March 10, 2025
Developers are often moving fast to secure land and rely on GIS parcel data to identify parcels of interest. But when it comes to recording documents on the land records, it is critical to have a valid legal description to protect your interests. What is a valid legal description? And, what is not?
What makes a legal description valid?
To be valid under Texas law, a conveyance of real property must contain a description that is sufficient to give another person reasonable certainty of the property that is affected. But what types of legal descriptions can provide “reasonable certainty?” If the legal description is not valid, the instrument may be voidable. Each of the following types of property descriptions provide reasonable certainty as to the land being described, thereby protecting your interests:
- Metes and bounds descriptions: A land surveyor prepares these, and they start at a point of beginning and describe the entirety of a parcel by describing each segment of the property line; they identify monuments around the bounds of the property and the linear distances between them. A metes and bounds description is the most specific and objective way to describe a piece of land. They can be lengthy and difficult to read, but your surveyor and attorney can assist in including the correct metes and bounds descriptions in your contracts.
- Block and Lot references: For parcels subdivided from large tracts, a legal description may be a reference to the lot and block of a prepared plat or subdivision map. For example, “Lot 38, Block C, Jamestown Hills, a subdivision of Travis County, Texas, according to the plat thereof recorded in Book, 13, Page 5, Plat Records, Travis County, Texas.”
- Prior deed references: Prior deed references can be a valid way to describe property. One reason to make reference a prior recorded deed is to put your recorded document in the chain of title for the subject property, however, if the prior deed you reference in your document has an incorrect legal description or is a wild deed (meaning, it is outside the chain of title), it makes your instrument voidable or may require additional curative work because it is relying on a defective document to describe the property.
What are the common pitfalls to avoid when trying to describe property that is the subject of a real estate contract?
- Relying on Tax Assessors or Appraisal District Parcel Information: Taxing authorities keep records on all the parcels within their jurisdictions. Sometimes referred to as “field cards” or “tax cards,” these records can be helpful during a developer’s due diligence phase, but they do not contain valid legal descriptions. Parcel ID numbers assigned by the taxing authority are not legal descriptions because they do not provide reasonable certainty of the property being affected. Parcel IDs can change over time as property is sold, divided, gifted, etc. A single legal parcel can sometimes have multiple Parcel IDs and multiple parcels can be purchased by a single owner and reassigned a single Parcel ID number. Unlike some other states, in Texas, a tract may be assigned a new Parcel ID before being formally subdivided or replatted. Tax records may also list the legal description, but these are often shorthand descriptions that are meant to help the taxing authority in their own record-keeping. They are not true, valid legal descriptions, and developers should avoid referencing these “legal descriptions” in their real estate contracts.
- Relying on references to acreage: Including these items in your description of the property can be helpful to the reader or the parties to the contract in identifying the subject property, and it is okay to include them as a reference in your documents. However, they should not be relied upon as a valid legal description. The Texas courts have ruled that acreage is “the least reliable data point in descriptions of the land and will be rejected if it is inconsistent with the actual land conveyed.” (See, AIC Mgmt. v. Crews, 246 S.W.3d 640, 649 (Tex. 2008), citing Pac. Coal & Oil Co. v. Masterson,160 Tex. 548, 334 S.W.2d 436, 439 (Tex. 1960).)
- Relying on property addresses: Street addresses fail to adequately describe property for the same reasons that tax records fail—addresses are issued by the United States Postal Service or a 9-1-1 addressing program to identify the property and not to describe the land area with reasonable certainty. Street addresses fail to describe the exact area of land that is subject to the real estate contract.
- Relying on property depictions: This can be a helpful tool to build consensus between the parties regarding what property is subject to the contract, especially if the parties acknowledge the intention to eventually define a subportion of the property for the siting of the project. However, depictions are not sufficient to identify the conveyed land. Further, some county recording offices will not accept recording of a document that relies exclusively on a depiction, and the quality of the recording may render the depiction unreadable. This is why the contract should refer to a valid legal description for the entire parcel owned by the landowner and supplemented with a depiction. The parties can always amend the contract later to include a legal description of subportion of the subject property.
All of these property references are not adequate legal descriptions because they rely on unrecorded documents that exist at the time of the real estate contract. They may be lost, changed, or inaccurate (because the information is meant for another purpose!). When describing the property in your real estate document, avoid relying on any unrecorded documents to legally describe the subject property.
What should a developer do to ensure a property description is valid?
At the execution of the contract, it is critical to include a legally valid description of the property, even if the developer intends to survey the property to obtain a metes and bounds legal description after execution.
Developers should go to the county land records and obtain a copy of the vesting deed for the subject property prior to executing the contract to obtain the legal description of the property. This is also critical to ensuring the developer has the correct landowner as a party to the contract.
Developers understandably do not want to incur unnecessary costs before they are under contract, but if you have reached reasonable certainty that a deal will be made, the developer may consider ordering a title search from their title insurance company prior to execution. The title search will include the chain of title documents, which will confirm whether the legal description is accurate and affirm that the developer is contracting with the legal owner. Your attorney can also perform a red-flag review of the draft title commitment to see if there are any recorded documents on the land records that are a fatal flaw to the project. Developers should plan to survey the property after execution to obtain a metes and bounds description of the property, ensuring the validity of the legal description and the site control document.