Legal Descriptions: Identifying Land in Deeds

Legal descriptions are paragraphs in deeds that identify the exact land conveyed. Most of them begin like this:

All that tract or parcel of land lying and being in Land Lot 143 of the 17th District and 2nd Section of Cobb County, Georgia and being more particularly described as …

A legal description describes where your property lies in relation to other properties. In Georgia, they describe land identifying the county, district, and land lot, followed by a metes and bounds description of the property or referencing a visual depiction of the property in a plat of survey.

Historical Context for Legal Descriptions

Georgia’s method of describing land for legal descriptions began in the 1830s. At that time, much of northwest Georgia was part of the Cherokee Nation. But, the Georgia General Assembly enacted legislation claiming all lands within Georgia. It then divided those lands into smaller pieces called:

• Sections
• Districts
• Land lots.

Sections and Districts

Sections are the largest portions of land. Districts lie within sections. Then, land lots lie within districts. Some sections and districts overlap into other counties. Cobb County, for example, is within the 2nd Section of Georgia. It was originally part of Cherokee County in the 1830s. Cobb’s districts include portions of the first, second, third, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth districts.

Land Lots

Land lots vary in size but are most often about 40 acres in size. Legal descriptions begin with the largest divisions of land (section), then list the district, and finally identify the land lot.

Once the deed identifies the property down to its land lot, it then describes the property more specifically using these descriptors:

• Size of the parcel of land,
• Length, location, and trajectory of boundary lines,
• Parcel’s physical relationship to roads and monuments.

The legal description is a critical component of any land transfer. It needs to be accurate and clearly describe the property that is being conveyed. Without accurate legal descriptions, disputes can arise between landowners concerning who owns what property.