New Legal Property Description - Lot 20, Block 2, Lake Forest Unit No. 3, as shown on the Plat recorded in Plat Book 50, Pages 27-1 through 27-3, in the Office of the Clerk of Circuit Court, Hillsborough County, Florida
Original Legal Property Description - Lot 20, Block 2, Lake Forest Unit No. 3, as shown on the plat recorded in plat book 50, pages 27-1 through 27-3, in the office of the Clerk of the Court, Hillsborough County, Florida.
I tried to follow the recommended format, The LOMA auditor made 7 corrections to my legal description. Can you spot them?
> New Legal Property Description - Lot 20, Block 2, Lake Forest Unit No. 3, as shown on the Plat recorded in Plat Book 50, Pages 27-1 through 27-3, in the Office of the Clerk of Circuit Court, Hillsborough County, Florida
>
> Original Legal Property Description - Lot 20, Block 2, Lake Forest Unit No. 3, as shown on the plat recorded in plat book 50, pages 27-1 through 27-3, in the office of the Clerk of the Court, Hillsborough County, Florida.
>
> I tried to follow the recommended format, The LOMA auditor made 7 corrections to my legal description. Can you spot them?
Plat to plat
Plat to plat
Book to book
Pages to pages
Office to office
remove Circuit
add period after Florida
> New Legal Property Description - Lot 20, Block 2, Lake Forest Unit No. 3, as shown on the Plat recorded in Plat Book 50, Pages 27-1 through 27-3, in the Office of the Clerk of Circuit Court, Hillsborough County, Florida
>
> Original Legal Property Description - Lot 20, Block 2, Lake Forest Unit No. 3, as shown on the plat recorded in plat book 50, pages 27-1 through 27-3, in the office of the Clerk of the Court, Hillsborough County, Florida.
>
> I tried to follow the recommended format, The LOMA auditor made 7 corrections to my legal description. Can you spot them?
Yes, I can spot them.
Ryan got it, but backwards, the top legal is their revised version. I can see the Caps (but I'm not sure they are following the traditional English rules there ... ) but why no period at the end of the Legal?
> Original Legal Property Description - Lot 20, Block 2, Lake Forest Unit No. 3, as shown on the plat recorded in plat book 50, pages 27-1 through 27-3, in the office of the Clerk of the Court, Hillsborough County, Florida.
Looks like they capitalized the characters shown in red and eliminated "the" from "Clerk of the Court".
I've completed several LOMR-F's over the past few years and haven't noticed similar edits. Did they draw attention to it or make it an issue?
Oops, I missed that they added "Circuit" to make it Clerk of Circuit Court.
Yes, the auditor sent an email outlining the changes:
We made some changes to the Legal Property Description (highlighted in yellow below) so it would conform to the FEMA approved format in the attached document.
Please note the changes in capitalization and that there should not be a period at the end of the Legal Property Description. For all future eLOMAs please use the format provided in the attached help text document.
He attached the FEMA guideline for Legal Writing
Their example does say "Clerk of the Court", which is why I choose that. It's common here to say "... in the Public Records of (county)... "
FEMA Approved Format for eLOMA Legal Property Descriptions
Guidelines for writing Legal Property Descriptions
1. Do not copy the legal description directly from the recorded deed. Formats vary widely from community to community which is why FEMA requires the format described below be used for all eLOMAs.
2. Lot, Block, and Subdivision names should only be used for properties that are referred to using the standard Lot, Block, and Subdivision naming convention, e.g. Lot 8, Block C, Maple Acres.
3. Portions of lots are generally not depicted on recorded plats so if a property is described as a portion of a lot in a recorded deed then the Legal Property Description should refer to that recorded deed instead of the recorded plat.
4. If a property is not described by a Lot, Block, and Subdivision in the recorded deed but is described by a detailed metes and bounds, it is best to refer to the property as “A parcel of land, as described in…”
5. Properties are described in deeds and shown on plats.
6. Do not enter Legal Property Descriptions in all capital letters or all lower case letters (use appropriate capitalization).
7. Use the capitalization and punctuation that is detailed in the examples provided below.
8. If a deed or plat is recorded on more than one page refer to all of the pages in the Legal Property Description, not just the first one.
9. If a deed or plat is recorded with a Document Number or Instrument Number refer to that number along with any Book and Page information.
10. For those subdivisions that include Block and Section numbers (note: these ‘Sections’ are not the same as the ones in a Section, Township, Range) the Section number should be included in the Legal Property Description. An example would be ‘Lot 1, Block B, Section VII, Maple Acres…”
Steps for writing FEMA approved Legal Property Descriptions
1. Lot, Block, Subdivision, … OR
A portion of Section, Township, Range, Principal Meridian/County/City, … OR
A parcel of land,… (when there is no Lot, Block, Subdivision or Section/Township/Range/Principal Meridian information for the property)
2. as described in… (for deeds) OR
as shown on… (for plats)
3. the (General Warranty, Joint Tenancy, Survivorship, Quit Claim, etc.) Deed… OR
the Plat…
4. recorded as Document No. #, … OR
recorded as Document No. # in (Book or Liber) #, (Page(s) or Folio) #, (use "and" for 2-3 pages, "through" for 4 or more pages) … OR
recorded in (Book or Liber) #, (Page(s) or Folio) #, (use "and" for 2-3 pages, "through" for 4 or more pages) …
5. in the Office of the (Recorder, or Register of Deeds, or County Clerk, or Clerk of the Court, etc.), …
6. City (use in place of the County only if the deed or plat is recorded in the city or town), …
7. County/Parish, …
8. State
Examples
Lot 81, Block 16, Section 2, Westover Addition, as described in the Warranty Deed recorded as Document No. 9907582 in Book 238, Pages 733 through 736, in the Office of the Clerk of the Court, Jackson County, Indiana
A parcel of land, as described in the Deed recorded in Book 238, Pages 733, 734, and 735, in the Office of Recorder, Jackson County, Indiana
A portion of Section 31, Township 25 North, Range 15 East, 3rd Principal Meridian, as described in the Quit Claim Deed recorded as Instrument No. 9902 in Liber 238, Folio 733, in the Office of the Register of Deeds, City of Jackson, Indiana
Lot 81, Block 16, Section 2, Westover Addition, as shown on the Plat recorded as Document No. 9907582 in Book 238, in the Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court, Jackson County, Indiana
A portion of Section 31, Township 25 North, Range 15 East, 3rd Principal Meridian, as described in the Warranty Deed recorded in Liber 238, Folio 733, in the Office of the Recorder, Jackson County, Indiana
Lot 81, Block 16, Section 2, Westover Addition, as shown on the Plat recorded in Book 7, Pages 733 and 734, in the Office of the Register of Deeds, Jackson County, Indiana
It's not a proper sentence so it shouldn't be treated as one.
For all future eLOMAs please use the format provided in the attached help text document.
Be careful with that one. Got the same "help document". Followed it to the letter the next time, got audited, they changed the legal to the way I would have written it. I called and told them that I followed the guidelines perfectly and they said yeah we know thats what it says but we prefer it this way.
With FEMA it really seems to depend on who is looking at it and who you speak to on the phone.
On a side note, does anyone else ever have the feeling that the person on the other end of the line has no idea what you are talking about when you call the MSC? I understand when clients don't understand all the acronyms and jargon, but I expect the people meant to help you through the bureaucracy to know what I am saying.
Bureaucrats overstepping their charter. If it doesn't create an ambiguity as to what property is being evaluated, they should have no business questioning a legal description.
Not only are they "overstepping their charter," they simply have no constitutional authority to "change" a property description in the first place (neither does the surveyor). The only legal ways to alter the description are by correction deed or by reformation action.
JBS
To be fair, they are not changing the legal description, they are just super picky about how the legal description is presented as it relates to the LOMA. The legal description is very important for LOMA's as they are tied to the property or structure and make no reference, other than Book & Page, to the owner at the time the LOMA is issued.
