A legal description of land can be acquired by:

• A. Metes and bounds
• B. Rectangular survey system
• C. Recorded plats (lot and block)
• D. Any one of the following: metes and bounds, rectangular survey system, or recorded plats

Answer: (D)

Legal descriptions establish exact boundaries of land in a deed, and they must be precise enough for a surveyor to retrace. There are several accepted methods for describing property, and any one of them can be used to create a valid legal description: metes and bounds describe the perimeter from a defined point of beginning using distances and directions (often with reference to monuments); the rectangular survey system (government survey) uses a grid of principal meridians and baselines to divide land into townships and sections; and recorded plats describe property as lots within a subdivision, with lot and block numbers shown on the plat filed in public records. Because all three are established, legally recognized ways to define boundaries, the correct understanding is that a legal description can be prepared by any of these methods.