A land description location of the written words which delineate a specific piece of

real property In English common law, real property, real estate, immovable property or, solely in the US and Canada, realty, is land which is the property of some person and all structures (also called improvements or fixtures) integrated with or affixe ...

. Also known as a "Legal Description". In the written transfer of real property, it is universally required that the instrument of conveyance (

deed In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferring ...

) include a written description of the property.

Legal land description

Canada

*In many parts of Canada the original subdivision of crown land was done by

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

surveys. Different sizes of townships have been used (e.g. Québec's irregularly shaped cantons and Ontario's concession townships), but all were designed to provide rectangular farm lots within a defined rural community. The survey of a township was essentially a subdivision survey, because the plan of the township was registered and the lots (sometimes called sections) were numbered. The description of a whole lot for legal purposes is complete in the identification of the township and the lot within the township. * A legal land description in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta would be defined by the

Dominion Land Survey The Dominion Land Survey (DLS; french: links=no, arpentage des terres fédérales, ATF) is the method used to divide most of Western Canada into one-square-mile (2.6 km2) sections for agricultural and other purposes. It is based on the layout ...

. For example, the village of Yarbo,

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

is located at the legal land description of SE-12-20-33-W1, which would be the South East

quarter A quarter is one-fourth, , 25% or 0.25. Quarter or quarters may refer to: Places * Quarter (urban subdivision), a section or area, usually of a town Placenames * Quarter, South Lanarkshire, a settlement in Scotland * Le Quartier, a settlement ...

Section Section, Sectioning or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sign ...

12,

Township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

20,

Range Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...

33, West of the first

meridian Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to Science * Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon * ...

. * A legal land description in British Columbia Fraser Valley Lower Mainland (Metro Vancouver) is defined by land surveys based out of New Westminster. Land in New Westminster Townsite corresponding to present day New Westminster is labelled as such while land outside the townsite is labelled as being in New Westminster District.Vancouver, a Visual History, Bruce MacDonald, 1992, page 15 The Main subdivisions are

District Lots A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

that represent parcel sales to settlers mostly in the time from 1860-1890. District lots are numbered from DL1 to over DL3,000. These District Lots are still represented on the cadastral maps of British Columbia. Later these lots would be subdivided to form blocks and residential lots. A typical address would thus indicate a lot number, a block range, and the original District Lot from which it was subdivided.

References

External links

Cadastral Map of British Columbia showing District LotsMouland D.J. (1987) Land Descriptions. In: Brinker R.C., Minnick R. (eds) The Surveying Handbook. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1188-2_30
{{DEFAULTSORT:Land Description Surveying Real estate in Canada Real property law