How a deed description becomes a map
A recorded deed describes land in words. Turning those words into a drawn boundary is the same arithmetic a surveyor uses to plot a traverse, and it is worth understanding what the result can and cannot tell you.
Reading a metes-and-bounds description
A metes-and-bounds description walks the perimeter of a parcel. It opens at a point of beginning tied to something findable, then gives a series of calls, each a direction and a distance, and closes back at the start.
A call such as "thence North 12 degrees 30 minutes 00 seconds East, 214.60 feet to an iron pin set" carries three pieces of information: a bearing measured from north or south toward east or west, a distance in feet, and a monument at the far end. Curved boundaries add a radius, an arc length and a chord. The monument matters most: where a described distance and a found monument disagree, the monument generally controls under long-standing rules of construction.
Plotting every call in order draws the shape. If the last call does not land exactly on the point of beginning, the gap is the closure error. A small error is normal in older deeds. A large one signals a transcription mistake, a missing call, or a description that was never surveyed.
What plotting a deed does not establish
A plotted deed gives you a shape and a relative geometry. It does not, on its own, give you a position on the earth. Placing the shape correctly requires tying the point of beginning to a known location, typically a surveyed monument, a section corner or a coordinate on a recorded plat.
Bearings in older deeds are frequently magnetic rather than true or grid, and magnetic declination changes over decades, so an old description can plot rotated by several degrees relative to modern mapping. Distances may be in chains, rods or poles rather than feet.
For these reasons, a plotted deed is a research aid. It shows whether a described easement strip plausibly crosses a driveway or a building site, and it helps you ask a surveyor the right question. It is not a boundary determination, and it cannot be used to set a fence, resolve a dispute or satisfy a lender.
Easement language inside a deed
Deeds carry easements in two directions and it is important to tell them apart. A deed may convey land "subject to" an easement, meaning the burden stays with the land you are buying. A deed may also convey land "together with" an easement, meaning you are receiving a right over someone else's land, such as access across a neighboring driveway.
Either clause may describe the strip with its own metes and bounds, which can be plotted the same way as the parcel boundary. More often it simply recites something like "subject to a 20-foot utility easement along the north line" or references a separately recorded instrument. A recital without measurements identifies that an easement exists; it does not place it.
Where a deed cites a recorded plat, the plat is the better source, because easements on a plat are drawn to scale with dimensions rather than described in prose.
Common questions
- What is a metes-and-bounds description?
- A written definition of a parcel that walks its perimeter from a point of beginning through a series of bearings and distances back to the start. It is the common form for rural land and for any parcel never platted as a subdivision.
- What does closure error mean?
- The distance between where the final call ends and the point of beginning. It measures the internal consistency of the description. A few hundredths of a foot is excellent; several feet usually means a transcription error or a description written without a survey.
- Can a plotted deed replace a survey?
- No. Plotting produces a shape from text. Only a licensed land surveyor locating the recorded monuments in the field can establish where a boundary or easement sits on the ground, and only a survey can be relied on for construction, fencing or a boundary dispute.
- Why does an old deed plot at the wrong angle?
- Older descriptions often use magnetic bearings. Magnetic north drifts over time, so a description written a century ago can plot rotated by several degrees compared with modern true or grid north. A surveyor resolves this by rotating the description to fit found monuments.
- What is the difference between subject to and together with?
- Subject to means the property you are acquiring carries the burden of an easement someone else may use. Together with means you are acquiring the benefit of an easement over other land, such as a right of access.