What the Legal Description on Your Deed Actually Says

Your deed identifies the property, and the paragraph doing that work is almost never the street address. It is either a lot number in a recorded subdivision or a set of directions and distances that read like a treasure map. Which one you have tells you a great deal about how carefully the property was ever measured, and about what can go wrong.

Lot and block, the easy kind

If your property came out of a subdivision, the description likely says something close to: Lot 14, Block C, Section Two, as shown on a plat recorded in the clerk’s office. That is a reference, and the plat is the actual description.

This is the reliable form. A surveyor prepared the plat, the locality approved it, and it was recorded. Every lot in the subdivision references the same drawing, so neighboring descriptions fit together by construction. The plat side is covered in subdivision plats and boundary lines.

Metes and bounds, the older kind

On rural land and older parcels you get the other form: a beginning point, then a series of courses and distances running around the perimeter and back. Beginning at an iron pin, thence North 32 degrees 15 minutes East 412.6 feet to a point, and so on.

It works, and it is how a great deal of Virginia land is described. It also depends on the accuracy of whoever wrote it and on monuments that may no longer exist. A description referencing a large oak, a fence line, or the corner of a stone wall was accurate when written and may be describing something that rotted, fell, or was moved decades ago.

Why we copy the prior deed rather than the tax record

This is a rule we follow without exception, and it is worth explaining. The tax assessment record contains a description of the property, and it is not the legal description. It is the locality’s working shorthand for taxation, and it can differ from what was actually conveyed.

A deed prepared from a tax record can therefore convey something slightly different from what the seller owns, and the resulting mismatch sits in the chain until somebody notices. Correcting it is its own project. The description in a new deed comes from the last recorded deed.

What can go wrong

An overlap, where two neighboring descriptions cover the same ground because they were written at different times by different hands. A gore, which is the opposite: a strip that neither description covers, belonging on paper to nobody. A missing call, where a course was omitted in a retyping. A reference to a plat that was never recorded. And a description of a parcel that has since been divided, so the deed describes more land than the seller still owns.

None of those affects your enjoyment of the property until a survey or a sale brings it to light. All of them are easier to fix while both the buyer and the seller are at the table than years later. Encroachment questions are covered in boundary disputes and encroachments.

What the survey adds

It puts the written description on the ground. A surveyor locates the monuments where they still exist, runs the courses, and reports where the lines actually fall relative to the buildings, the fences, and the neighbors. On a lot and block property that is often confirmation. On a metes and bounds parcel it can be a revelation. Whether you need one is covered in whether you need a survey.

How we help

We take the description from the last recorded deed rather than any secondary source, read it against the chain behind it to confirm it describes the same land throughout, reconcile it with the survey where one exists, and flag a description that does not close or that conflicts with a neighbor. Where a correction is needed we prepare it rather than recording a defect forward.

Common questions

What is a legal description?

The paragraph in a deed that identifies the property, either by reference to a lot on a recorded subdivision plat or by metes and bounds, a series of courses and distances around the perimeter. The street address is not the legal description.

Which type is better?

Lot and block is more reliable, because a surveyor prepared the plat, the locality approved it, and every lot references the same drawing. Metes and bounds depends on the accuracy of the original writing and on monuments that may no longer exist.

Can I use the description from my tax bill?

No. The assessment record is the locality’s shorthand for taxation and can differ from what was actually conveyed. A new deed takes its description from the last recorded deed.

What does it mean if a description does not close?

That running the courses and distances does not return you to the starting point, indicating an error in the original writing or accumulated small ones. It is a common finding on older rural parcels and a reason to resurvey.

What if my fence does not match the deed?

The description generally governs ownership rather than the fence, the driveway, or the mowed line. Discovering a mismatch is a common outcome of a survey on rural land.

What is a gore?

A strip of land that neighboring descriptions both fail to cover, so on paper it belongs to nobody. It is the opposite of an overlap and it is one of the defects a careful examination of the chain can surface.

This article is general information about legal descriptions in Virginia and West Virginia. It is not legal or surveying advice. Boundary location is determined by a licensed surveyor, and discrepancies between a description and conditions on the ground should be reviewed with us and with your attorney.