Elements to identify:

• Lot number and block number
• Subdivision name
• City/county
• Plat book/volume and page number

Texas requires county Commissioners Court approval for plats in unincorporated areas; city approval for plats within city limits.

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Comparison Chart

| Method | Common Use | Key Reference Point | |---|---|---| | Metes and Bounds | Irregular tracts, rural land, historic grants | Point of Beginning + monuments | | Rectangular Survey | Large rural tracts (national context) | Township, Range, Section | | Lot and Block | Subdivisions, urban/suburban development | Recorded plat book and page |

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Exam Tips

• A street address never substitutes for a legal description in a deed
• When a deed's legal description conflicts with an address, the legal description controls
• An ambiguous legal description makes a deed voidable — courts may void a conveyance that cannot identify the property with certainty
• Texas REALTORS® contracts include a blank for the legal description; the sales agent must obtain the correct legal description from the county records or title company
• Texas land grants often use the original Abstract Number system — each original survey has an Abstract number (e.g., "Abstract 123, Survey 45, Bexar County") which the exam may reference for rural tracts