Legal descriptions and land use controls

What to know about legal descriptions and land use controls

1. Three methods describe land legally: metes and bounds (a walk around the boundary from a point of beginning, back to it), the rectangular (government) survey system (principal meridians and base lines; townships 6 miles square with 36 sections; a section is 1 square mile or 640 acres) and lot and block (a recorded subdivision plat). A street address is not a legal description.
2. A section quarter is 160 acres, a quarter of a quarter is 40 acres. Read descriptions from the end: "the NW 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Section 9" is 40 acres.
3. Monuments are fixed objects used in metes and bounds; a benchmark is a surveyed elevation reference; datum is the base elevation plane.
4. Four government powers limit ownership: police power (zoning, building codes, health and safety regulation, with no compensation), eminent domain (taking for public use with just compensation through condemnation), taxation and escheat (property of a person who dies without heirs or a will passes to the state).
5. Zoning classifies land by use. A nonconforming use existed lawfully before the ordinance and may continue; a variance permits a departure because of hardship; a special (conditional) use permit allows a use the ordinance lists as conditional; spot zoning favors one parcel and is generally improper.
6. Building codes set construction standards and are enforced through permits and a certificate of occupancy. Subdivision regulations control lot layout, streets and utilities when land is divided.
7. Private controls run with the land: covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&Rs) recorded by a developer, enforced by an HOA or by neighbors through an injunction. A deed restriction that violates fair housing law is unenforceable.
8. An easement is a right to use another’s land. Appurtenant easements benefit a neighboring (dominant) parcel and burden the servient parcel, passing with the land; easements in gross benefit a person or company (utility lines). Easements arise by express grant or reservation, by necessity (landlocked parcels), by prescription (open, continuous, hostile use for the statutory period) or by implication.
9. A license is revocable personal permission to use land. An encroachment is an improvement that intrudes on another’s land; a survey reveals it, and it can cloud title.

Pearson VUE outline area I: 6 of the 80 scored national questions in our mock come from this topic. The notes state principles that hold in every state; state-specific rules are in the California, Texas and Florida guides.

Common questions

More real estate exam topics

• Property ownership and estates · 9 of 80
• Valuation and appraisal · 11 of 80
• Contracts · 9 of 80
• Agency · 7 of 80
• Practice of real estate and fair housing · 10 of 80
• Property disclosures and environmental issues · 9 of 80
• Financing and settlement · 7 of 80
• Transfer of title · 5 of 80
• Real estate math · 7 of 80

Free legal descriptions and land use controls drill · National mock exam · California exam · Texas exam · Florida exam