I started a new job in August, and part of my duties at this job is to check over legal descriptions coming in from consultants. About half of them are coming to me in a format like this:
All block letters, no line breaks, no formatting at all.?ÿ
A word to the wise: If you are looking to stand my teeth on edge before I begin reviewing your legals, this is a good way to do it.?ÿ
The first thing I do with these is scan (if necessary), OCR, and format with line breaks, paragraph structure (each "thence" begins a new paragraph) and upper/lowercase letters as appropriate for english reading. Like my alter ego did for our poster from Toronto last night. We use all block letters on drawings to pass text height requirements. It does not enhance readability.?ÿ
What a mess.?ÿ Who are sending you these things??ÿ Lawyers??ÿ Engineers?
I agree 100%!!!
These mashed together abominations are a plague. I hate having to print them out, and use 5 different highlighter colors to make them even half-assed readable.
A pet peeve of mine for years (especially when they originated as one of my "formatted" descriptions).
Loyal?ÿ
In feet and INCHES??
Some, I presume, are regurgitations directly from title reports. Others are written afresh, often, I suspect, by underlings with minimal supervision.?ÿ But all have a surveyors stamp under them.
Well, that just happened to be a convenient screen grab. It's from another thread that was posted last night. I can't say I've actually seen any feet and inches coming across my desk.
Pet peeve No. 2 : the phrase "a distance of" can be dispensed with in most cases. Just strike it out and lose nothing.?ÿ Reduce wordiness, which enhances readability. I'm not going to reject your description for that reason alone if you insist on using it, but ......
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From Elements of Style, Strunk & White
Rule 16:?ÿUse definite, specific, concrete language.
- Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell
Rule 17:?ÿOmit needless words.
and "to a point" if you aren't going to say anything else to identify the point.
I was saving that for Pet Peeve No. 3. But you are absolutely right.?ÿ
There is no particular reason that these things should be related, but people who reflexively use those phrases tend to make plenty of really fundamental errors as well, and those who do not, do not.?ÿ
@norman-oklahoma?ÿ Wow, I'm surprised a surveyor would have so little pride in their work to stamp a mess like that.
Oh, don't get me started on poor descriptions...
I see many around here looking like the one in the OP. Even recent ones.
Formatting drives me nuts, but what really gets me going are the surveyors who use so many extraneous words, and at the same time neglect to add critical information, such as monumentation (which I know they set or found because I have the accompanying record of survey), or enough arc information to both build and check it.
?ÿ(I just remembered what one of my mentors would say: "When writing descriptions, if you use the words to wit, you're a twit.")
i was about to self immolate once trying to figure out the legal descriptions some assessors office had modified into their own bizarre shorthand until i called and was sent an email with a hard to decipher slanted/rotated from 40 years of copying and not retyping honest to god purple mimograph list of the abbrvtins.....not even kidding...... ???¦ ???¦ ???¦ ???¦ ???¦ ???ª ???ª ???ª ???ª ???ª ???ª ???ª ???ª ???ª ???ª ???ª ???ª ???ª ???ª ???ª ???ª ???ª ???ª ???ª
OMG. Abrv. ICST.?ÿ
I can't wait until people try using emoticons (emojis?) in descriptions.
The first thing I would do with something like that is reject it and tell the author to clean it up and make it legible with one course per line with lines separated with blank lines.
There is one surveyor in a nearby area that seems to like that all caps and string everything together format.?ÿ Not fun to read.?ÿ But unless we want to get yet another standards of practice rule in place, it is their choice on how they format the description they prepare.
There is one attorney in a neighboring town who used to have his office retype a description provided to him with all caps and no returns.?ÿ A friend who has to deal with him frequently has had this discussion several times with him.?ÿ Apparently the couple of bucks that might be saved by one less page of filed document makes it worthwhile - hmm I wonder how much it cost to have someone retype the whole darn thing!
Yes, it's a free country.?ÿ Until some collection of bureaucrats attempt to force certain unimportant details into every survey plat this will continue.?ÿ In the meantime expect to find things you would do differently if it were your plat.
As an example, I prefer to do bearings and azimuths using symbols for degrees minutes and seconds instead of further lengthening the description with North 88 degrees and 47 minutes and 07 seconds East for every usage.?ÿ As mentioned earlier, some like to use "a distance of" instead of simply putting in the number.?ÿ I prefer using the number.?ÿ Brief is good so long as it is clear and accurate.
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One thing that gets to me quickly is the practice of spelling out numbers in addition to simply having the number.
Lot One-Hundred Ninety Eight (Lot 198).
There are no regulations concerning descriptions which is a boon in that an owner can record something as simple as "all my land north of the highway", but is a curse in that a dilettante can obfuscate matters so profoundly even an expert cannot unravel the deed's intent.?ÿ Get my point?
I once was asked to write a deed for a total take of a lot which I composed as "Lot 1 of XXX Subdivision Per Book xx Page yyy of blah blah County Records."?ÿ The client expert deed guy rejected it as inadequate and insisted I start at record physical monument POC (thousands of feet distant) ,then to a POB, then traverse B&D and close to the POB with a "more or less" call.?ÿ I kinda went ballistic and told him to shove that idea up his *ss and have his boss contact my boss. Ultimately I won.
I?ÿ believe the extraneous verbiage of B&D calls "a distance of",?ÿ "to a point in the west boundary of", "x.xx' feet"et al., is the result of telegraphic costs being charged by the word in the distant past, and to a lesser extent scriveners in the 20th century charging by the page.?ÿ A waste of words.?ÿ
Though there be no regulations presently I adhere to the KISS principal, no free calls unless necessary, bounds control, found valid monuments control are controlling?ÿ over record/measured B&Ds, "the south half of" defines the split, etc.?ÿ OTOH I've written five page deeds concerning ROW interchanges where there's lots of free forward calls to existing boundaries which control, thence along them for several record courses to another free call, etc.,?ÿ where the basis of bearings changes with each free call.?ÿ Ponder that.
The problem is there's lots of sad sacks who judge themselves worthy of transcribing/creating descriptions who mess up the Courthouse record.?ÿ The solution would be to make descriptions the sole purview of licensed surveyors (although that?ÿ would only be an improvement), but the legal, title and owners players will prevent that.?ÿ So for the foreseeable future land surveyors will have to deal with ancient and modern legal descriptions which suck, maybe it's our burden to shoulder.
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For the record, I am not the least bit interested in promoting for regulations to govern legal description formatting. Time and time again regulations have merely inspired those who defeat their spirit while meeting their letter. I much prefer peer pressure and a good, old fashioned, appeal to self-interest.?ÿ ?ÿ