Legal Description

[Dublin ohio]

My grasshopper, legal description includes everything including the easements on property. It can take a whole page.

Weedhopper, that is because you are using the "prelim" which is in effect a title search. Very few legal descriptions include all easements. They typically just refer to being subject to all easements etc. Most easements such as utility easements are not even in place when the original legal description is created

 

[Tom D]

USPAP, ansi and now legal perfectionists? Didn't know the high anal side of you legal perfectionists until this thread.
So you are a bad appraiser without a legal description in your report, misleading the readers to not find your subject property.
I can't discuss this nonsense with some of yous. But a somewhat interesting nuts o's appraiser discussion, well with some of yous , yes.

 

[Mark K]

So you are a bad appraiser without a legal description in your report, ...

Maybe not bad, just lazy or incompetent.

 

[Fernando]

Weedhopper, that is because you are using the "prelim" which is in effect a title search. Very few legal descriptions include all easements. They typically just refer to being subject to all easements etc. Most easements such as utility easements are not even in place when the original legal description is created

I'm looking at my subject's legal description from Prelim and has exceptions describing the easements.
It fills up 3/4 page.

 

[sputnam]

No not necessarily online, but open for public viewing. He was saying he couldn't get them in his county

I know what he said. Every appraisal that I've ever done.. and it's been a lot of them over many years... has a copy of the deed, and often the previous deed, in the work file. It's really not that hard.

Sorry, but I have no patience for appraisers who can't be bothered to do the work. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's harder. Whether it's an easier one or a harder one... you have to do it.

USPAP does not require the appraiser to report the legal description perse. It does require the appraisal report to include information, documents, or exhibits sufficient to identify the real estate involved in the appraisal. See USPAP SR 2.2-(a)(iv), AO-2 and AO-23. The most reliable way to do that is to report the legal description as it appears on the deed.

 

[Tom D]

I know what he said. Every appraisal that I've ever done.. and it's been a lot of them over many years... has a copy of the deed, and often the previous deed, in the work file. It's really not that hard.

Sorry, but I have no patience for appraisers who can't be bothered to do the work. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's harder. Whether it's an easier one or a harder one... you have to do it.

In my big urban & surrounding counties i never get/got a legal. Once in a while the lender will send me the title report, after i send it in. So, i gotta yell at these lenders about their negligence, in my effort to do the perfect appraisal. Well, maybe not at this moment. Plat map, tax parcel & urban/subur address in my report, i hope they don't finance the wrong property without that attached legal in my report. Getting a little 3.6 loopey on this thread. But, i only speak for big easy urban appraisals.

 

[sputnam]

In my big urban & surrounding counties i never get/got a legal. Once in a while the lender will send me the title report, after i send it in. So, i gotta yell at these lenders about their negligence, in my effort to do the perfect appraisal. Well, maybe not at this moment. Plat map, tax parcel & urban/subur address in my report, i hope they don't finance the wrong property without that attached legal in my report. Getting a little 3.6 loopey on this thread. But, i only speak for big easy urban appraisals.

If it's a recorded plat map... that IS the legal description of the property. It's simply an illustration rather than text.

 

[Tom D]

If it's a recorded plat map... that IS the legal description of the property. It's simply an illustration rather than text.

Wow, and i'm into visual aids in the report. 'Recorded plat map, an Illustration rather than text', really skipped my brain on that way of thinking about the legal. And i always think a picture is better to breakup all dem pages of written words. Thanks.

 

[Mark K]

I have to wonder what other portions of the form that some appraisers fill out intentionally incorrectly.

A parcel number is not the same as a legal description and for some reason I'm surprised that some appraisers don't know, or care about, the difference between the two.

Just a refresher...
1. Mortgages are made against a legal description.
2. Property is identified on a deed by a legal description.
3. Purchase agreements are for a legal description.
4. Foreclosures are against a legal description.
5. Promissory notes are for a legal description.
6. Title insurance is for a legal description.

Appraisal report forms also have a space for legal description and it should match.

And for whiners that claim..." sniff, sniff...but the legal is 1/2 a page long", you can abbreviate. I see those long legals ALL the time. You can shorten a paragraph to:
"A part of the SW 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Section 25, Township 14 North, Range 2 West in Morgan County...to contain 1.55 acres",
or shorten it more to: "Pt. SWSW Sec 25, T.14 N. R2W, Morgan Co...1.55 ac." I've seen legals that ran to three pages long, those get included in their entirety.

At least make an effort to put something in the legal description box that resembles the actual legal, not a parcel number.

 

[Tom D]

Oh, that's good to know. Our city only gives the 1st few words of the legal on their web site. To get the full legal is a large monthly fee, or go down to city hall, parking $30 and another hour to get it. Good to know i've been doing it goodly by your standards. Although i am not as legal anal as some of yous.