If you are buying a new property, how do you know exactly what you’re buying?
When we refer to any property, whether it’s a commercial property, industrial property, or residential property, we often go by the property’s street address.
While the street address can tell us the property’s location, it doesn’t tell you much about essential details, such as fences and other structures that might affect how you can utilize the property after the purchase.
Essentially, it doesn’t tell you enough–and this is why it is a wise decision to hire a Commack NY real estate lawyer. A property survey is essential to new property owners. To get a more accurate description of a property you wish to buy or already own, you will need a “metes and bounds description.”
The “metes and bounds”essentially refer to the boundaries of properties. The description is made using the natural landmarks of the property being surveyed.
“Metes and bounds” are necessary when creating the legal description of a piece of property. The legal description of any property refers to an accurate, geographic description that identifies its location and where it begins,and where it ends.
The concept of metes and bounds is almost as old as land ownership. It is not a US invention, asit was used to buy, lease and rent land as far back as the Roman period.
In modern legal usage, metes and bounds help establish the limits of a given property or parcel of land. Both natural features and artificial fixtures or constructions are used to identify the accurate perimeter of the land.
Metes and bounds are especially useful when you need an accurate legal description of the land that has an irregular shape. Rectangular parcels of land are generally easier to plot, but what if the land has winding and curving boundaries? What if there are natural formations around or within the edge of the land, too?
Metes and bounds help trace the boundaries of a property until the legal description arrives at the natural closure. A real estate lawyer may use trees, roads, rives, and artificial monuments to arrive at an accurate legal description.
A survey of a property typically contains designations, coordinates, distances, and compass directions. Combined, these elements comprise the written legal description of a property, its metes, and bounds.
The survey begins at one point and works clockwise. In the end, you will know exactly what type of property you are buying, as well as the exact area and perimeter and what buying it means about artificial and natural structures that surround it.
You will often see a dark line around the property that you will be buying on the survey. Of course, this dark line is superimposed around an area with other buildings, fences,and structures like walls, sheds, and other fixtures.
Property buyers need to know where these things are, based on the positioning of that dark line.A new legal survey of property would also tell you if any of the existing structures on the property have violations of the local construction codes.
A survey will also inform you if the structures are within the boundaries of the property or not. A further survey will also show if any neighbors have already encroached on the property since the last survey. Disputed property lines are always a headache, but a real estate lawyer will be able to help you protect your new property.
Legal experts will always recommend getting a new survey whenever you want to buy a new property because it is natural for properties and other adjacent properties to change.
If you have received a survey from the person or entity selling the property, the description of the walls, fences, and other fixtures may be old, and ultimately, you can be out of possession. You may not be buying what you thought you were buying in the first place.
The title insurance policy will not insure the property properly unless a real estate lawyer steps in to perform a new survey to create updated metes and bounds descriptions. There would be a gap in the coverage.
The title insurance policy will indicate that a new statement of facts from an updated and accurate survey will be excepted from coverage. A further study will help you see if someone is already encroaching on the property that you wish to buy with fixtures or structures like fences.