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Legal Description of Property: Types and How to Find It

A legal description of property is the deed wording that identifies one parcel. See a real example of each type and how to find yours in county records.

Pillar team19 min read

A legal description of property is the written description in a deed that identifies one parcel of land, so that it can be located on the ground and told apart from every other parcel. A street address and a tax parcel number are separate identifiers, and whether either can stand in for the description depends on state law. Most legal descriptions use lot and block, metes and bounds, or township and range.

Pillar, a land research software company, wrote this guide. The rules for legal descriptions are state law, so each statute and court opinion below is an example from the state named. We checked every source on November 14, 2026. This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm anything that affects a sale with a licensed attorney, surveyor or title company in your state.

It is the part of a deed that says which land is being conveyed. The Bureau of Land Management's Specifications for Descriptions of Land (revised 2013) gives the test in one sentence: "The definition of a legally sufficient real property description is one that can be located on the ground by a land surveyor."

State statutes can make the description a requirement. In Wisconsin, the transactions the conveyancing chapter covers "shall not be valid unless evidenced by a conveyance that satisfies all of the following," and one item on the list is that the conveyance "Identifies the land" (Wis. Stat. 706.02).

An address and a parcel number identify the same land in other ways. Whether one can stand in for the legal description depends on state law; the examples below come from Colorado, Washington and Florida. One parcel can carry four different identifiers. Here they are for a lot in Ocala, Florida. The first three come from the Marion County Property Appraiser's record. The fourth comes from a warranty deed recorded August 5, 2016 in Official Records Book 6435, page 337. We read both on November 14, 2026.

  • Street address (the appraiser's "Situs"): 2046 NW 1ST ST OCALA
  • Parcel number: 2260-149-015
  • The appraiser's "Property Description" (four lines on the record): SEC 13 TWP 15 RGE 21 / PLAT BOOK A PAGE 053 / WEST END ADD TO OCALA / BLK 149 LOT 15
  • The deed's legal description: "Lot 15, Block 149 of WEST END OCALA, according to the Plat thereof as recorded in Plat Book A, Page(s) 53, of the Public Records of Marion County, Florida."

The deed prints the parcel number too, on its own line near the top, apart from the description.

Legal description vs. address

Colorado treats the address as a helper. Documents of title there, other than mechanics' liens and judgment liens, must include the street address or comparable identifying numbers "as an aid to identification," immediately before or after the legal description, if they are displayed on the property or a building on it. If the address or a parcel number creates "any variance or ambiguity," then "the legal description of the property shall govern" (C.R.S. 38-35-122, page 1047 of the Title 38 PDF on the legislature's 2026 statutes download page).

Washington's Supreme Court went further for contracts. In Martin v. Seigel (1949), an earnest money agreement described the property as "at 309 E. Mercer" in "the City of Seattle, County of King, State of Washington." The title policy later described it by lot, block and recorded plat, which the court called "the correct legal description." The court held the agreement unenforceable. Its rule: "every contract or agreement involving a sale or conveyance of platted real property must contain, in addition to the other requirements of the statute of frauds, the description of such property by the correct lot number (s), block number, addition, city, county, and state."

The opinion says the Washington court is "at variance with the more liberal rule," which permits testimony to explain which property the parties meant when they described it merely by a street number. As we read that, the answer can differ by state.

Is the parcel number the legal description?

Not under the Colorado and Florida statutes quoted here. Colorado's statute above puts a parcel number in the same class as the address: the legal description governs. Florida is more direct. Its warranty deed form has a blank for the property appraiser's parcel identification number, but "Such parcel identification number is not a part of the legal description of the property otherwise set forth in the deed and may not be used as a substitute for the legal description of the property being conveyed" (Fla. Stat. 689.02(2)). That rule is written for Florida warranty deeds. Washington's Supreme Court accepted a reference to an assessor's tax number on the facts of the 1951 case in the next section.

Where a reference to another record is allowed

The description does not always have to be written out in full.

  • Wisconsin. An instrument offered for record may identify the land "either by the terms of the instrument or by reference to an instrument of record in the same office, naming the document number of the previously recorded instrument." The statute opens that sentence with "Except as provided in sub. (2m)," and subsection (2m) requires "the full legal description of the property" in any document to be indexed in the real estate records, any document that modifies an original mortgage or land contract and any subordination agreement, if the document is intended to relate to a particular parcel of land. The description "may be included on the document or may be attached to the document." Paragraph (2m)(b) exempts descriptions of easements for the construction, operation or maintenance of electric, gas, railroad, water, sewer, telecommunications or telephone lines or facilities, of property subject to liens on property later acquired by certain cooperatives, pipeline companies, public utilities, railroads and water carriers, and of property specified under section 70.17(3) (Wis. Stat. 706.05).
  • Washington. In Bingham v. Sherfey (1951), an option described land as "Tax No. 3" in a section, township and range, "as at present designated on the tax rolls in the office of the County Assessor of said county." A statute had the assessor number each tract described by metes and bounds and keep its description in a plat and description book. Ruling on the pleadings, the court assumed the assessor had done so and held that "a reference to this public record furnishes the legal description of the real property involved with sufficient definiteness and certainty to meet the requirements of the statute of frauds."

In both, the full description still sits in another public record.

The BLM's Specifications, written for federal land orders, sort descriptions into "three general types" and add that "Many land descriptions are a combination of two or more types." Each example below is quoted from a recorded deed.

Lot and block legal description

A lot and block description names a lot on a recorded subdivision plat. The Ocala deed above is one: "Lot 15, Block 149 of WEST END OCALA," followed by the plat book, the page and the county. The deed gives no measurements. It points to the plat instead.

Our plat map guide reads a real plat line by line.

Township and range (rectangular survey) legal description

In what the BLM's Specifications call the 30 public land states, a description can place land on the federal survey grid by section, township, range and meridian. A warranty deed recorded September 20, 1973 in Champaign County, Illinois (Book 1016, page 208; Attachment D, page 9 of the linked county PDF) opens that way:

A portion of the Southeast Quarter of the Southeast Quarter of Section
Seventeen (17), Township Seventeen (17) North, Range Nine (9) East of the
Third Principal Meridian, more particularly described as follows:

A quarter of a quarter section is what the BLM's Specifications call a unit "of nominally 40 acres." This deed conveys only "A portion" of one, so it goes on with measurements:

Beginning at a point on the south line of Section Seventeen (17),
Township Seventeen (17) North, Range Nine (9) East of the Third Principal
Meridian, said point being 848.2 feet west of the southeast corner of
said Section 17; thence west, along the south line of said Section 17,
169.00 feet; thence north, along a line perpendicular to the south line
of said Section 17, 181.00 feet; thence east, along a line parallel to
the south line of said Section 17, 169.00 feet; thence south, along a
line perpendicular to the south line of said Section 17, 181.00 feet, to
the point of beginning,

That is a rectangle 169 feet by 181 feet. By our arithmetic it holds 30,589 square feet, or 0.70 acre. The grid locates the land and the measurements draw it, which is the kind of combination the BLM describes. Our township and range guide explains sections, quarters and government lots.

Metes and bounds legal description

A metes and bounds description traces the boundary from a point of beginning, line by line, back to the start. A warranty deed recorded February 13, 2018 in Androscoggin County, Maine (Book 9784, page 298; pages 3 to 5 of a city ordinance PDF) covers two parcels in Lewiston. The description of the first starts "Beginning at a point in a stone wall on the Westerly side of the River Road," runs west along the wall and a neighbor's line to the river's high water mark, and then closes:

thence Northerly by said high water mark a distance of three hundred
(300), more or less, to a point; thence Easterly by a line parallel to
the first mentioned bound to a point on the Westerly side of said River
Road three hundred (300) feet Northerly from the point of beginning;
thence by said River Road Southerly three hundred (300) feet to the
point of beginning.

No compass bearings appear. The lines are fixed by bounds: a stone wall, a neighbor's line, the high water mark and the road. The first "three hundred (300)" has no unit in the recorded text; the later calls say feet. The deed then adds: "Meaning and intending to convey a parcel of land containing ten (10) acres more or less." Our metes and bounds guide shows how to read bearings, check that a description closes and compute its area.

Description by reference to an earlier deed

The same Maine deed shows two kinds of reference. Its first page names only the city, county and state, and conveys land "as more fully described in Exhibit "A" attached hereto and made a part hereof." After the two parcels, the exhibit says they are "the same premises conveyed" to the grantor and a joint tenant by a 1989 warranty deed recorded at Book 2428, Page 263.

An instrument can also identify the land only by reference to an earlier recorded one, where state law allows it. Wisconsin's recording statute above allows that only outside its full-description rule, which covers documents to be indexed in the real estate records that relate to a particular parcel. When you meet such a reference, pull the earlier document; you cannot check the description without it. Our chain of title guide shows how to follow deeds back.

Condominium units

Florida's condominium statute supplies a short form. Once the declaration is recorded, "a description of a condominium parcel by the number or other designation by which the unit is identified in the declaration, together with the recording data identifying the declaration, shall be a sufficient legal description for all purposes." It includes the unit's undivided share in the common elements, whether or not that share is separately described (Fla. Stat. 718.109).

  1. Start with the deed. If you own the property, look in your closing papers. Find the words "described as follows" or "to wit," or an attached Exhibit A. St. Croix County, Wisconsin says it plainly: "The legal description of your property appears on your deed" (St. Croix County Register of Deeds).
  2. If you do not have the deed, get its recording reference. Look the property up on the county assessor's or property appraiser's site. The Marion County and Chelan County records below list each deed by book and page or by a document number.
  3. Search the county's recorded documents. In this guide's examples the office is a clerk (Florida), an auditor (Washington), a register of deeds (Wisconsin) or a registry of deeds (Maine). Search by the recording reference and open the deed.
  4. Use the tax bill and the assessor's record only as an index. St. Croix County warns: "Do not use the legal description from your tax statement as that is an abbreviated version and does not contain the complete legal description." Chelan County, Washington says "the legal descriptions contained in the Assessor's Records are often the abbreviated legal description for the property and may not contain all of the information relating to the legal boundaries of the property" (Chelan County Assessor).
  5. In a purchase, read Schedule A of the title commitment. On the 2021 ALTA commitment form, Item 5 of Schedule A reads "The Land is described as follows:". Our title commitment guide covers the rest of the form.
  6. Check whether one deed is enough. For a property combined from small parcels, or left after smaller parcels were sold off, St. Croix County says "several documents and some interpretation may be required to construct a legal description."

Property legal description lookup: two counties

We checked these on November 14, 2026.

  • Marion County, Florida. Search parcel 2260-149-015 on the Property Appraiser's property search and open the record card. It shows the four-line "Property Description" quoted earlier and a "Property Transfer History" that lists transfers by book and page. One entry is 6435/0337, a warranty deed dated 07/2016. That is the deed quoted above. The Clerk's official records search has a Book/Page search. The card also lists a later warranty deed, 8727/1100, dated 09/2025, which we did not read. Read the newest deed first.
  • Chelan County, Washington. The assessor's page linked above (last updated April 19, 2019) gives the steps: open the property in the assessor's parcel search, expand "Deed and Sales History," note the book and page or the Auditor File Number, then enter it in the auditor's document search. The page adds that the legal description "is generally on the first page of the document but depending on length may also be recorded as an exhibit."

A wrong lot number, a dropped line or a transposed digit is often called a scrivener's error. The fix depends on the state and on the error.

Florida: a curative notice for one narrow kind of error. Fla. Stat. 689.041 defines a scrivener's error as "a single error or omission in the legal description" in no more than one of three categories: one lot or block identification of a recorded platted lot; one unit, building or phase identification of a condominium or cooperative unit; or one directional designation or numerical fraction of a tract described as a fractional portion of a section, township or range. The statute counts "the transposition of the lot and block identifications" as one error. It also counts an error or omission "in the directional description and numerical fraction of the same call" as one error. Documents with multiple errors and quitclaim deeds are excluded. The deed conveys the intended property if all of these apply:

  • The grantor of the first erroneous deed held record title to the intended property when that deed was executed.
  • Within the 5 years before the record date of the erroneous deed, the grantor held title to no other real property in the same subdivision, condominium or cooperative development, or in the same section, township and range, described in the deed.
  • The intended property "is not described exclusively by a metes and bounds legal description."
  • A curative notice, substantially in the statute's form, is recorded in the county where the intended property is located.

Texas: a correction instrument. A person with personal knowledge of the relevant facts may prepare or execute a correction instrument for a nonmaterial change that results from a clerical error, including "an inaccurate or incorrect element in a legal description, such as a distance, angle, direction, bearing or chord, a reference to a plat or other plat information, a lot or block number." The person who executes it must disclose in the instrument the basis for the person's personal knowledge. That person must also record it in each county where the original is recorded, together with evidence of notice if notice applies. If each party to the original has not signed the correction instrument, the person must send a copy of it and notice "by first class mail, e-mail, or other reasonable means" to each party to the original and, if applicable, a party's heirs, successors or assigns (Tex. Prop. Code 5.028). A material correction, such as adding land to or removing land from a conveyance that correctly conveys other land, must be executed by each party to the original instrument or, if applicable, the party's heirs, successors or assigns, and recorded in each county where the original is recorded (section 5.029).

Reformation by a court. California's statute covers "a written contract" that, "through fraud or a mutual mistake of the parties, or a mistake of one party, which the other at the time knew or suspected," does not truly express the parties' intention. On the application of an aggrieved party, it may be revised to express that intention "so far as it can be done without prejudice to rights acquired by third persons, in good faith and for value" (Civ. Code 3399). In Morrow v. Shotwell (1972), the Texas Supreme Court held a contract's description of one tract insufficient. It added that if the parties intended a particular, identified tract and were mutually mistaken in believing their description was legally sufficient, the buyer "would have been entitled to reformation of the contract had he sought it."

If you find an error, do not fix it by retyping the description in the next deed. Give the documents to a title company or an attorney and ask which remedy your state allows.

The description defines what you are buying. Compare it across four documents before your deposit goes hard.

  1. The contract. The Texas Real Estate Commission's Unimproved Property Contract (Form 9-18) identifies the property in paragraph 2 by lot, block, addition, city and county, then "known as" an address, "or as described on attached exhibit." If the land is not a platted lot, the exhibit is where its description goes.
  2. The vesting deed. This is the deed that gave the seller title. Pull it from the county records and read the whole description, including every exception.
  3. The title commitment. Schedule A, Item 5 holds the description. The ALTA form says the Land "does not include any property beyond that described in Schedule A."
  4. The survey. Under the 2026 ALTA/NSPS standards, the map of a land title survey shows "The current record description of the surveyed property" or, for an original survey, the record document number of the parent tract. It also carries "A note if the record description does not mathematically close" (Sections 6.B.i and 6.B.iv). A survey can differ from the record. If a new description was prepared with the survey, the map shows it with "a statement explaining why the new description was prepared" and, except in an original survey, a note stating that it "describes the same real estate as the record description" or how it differs (Section 6.B.ii). Where a measured or calculated dimension differs from the record "by an amount deemed significant by the surveyor," the map must show it in addition to the record dimension and differentiated from it (Section 6.B.iii). Our boundary survey guide and ALTA survey guide cover what to order.

What to check before the deposit goes hard

  1. Compare the four descriptions word for word: every lot, block, call, quarter, "and" and "except."
  2. The plat book and page, or the prior deed reference, opens the right document.
  3. The description covers the whole site. If the seller holds several parcels, each one appears.
  4. Every exception is accounted for on the map.
  5. The acreage in the description is the acreage the price assumes.
  6. Every difference goes to the title company and the surveyor in writing. A difference is not always an error: the survey may show a measured dimension beside the record one, or a new description with a note explaining it. Read the note, and ask them to confirm that all four documents cover the land you mean to buy.

Acreage "more or less" in a legal description

The Maine deed states its area as "ten (10) acres more or less." Read literally, the phrase says the figure is approximate: the parcel may hold more than ten acres or less. The BLM's Specifications, written for federal land orders, say "Approximate areas should be indicated as such and given in even acres." Neither tells you how far off the figure may be, so it needs a second look. So does a precise one. The lines in the Champaign County deed enclose about 0.70 acre by our arithmetic. A 2019 county zoning memo, which attaches the deed, describes the same tract as "0.7 acre with a net lot area of 0.622 acre (excluding right-of-way)." A buyer who assumed 0.70 acre of usable land would be counting right-of-way.

Before paying by the acre, have the surveyor compute the area, and say in the contract which figure sets the price. Our guide to deeded acres vs. GIS acres covers conflicting acreage records.

Where Pillar fits

Pillar's property search finds a parcel by address, APN or owner name and shows the available property record with map context. That gets you to the right parcel and county. The legal description is still the one in the recorded deed.

Quick answers

What is a legal description of property? The written description in a deed that identifies one parcel so it can be located on the ground and told apart from every other parcel.

Is a street address a legal description? The two are separate. Colorado's statute calls the address "an aid to identification" and says the legal description governs. Whether an address alone is legally enough depends on state law. Washington's Supreme Court held in 1949 that it was not enough for a contract to sell platted land.

Is the parcel number the legal description? Not under Florida's warranty deed statute, which says the parcel identification number "is not a part of the legal description" and may not be used as a substitute for it. State rules differ. Ruling on the pleadings in the 1951 case above, Washington's Supreme Court accepted a reference to an assessor's tax number in a named section, township and range.

What are the types of legal descriptions? Lot and block on a recorded plat, metes and bounds, and the rectangular survey system (township and range). Many descriptions combine them.

How do I find the legal description of my property? Read your deed. If you do not have it, find the deed's book and page or document number on the assessor's record, then search the county's recorded documents.

Is the legal description on my tax bill complete? Maybe not. St. Croix County, Wisconsin tells owners not to use the tax statement's version because it "does not contain the complete legal description."

What if the legal description on my deed is wrong? It depends on the state and the error. Florida has a curative notice for a single error in one of three listed categories, such as one lot or block identification of a platted lot, and only if the statute's other conditions are met. Texas has correction instruments. California's statute allows a written contract to be revised for fraud or mutual mistake.