Photo Scanner: Legal Description of Property

Thursday, 8 November 2012

Legal Description of Property

In many parts of Canada the original subdivision of crown land was done by township surveys. Different sizes of townships have been used (e.g. Québec's irregularly shaped cantons and Ontario's concession townships), but all were designed to provide rectangular farm lots within a defined rural community. The survey of a township was essentially a subdivision survey, because the plan of the township was registered and the lots (sometimes called sections) were numbered. The description of a whole lot for legal purposes is complete in the identification of the township and the lot within the township. A legal land description in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta would be defined by the Dominion Land Survey. For example the village of Yarbo, Saskatchewan is located at the legal land description of SE-12-20-33-W1, which would be the South East quarter of Section 12, Township 20, Range 33, West of the first meridian. Land descriptions within the United States can generally be classified as one of these basic types (1) the "metes and bounds" system; (2) the US Public Land Survey system; and (3) the "lot and block" survey system.