Metes and Bounds

Metes and bounds constitutes one of a variety of methods historically used to describe real property. A property description is used in an instrument of conveyance to provide information on the shape, size, and unique location of the parcel of land being transferred. Property descriptions are often relied upon during the parcel conversion process of creating a cadastral, or parcel, layer in a GIS.

Of the various types of property descriptions, the metes-and-bounds description is the only one that describes a parcel by delineating its perimeter. This is accomplished by describing a series of courses (directions and distances) that start at one corner of a parcel and traverse around the entire perimeter of the parcel back to the beginning corner. Metes are the directions and distances that mathematically define each of those courses. Bounds are the various monuments and/or adjoiner properties that limit the extent of those courses and beyond which the property cannot extend.

Modern-day descriptions typically utilize bearings or azimuths to define direction, with distances generally being expressed in meters (or feet, in most cases in the United States). A bearing or azimuth describes the direction of the line between two corners by defining the angle of that line with respect to some reference direction, such as magnetic north. The angular unit of measure used depends on the country—generally the grad, degree, or gon.

Historical descriptions often used a variety of distance units, many of which are no longer in common usage, such as the pole, perch, rod, chain, link, and vara. These historical units will vary from country to country, often varying even within different regions of a country. In some cases, these units of measure may be maintained even in modern descriptions for historical and title purposes.

A true metes-and-bounds description contains both the directions and distances for all courses around the perimeter of the described parcel (the metes) and calls for the physical monuments and/or adjoiner properties that limit the extent of the property (the bounds), for example, “thence North 10g East along the west line of the land of Juarez a distance of 100 meters to an iron pipe.…”

Contemporary use of the term metes and bounds, however, does not strictly require that the description contain the “bounds.” Many modern-day metes-andbounds descriptions contain only the courses—directions and distances—around the perimeter or the parcel and do not contain controlling calls to monuments or adjoiners. This is particularly true in those (U.S.) states utilizing the U.S. Public Land Survey System. In the other, the original 13 colonies of the United States and in lands claimed by those colonies, true metes-and-bounds descriptions are much more common.