Property Rights and Legal Descriptions

Introduction to Property Rights: A Historical Perspective  

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/lcr/propertyrights.cfm

Property rights are a product of culture and community, and a function of what a society is willing to acknowledge, defend, and enforce. They establish relationships among the people in any social and economic system. Many people believe that they are entitled to do whatever they wish on the land that they own, however that is only true if an individual lives alone and completely isolated from any type of community. Property rights can be described as a bundle of rights that are inherently gained when a property is purchased, and include such things as the right to sell your land, to grant easement to others, air rights, mineral rights, and so on. However, one's property rights are limited by the government and the laws of the community, which reflect the general values and accepted behaviors in that community. Property rights are very controversial, and the balance between the rights of an individual and the rights of a community will continue to change with time. It is very important to understand property rights as they can have major effects on our lives. For instance, eminent domain gives the government the right to take one's private property for public use upon the payment of just compensation. Now assume you are a farmer with some of the most fertile land in the region, and depend on that land to make a living. If the government wants to condemn your land in order to build a new highway, there's not much you can do to stop them and your life has just changed drastically.

Legal Descriptions

The legal description of a piece of property is a formal, detailed, and complete description that unambiguously identifies and locates a specific property. Many people falsely believe that the address of a property qualifies as a legal description, however an address is just considered to be a physical description. The Metes-and-Bounds description is a legal description of a parcel of land that begins at a well-marked point and follows the boundaries, using directions and distances around the tract, back to the place of beginning. This type of description is usually found in the deed for the property. Below is a link to an example of a Metes-and-Bounds description, about half-way down the page:

 http://www.ticorblog.com/blog/real-estate-legal-descriptions-in-plain-english/

The Rectangular Survey System is a legal description that uses a system of rectangles to locate and specify the boundaries for land parcels. This system provides for a unit of land approximately 24 square miles, bounded by base lines that run east and west, and meridians that run north and south. This 24 square miles is divided into areas 6 square miles called townships. Townships are then further divided into 36 sections, each being 1 square mile (640 acres). Below is an example of a Rectangular Survey System description, again about half-way down the page: 

http://www.landprints.com/LpRectangularSurveySystem.htm