Getting the Job Done with Construction Contractors

Getting the Job Done with Construction Contractors

Three Possible Reasons for the Change of the Legal Description of Your Property

by Audrey Ramos

Most property owners do not know that changes are always occurring to the legal description of their property. Sometimes, the changes will have no legal implications on how you use your property, but at other times, the changes could lead to challenges when trying to sell or lease the property. Understanding the circumstances in which legal descriptions change helps determine the actual boundaries to your property and reduce the possibility of disputes with neighbouring property. 

Changes in street addresses

As time passes and new property is developed in your locality, it might make sense to update street names and addresses. There are many streets whose addresses have been changed in the past few decades. These changes mean that the legal descriptions to properties also need to be replaced to concur with the current street addresses. In case there have been changes in street names and addresses, you may need to check with local land survey offices and see whether legal descriptions have changed.

Liens and easements

There are slight changes which occur to blocks of property from time to time. For instance, maybe when you bought the property, there were no existing liens and easements on it. When circumstances change, and the land acquires liens and easements, these aspects of the property's legal description will also need to be replaced to avoid possible conflicts.

To improve accuracy

It is also crucial to understand that when the first process of the land survey was being carried out over the 20th century, land surveyors did not have the sophisticated equipment which is available today including satellite maps and the techniques which currently make it possible to find the exact boundaries to a property. This means that a margin of error was allowed. However, now that new and more accurate methods of demarcating property have been created, legal descriptions are changing to make boundaries accurate. Knowing exact limits in the current legal description for your property will help you avoid infringing on another property.

Other circumstances which can trigger changes in legal description is when the land is subdivided into smaller units or when the meets and bounds legal description was not accurate. The best way to figure out if there are changes to the legal description which could affect your ability to transact with your land is to visit your local land surveyance office. They will help you understand the reasons for the change and how it affects your ability to use the property.


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About Me

Getting the Job Done with Construction Contractors

Hello, my name is Carl and this is my construction and contractor blog. I do not work in the construction business but last year, my wife and I had a lot of work carried out on our summer home which is located on the Gold Coast. Winter storms had damaged the roof and a couple of seabirds had made a nest in there. The place was a real mess but thankfully the contractors did a great job of repairing the roof and fixing up the damage to the loft space. I learn a lot during the repairs so I decided to start a new blog. Enjoy!