MightyMoe; Won't argue with calling for the monuments being the preferred way. I am writing a description based on my previous work where the traveled way was located and shown across this tract. It is still at a proposal stage and the description I am writing is to be used to finalize the agreement and to provide the description to be used for the signed and to be Recorded Document which would then actually create the Easement when that Document was Recorded. I am not writing a Deed or Agreement Document, only a description for others to use in creating the Documents needed. It is cheaper doing it this way rather than going to court to obtain a ROW and also clear the cloud now existing, caused by the long use, by many in good faith, of the traveled way across the owners land.
jud
Yet another rewrite
Okay, I'll bite. (What I would have thought what you'd want to include would be a map reference that would let some future surveyor know how you intended the strip to actually be located on the ground, i.e. details of monumentation, bearing basis, etc.)
DESCRIPTION OF A STRIP FOR AN ALLEY WAY ACROSS A CERTAIN TRACT OF LAND LOCATED IN THE SW QUARTER OF SECTION 35, TOWNSHIP 2 SOUTH, RANGE 26 EAST OF THE WILLAMETTE MERIDIAN, MORROW COUNTY, OREGON CONVEYED BY [GRANTOR] TO [GRANTEE] AS DESCRIBED IN THE WARRANTY DEED DATED [DATE] RECORDED AS DOCUMENT NUMBER M-53009 IN THE MORROW COUNTY, OREGON DEED RECORDS;
BEGINNING AT THE NORTHEAST CORNER OF THAT CERTAIN TRACT OF LAND MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED IN THE ABOVE MENTIONED WARRANTY DEED AS BEING:
“ALL THAT PORTION OF THE FOLLOWING DESCRIBED REAL PROPERTY LYING EAST OF WILLOW CREEK DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS";
“BEGINNING AT A POINT WHICH LIES A DISTANCE OF 26.00 FEET
NORTH OF THE NORTHWEST CORNER OF LOT 4, BLOCK 1 IN, “T.W.
AYER’S ADDITION TO THE CITY OF HEPPNER “;
THENCE EAST A DISTANCE OF 325.00 FEET TO A POINT;
THENCE NORTH A DISTANCE OF 66.00 FEET TO A POINT;
THENCE WEST A DISTANCE OF 325.00 FEET TO A POINT;
THENCE SOUTH A DISTANCE OF 66.00 FEET TO THE POINT OF
BEGINNING”.
BTW all caps really isn't a highly legible way to write a metes and bounds description. I'd save the capital letters for emphasis.
1) THENCE S00°00'00"E, 66.00 FEET ALONG THE EAST LINE OF THE ABOVE DESCRIBED TRACT TO ITS SOUTHEAST CORNER;
2) THENCE N89°46'15"W, 10.00 FEET ALONG THE SOUTH LINE OF THE ABOVE DESCRIBED TRACT;
3) THENCE N00°00'00"E, 29.45 FEET;
4) THENCE N07°02'00"W, 20.14 FEET;
5) THENCE N19°00'12"W, 17.52 FEET TO THE NORTH LINE THE ABOVE DESCRIBED TRACT;
6) THENCE N89°50’45”E, 18.17 FEET ALONG THE NORTH LINE OF THE ABOVE DESCRIBED TRACT TO THE POINT OF BEGINNING OF THIS DESCRIPTION,
CONTAINING 773 SQUARE FEET.
BTW all caps works against legibility. I'd save the capitalization for selective emphasis.
Looks to me like you are describing a portion of TL 5100 in Block 1 of Ayers 4th Addition.
ODOT has a pretty good guide and standard for descriptions in it's Right of Way Manual. Look for "Writing an Exhibit A" in the Table of Contents. There is also a link within the text of the manual to standard ways to reference recorded deeds in all the various counties.
The following will do the job and would satisfy ODOT:
PROPOSED EASEMENT FOR AN ALLEY WAY
A parcel of land lying in the SW 1/4 of Section 35, Township 2 South, Range 26 East, W.M., Morrow County, Oregon; said parcel being a portion of that property described in that Warranty Deed recorded [date], as M-53009 of Morrow County Microfilm Records, described as follows:
Beginning at the most easterly northeast corner of said M-53009 tract, said corner being North 0°00'00" East 92.00 feet and North 89°50'45" East 325.00 feet of the northwest corner of Lot 4, Block 1, Ayers 4th Addition to the City of Heppner,
thence along the east line of said M-53009 tract South 0°00'00" East 66.00 feet to the southeast corner of said M-53009 tract;
thence along the south line of said M-53009 tract North 89°46'15" West 10.00 feet;
thence North 00° 00' 00" East 29.45 feet;
thence North 07° 02' 00" West 20.14 feet;
thence North 19° 00' 12" West 17.52 feet to the north line of said M-53009 tract;
thence along the north line of said M-53009 tract North 89° 50’ 45” East 18.17 feet to the point of beginning.
Contains xxx square feet, more or less.
Thanks Mark. I was scrolling through the posts thinking about how I'd write it and I got to your post and you'd written what I was thinking.
I agree with not reciting the calls of the parent deed since it is easy to fat-finger a mistake where no mistake needs to be made. Personally, I don't like using "proposed" because when the deed is recorded the easement is no longer proposed, it is fact, so why have it recorded in perpetuity labeled as something that is going to happen, but hasn’t yet? Also I now leave out the purpose (alley, gas line easement, road) because the purpose of the description is stated in the actual conveyance wording and I've seen where the deed said one thing -"do hereby grant an ingress/egress easement" -which ran contrary to what a surveyor wrote in the caption of the attached description, - "road and utility easement". Money then got diverted into a lawyers pocket. I just put “Exhibit A” and let the owners figure out what they want to deed it as. I do put a footer in the document with the file name which reflects what the description contains (TL500ease.doc, TL300RW.doc) to serve as a guide to whoever is shuffling the paperwork on a big project.
I'd suggest that you keep in mind that this is an "easement in gross" that you're trying to describe. As such, there is no "dominant estate," but there is a "servient estate" that needs to be identified. That's where I think you're being hung up with the description.
The tract description you are attempting to include as part of the easement, isn't part of the easement, it's the servient estate (the one giving up the easement). I would suggest that you prepare two exhibits, not one (in the case of an "appurtenant easement" with both a "servient" and "dominant" estate, you'd have three exhibits). Exhibit "A", in this case, would be labeled as the "servient" estate which will copy verbatim the description recited in the record for the parcel from which the easement is being granted along with the citations to the source of the record. Exhibit "B" would contain the description of the easement being granted.
The easement grant document itself then only needs a simple form:
I, so-and-so, owner of the servient estate described on Exhibit A, hereby dedicate a __ foot wide easement for a public alleyway described on Exhibit B... (you get the drift).
JBS
Mark. Constructive critisium please.
Your assumption is correct but a little more history. TL 5100 was created as one Tax Lot at the request of an owner asking the Assessor to combine the two tracts which made it up into one Tax Lot for Tax proposes. The new owner recently requested that TL 5100 be returned to two different Tax Lots separated as the Deed described them, I surveyed it that way, the Assessor made the change and that change has not worked it's way through the State system yet. In 1917 a new Plat was prepared dividing Lot 1 of Ayres 4th Addition into the configuration shown on the Assessor maps today except for some later additional subdivisions of some of those lots. That Plat never was recorded, a copy of it was found in the records of, "now closed", "Morrow County Title and Abstract". I had a copy of it in my records and it appears as if all of the metes and bounds descriptions in this area were created using the data from that unrecorded Plat and probably were all written by Morrow County Title and Abstract. Can't record that unrecorded Plat today as a Subdivision Plat, but I can File it in the Survey Records as soon as I have it scanned and a reproducible copy made. I used that Plat, Recorded Deeds with their descriptions along with ties to other evidence and occupation lines to do my survey and treated that evidence as if it was a Subdivision Plat with all of the tracts being created simultaneously. Long term occupations were not disturbed but most were very close to the unrecorded plat locations. Still reviewing all input and have not finalized my easement description yet, thought I had finalized it yesterday, but overnight decided that I need to sit on it a bit longer.
Thanks for your comments.
jud
Mark. Constructive critisium please.
I hope that before all is said and done you will get a survey recorded that details all that history for posterity.
Mark. Constructive critisium please.
Already done Mark, File #1569 Morrow County Surveyor Records.
jud
Mark. Constructive critisium please.
Jud,
Sorry for my harsh prior post,
But if you do not call for found monuments, in 20 years how will this description be put back upon the ground.
One should never just call for a corner of something, but something either found or set for that corner.
If not why even go to the field?
Just my 2 cents.
Randy
Mark. Constructive criticism please.
> One should never just call for a corner of something, but something either found or set for that corner.
That's the beauty of being a recording state. The survey map Jud did is public record. The evidence he collected to resolve the corners is available to all. Sure, I can see the value of setting the fee parcel corners, but it is not common to set iron on easement lines in Oregon.
Mark. Constructive criticism please.
You could also look at it as a drawback to being in a recording state. Sure, it would be nice to have monuments at the corners of this easement and have those monuments called out in the description, but if you establish the exact points on the ground for that easement and monument them, you're into an expensive map filing requirement.
Just calling to the corners of a parcel with a recorded map on file seems like it will work just fine. I suppose you could describe what type of monuments mark the corners of the parcel you're referring to, but that's on public record and should be easy to find in a recording state. If you want to be real nit-picky, just field-locating features that you then describe in relation to a boundary could be seen as a map-filing trigger in CA.
Mark. Constructive criticism please.
> You could also look at it as a drawback to being in a recording state.
Sure. By setting monuments Jud triggers the need to file a Record of Survey, which will add $1,000 to the cost of the work, bare minimum.
Mark. Constructive criticism please.
Some places around here, it would cost that much if the surveyor does it for free, but that's another thread.
Mark. Constructive criticism please.
Jud just recorded Survey Number 1569 in Morrow County. That equates to an average of about 2 per month since recording began in the late 1940's. Most rural Oregon Counties record your survey without a lot of fuss or fees. But the requirement is the same. The Portland tri-county area can be another story - one quite analogous to California.
Mark. Constructive criticism please.
And, of course, since it's for the City heaven forbid paying those fees;-)