Titles, Deeds & Legal Descriptions

Deeds

• General warranty deed: the grantor warrants title against all lawful claims, including defects that arose before the grantor owned it.
• Special warranty deed: warranties are limited to claims arising through or under the grantor.
• Quitclaim deed: conveys whatever interest the grantor has, with no warranties.
• Fiduciary deeds (personal representative's, trustee's, guardian's) are signed in a representative capacity.

Execution: two witnesses

In Florida, a conveyance of real property must be signed by the grantor in the presence of two subscribing witnesses (§ 689.01, Fla. Stat.). Leases are excepted from the witness requirement. To be recorded, the deed must also be acknowledged before a notary or other authorized officer.

Recording and notice

Florida is a notice-type recording jurisdiction: an unrecorded conveyance or mortgage is not good against creditors or later purchasers for value without notice (§ 695.01, Fla. Stat.). Recording gives constructive notice to the world. Possession can give notice too, which is why title policies except rights of parties in possession unless an affidavit or inspection covers it.

Marketable Record Title Act

Under Chapter 712, a person with an unbroken chain of record title for 30 years or more has marketable record title, and many older interests are extinguished unless preserved (§ 712.02, Fla. Stat.).

Legal descriptions

Metes and bounds

Describes the boundary by starting at a point of beginning and following courses (directions) and distances around the parcel, returning to the point of beginning.

Government (rectangular) survey system

Florida land is surveyed from the Tallahassee principal meridian and base line. Key numbers:

• A township is 6 miles × 6 miles (36 square miles) and contains 36 sections.
• A section is 1 mile square = 640 acres.
• An acre is 43,560 square feet.
• Sections are numbered 1 to 36 starting in the northeast corner and snaking back and forth.

Quarter-section math: the NE ¼ of the SW ¼ of a section = 640 ÷ 4 ÷ 4 = 40 acres. Read descriptions from the end back to the beginning, dividing by the denominators.

Lot and block (recorded plat)

Most South Florida residential property is described by lot and block in a recorded plat, for example "Lot 7, Block 3, of XYZ Subdivision, according to the plat thereof recorded in Plat Book __, Page __, of the Public Records of Miami-Dade County, Florida." Condominium units are described by unit number and the recorded declaration.