Tag: legal descriptions

Legals with Lippman: Government Lots

Imagine this: you’re reviewing an informational or a commitment from the title company and you notice the legal description contains a tract in a government lot. What does this mean? Is this a concern for my transaction? This is one instance in which the word “government” is nothing to worry about!  Legals with Lippman is back to discuss government lots and what they mean to you or your client.

Government lot is a term used within the Public Land Survey System a.k.a PLSS. We briefly talked about PLSS in our first Legals with Lippman. PLSS dates back to 1785 in the United States and is the system that breaks real estate into Section-Township-Range (STR).

  Fun fact: Not all states adopted the PLSS, most notably the Thirteen Colonies.

So, what is it?

A government lot is an irregular portion of a Section as formed by a meandering body of water, impassable object, or another boundary (state, reservation, grant, etc). These “lots” are used in Sections with an irregular shape or acreage (containing less than or more than the 640 acres seen in a standard Section). While called lots, these are not the type of lot that you would see in a platted subdivision. These lots are surveyed by the government (see example from Township 10, Range 8 below) and unlike a platted lot, do not have the zoning regulations, setback lines, or restrictions that are sometimes seen on plats.

In Riley County, for example, we see government lots formed by the Big Blue River and by Fort Riley. More specifically, if we examine a survey of the government lots in Township 10, Range 8, we see how Sections 5, 4, 9, and 8 are encompassed by the Big Blue River, making them slightly irregular.


On modern versions of an STR map you can see how these Sections have some variation in size; this is another indication of the presence of government lots.

From Riley County GIS

In an STR legal description you will see these irregular portions referenced as either a ‘government lot’ or a ‘lot.’ This is an example of a tract from Section 5, Township 10 South, Range 8 East, which is located near the Big Blue River. Another county might refer to these tracts as “government lots 9 and 10.”

So, what does this mean for my property? Owning part of a government lot is no different from owning land with any other STR legal description. There are no special restrictions or government regulations. A government lot is simply a way to make abnormal shapes and acreages fit into a standard section in the PLSS. If you see a government lot listed in your legal description, there is nothing to worry about!

We love helping and we love legal descriptions; if you have a question about your or your client’s legal description, give us a call!

Legals with Lippman – Part 2

Today we’re continuing our series Legals with Lippman!  In this series, our Production Manager, Sydney, focuses on topics related to real estate legal descriptions.  Sydney helps to make sense of plats (and replats), original townsites, water rights, condemnations, and how all of this affects you and your clients’ transactions.

Plats, Subdivisions, and Original Townsites, Oh my!

Of the three main survey systems, the Lot and Block System is one of the simplest. This system is often referred to as a plat and can further be referred to as a subdivision or original townsite. A Plat (also known as a plat map) is a record of a tract that takes a “metes and bounds” legal description and makes it into a simpler legal description, tied to a subdivision or original townsite. The Lot and Block system is often be used to identify individual lots, the block in which the lot is located, a reference to the platted land or subdivision name, and a description of the map’s recording information.

Many original townsites (like that of Manhattan as we see below) were created at the start of settlements when towns began to be formed. They are a simpler version of the subdivision plats seen today. They often give rough measurements of lots and blocks as well as setting out city roads and parks.

The Lot and Block system is one of the most recent used in the United States and became popular in the 19th century as cities expanded into surrounding farmland. Farmers and other owners of larger tracts of land would subdivide the property into a set of smaller lots to be sold individually. These subdivisions would then be filed with the county as a plat and often become known as subdivisions or neighborhoods.

Modern subdivisions have evolved quite a bit from the plat maps we see for original townsites. In addition to showing the individual lots, plats now include setback lines, easements, zoning, and other designations. This ensures that each lot has access to a public right of way as well as things like public utilities. An example of this can be seen in this recent plat of Rockenham Woods:

As you can see, the plat system has developed over time just like our towns and cities.  This continues to be for the purpose of keeping track identification simple. Stay tuned for the next Legals with Lippman to learn about replats and what that means for your land.  As always, if you’re brimming with curiosity about this topic or have a concern about a current transaction, give us a call!