Metes and bounds

Key Takeaways

• A metes and bounds description traces the perimeter of a parcel from a point of beginning through a series of directions and distances, and it must return to that same point so the boundary closes.
• Metes are the measured distances and bounds are the directions and boundary lines, and both are tied to monuments a surveyor can find on the ground.
• Three systems produce legal descriptions: metes and bounds, the government survey, and the plat map (also called lot and block). A Washington parcel may be described by any of them.
• A street address is not a legal description. A contract for the sale of land needs the legal description, and the mailing address is only a convenience.

What It Means

Metes and bounds is the oldest of the three ways to describe land, carried into American practice from England. Metes are the measured distances, bounds are the directions and the boundary lines themselves. The description starts at a fixed point of beginning, then runs a series of calls, each one giving a compass bearing and a distance, until the final call returns to the point of beginning and the boundary closes. A description that does not close does not describe a parcel.

Every call is anchored to something a surveyor can locate on the ground. Those anchors are monuments, and they can be natural, such as a creek or a large rock, or artificial, such as an iron pipe, a concrete post, or a recorded corner. This is why RCW 58.09.060 makes a record of Survey show all monuments found, set, reset, replaced, or removed, describing their kind, size, and location. The monuments are what let a second surveyor retrace the same line years later.

Metes and bounds is the tool for parcels that no plat and no section grid can capture: a lot that follows a shoreline, a piece carved off the corner of a farm, a strip along a county road. Platted subdivisions use lot and block, rural rectangles use the Government Survey system, and metes and bounds is what a Legal Description falls back on when the shape refuses to cooperate.

How It Works in Washington

Washington does not write metes and bounds descriptions into statute. It regulates the surveyor who produces them and the recording that preserves them. Chapter 58.09 RCW, the Survey Recording Act, sets out what a record of survey must contain. RCW 58.09.060 requires the record to show all monuments found, set, reset, replaced, or removed, describing their kind, size, and location, along with bearing trees, corner accessories or witness monuments, basis of bearings, bearing and length of lines, scale of map, and north arrow, plus the name and legal description of the tract in which the survey is located and ties to adjoining surveys of record. Those are the exact ingredients of a metes and bounds call.

RCW 58.09.040 puts a clock on the filing. A surveyor who establishes, reestablishes, or restores a corner must file a record within ninety days when the corner materially varies from the description of record, when property corners not previously existing are established, when the evidence suggests alternate positions for a line because a description is ambiguous, or when a lost government land office corner is reestablished. On the Recording side, RCW 65.04.045(1)(f) requires an abbreviated legal description on the first page of a recorded instrument, meaning lot, block, plat, or section, township, range, and quarter/quarter section, with a reference to the document page number where the full legal description appears. A long metes and bounds call therefore lives in the body of the document and gets a short pointer up front. Our piece on Washington boundary and fencing law covers what happens when the fence and the description disagree.

Example

Ellis Farm sells a two acre corner near Ellensburg to Ruth Kovac. The piece is not a platted lot and does not line up with a quarter-quarter, so the surveyor writes it in metes and bounds. The description begins at a 5/8 inch rebar set at the intersection of the south line of Vantage Road and the east line of the county right of way. From that point of beginning it runs South 89 degrees 14 minutes East, 412.50 feet to a second rebar, then South 00 degrees 46 minutes West, 211.30 feet, then North 89 degrees 14 minutes West, 412.50 feet back to the east right of way line, then North 00 degrees 46 minutes East, 211.30 feet along that line to the point of beginning.

Four calls, and the fourth one lands on the rebar the first one started from, so the boundary closes. The rectangle works out to 412.50 by 211.30, or 87,161 square feet, which is 2.00 acres. The surveyor files the record with the Kittitas County auditor, and Ruth's deed carries the full call in the body of the document with an abbreviated description on the first page as RCW 65.04.045(1)(f) requires.

Common Mistakes and Exam Traps

• Metes are distances and bounds are directions or boundaries. Reversing the two is the most common wrong answer on this topic.
• A metes and bounds description must return to the point of beginning. A description whose last call ends anywhere else does not close and does not describe a parcel.
• Metes and bounds is not the government survey system. Government survey locates land on a grid of townships, ranges, and sections, while metes and bounds walks a perimeter that can be any shape at all.
• A street address is not a legal description, and neither is a tax parcel number. The contract needs the legal description of the land.