If you’ve ever tried to read a Legal Description for a property, you know how difficult it can be to understand.  Legal Descriptions represent the pivotal information in a contract that make it valid because it’s incredibly specific in its physical location.  An address is not a valid legal description in a contract.  You may be interested in finding more information about your property or your neighborhood, and a great place to start is with your legal description. 

At a meeting this morning, we were given a great presentation by Mrs. Leigh Clack, closing attorney with Neel and Robinson, on how you go about figuring out a legal description.  I found it incredibly helpful, and I thought I would share it. 

Here’s a Legal Description:

All that tract or parcel of land lying and being in Land Lot 145, 14th District, Fulton County, Georgia, being Lot 15, Block C, Grant Park Acres, as per plat recorded in Plat Book 235, Page 25, Fulton County Records, said plat being incorporated herein for reference.

123 Hill Street, Atlanta, Georgia 30315

Tax parcel 14-145-9-9-0

Here’s what that means:

Land Lot 145, 14th District:  The county is divided into smaller pieces for mapping and identification purposes.  This is also how deeds are indexed when recording.  This also matches part of the tax parcel.

Fulton County:  Deeds are only recorded in the county where the property is located.  Some properties lie in two counties and those deeds should be recorded in both courthouses.

Lot 15, Block C:   This identifies the exact Lot and Block of the subject property.  There can be multiple Blocks on one plat, so confirm that you have the correct Block first and then find the right Lot.

Grant Park Acres:  Name of subdivision based on the title of the recorded plat.  This name may not appear on an entrance sign, and sometimes a new or different name is actually used to identify the neighborhood (such as “Kirkwood” or “Brookhaven”).

Plat Book 235, Page 25:  Where to find the recorded plat.  Newer plats are available on GSCCCA, but all plats are available at the courthouse.

Address and Tax parcel:  Additional helpful information to confirm that you have the correct property.

Many thanks to Leigh Clack with Neel & Robinson, Attorneys at Law LLC.  You can reach Leigh at lenox@neelandrobinson.com.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Home Tips, Legal, Listings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.