Legal Descriptions: Metes and Bounds, Lot and Block & the Government Survey

A street address can change, and a tax parcel number is only a bookkeeping tool. A legal description identifies exactly one piece of land so that it can be conveyed, mortgaged and insured without doubt. Florida uses all three classic systems. Exam questions ask you to recognize them and to do the acreage arithmetic.

Purposes of a legal description

A deed or mortgage needs a description complete enough to locate the land on the ground and in the records. Florida's statutory deed form leaves room for the property appraiser's parcel identification number. The statute is explicit, though, that this number is not part of the legal description and cannot replace it.

Metes and bounds

A metes-and-bounds description traces the boundary of a parcel. Federal land-description standards list its parts:

• a point of commencement, a known reference point such as a section corner;
• the point of beginning (POB) where the boundary starts;
• a series of courses (bearings, like North 40°56’ West) and distances;
• calls to monuments and adjoining lands; and
• a closing call back to the POB.

A description that never returns to the point of beginning does not enclose a parcel. Florida plat law requires the same parts on a plat whose boundary is described by metes and bounds: point of commencement, course bearings and distances, and point of beginning.

Lot and block (recorded plat)

When a developer creates a subdivision, meaning three or more lots or parcels, the land is mapped on a plat and recorded. A plat is a complete, exact representation of the subdivision. Once it is recorded, a parcel can be described simply by lot and block number, plat name, and plat book and page in the county records.

The government (rectangular) survey system

• Each survey starts from an initial point where a principal meridian (north-south) crosses a base line (east-west). Each principal meridian has its own base line. Florida's is the Tallahassee Meridian, and the point from which the state was surveyed is preserved as a park in Tallahassee.
• Township lines run every six miles north and south of the base line. Range lines run every six miles east and west of the meridian. Where they intersect they form a township, about 6 miles square, containing 36 sections.
• A section is nominally one mile square, contains 640 acres, and is numbered 1 to 36 on a fixed plan.
• Sections divide into quarter sections of 160 acres (NE1/4, NW1/4, SW1/4, SE1/4), then quarter-quarter sections of 40 acres, and so on.

Legal description math

Key equivalents: 1 mile = 5,280 feet; 1 acre = 43,560 square feet; 1 square mile = 640 acres.

• Aliquot parts: start with 640 and divide by each fraction, working from the end of the description back. The NE1/4 of the SW1/4 of Section 12 = 640 ÷ 4 ÷ 4 = 40 acres. The S1/2NE1/4NW1/4SE1/4 = 640 ÷ 4 ÷ 4 ÷ 4 ÷ 2 = 5 acres.
• Square footage to acres: a 330-foot by 660-foot parcel is 217,800 square feet. Divided by 43,560, that is 5 acres. At $12,000 per acre, the price is $60,000.
• Distance: one side of a section is one mile, or 5,280 feet. One side of a quarter section is 2,640 feet.

Where this shows up on the exam

Legal Descriptions is 5% of the exam in the DBPR booklet (January 2025), about five questions. Expect one or two acreage calculations, plus questions on which system is in use and what the point of beginning does.

Sources

North Carolina law as published by the General Assembly and the Office of Administrative Hearings, checked 2026-11-05:

• s. 689.02, F.S.
• ss. 177.031, 177.091, F.S.
• s. 258.08, F.S.
• BLM/FGDC Specifications for Descriptions of Land
• Federal Register 78 FR (Mar. 14, 2013), Tallahassee Meridian plat filing
• DBPR Sales Associate Candidate Information Booklet (Jan 2025)