Talk:Lot and block survey system

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I was wondering if a tax identification number on a recorded deed of trust in Virginia takes precedence over the legal description as to identifying the property? thank you Anitsirk123 (talk) 16:26, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Absolutely not under any circumstances, unless, of course, if the actual legal description is so totally screwed up and erroneous that it completely fails to unambiguously describe any property, a court might, depending on jurisdiction, take an informal reference to a parcel number as evidence of what the intention of the parties might have been, though in such circumstances the court would more properly rule the entire instrument to be completely defective and not transfer any title at all, or transfer all title to all property owned by the grantor at that location. Some states may have policies prohibiting the use of parcel numbers as legal descriptions to prevent the creation of a torrens style system. The problem with using a parcel number in a legal description is that parcel numbers are assigned arbitrarily by the mapping department of the assessor's office to account for whether taxes are being paid on all property and to account for where the tax bills are to be sent by the collector in each tax year and to allow the collector to match tax payments with individual properties, and it is very possible for the assessor's office to arbitrarily change the numbers year to year for various technical reasons. Since the assessor is usually under no obligation to keep tax records indefinately, they are not part of the permanent record and should not be relied on to identify property. The mapping of property for taxation is also usually done to a different standard of accuracy than surveys. More importantly, it is very common for the assessor's office mapping department to depict a property in error, especially if the legal description contains ambiguities, is poorly written, or refers to physical monuments that the mapper cannot locate without expensive field work beyond the scope of what he does, or in the case of conflicting descriptions. Many title companies will put the assessor's parcel ID on the deed as a courtesy to the assessor to help prevent mistakes by the assessor in assigning taxation. The assessor usually is given a copy of every deed transferring title by the recorder or clerk usually pursuant to statute. Most states require the address of the buyer to be included on the deed so that the assessor can tell the collector where and to whom to send any tax bills, but the numbers are not included with the intention of describing the property being transferred. 208.73.194.228 (talk) 08:03, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

I might add that if it can be shown that it was the intention of the parties that the instrument describe only the property identified by the parcel number, but the legal description included other property, the legal description will still rule, and title will pass to the new owner, but the agrieved parties may have a case for damages against whomever prepared the instrument IF they represented themselves as being qualified under statute to prepare the description, such as a title officer at a title company, an attorney, or a surveyor, but you're still screwed on the property. 208.73.194.228 (talk) 08:06, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

the three main survey systems

the three main survey systems

Mention which three. Jidanni (talk) 13:43, 12 March 2020 (UTC)