Metes and bounds is a way of describing a parcel of land by walking its perimeter: start at a fixed point, then follow a series of directions and distances around the boundary until you return to the start. "Metes" are the measurements (bearings and distances); "bounds" are the boundaries and landmarks the line runs along — a road, a creek, an adjoining owner's line, an iron pin. It is the oldest land-description system still in everyday use in the United States, and you will find it in deeds across the original colonies, Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and anywhere a tract was carved out irregularly.
thence N 45°12'30" E, 212.40 feet.Quadrant bearings never exceed 90°. To do math with them you convert to an azimuth — a single angle measured clockwise from north, 0° to 360°.
Upload a deed and the Polygon Closure Auditor extracts every call, converts the units, plots the parcel on satellite imagery, and tells you whether it closes.
Try the auditorThe Public Land Survey System (PLSS) covers most of the land west of the original colonies. It divides land into a grid of townships and ranges six miles square, split into 36 sections of about 640 acres each, so a parcel can be described as "the NE¼ of Section 12, T3S, R72W, 6th P.M." without walking any boundary. In PLSS states, metes and bounds is still used for irregular tracts, often tied to a section corner.
Lot and block descriptions reference a recorded subdivision plat — "Lot 7, Block 3, Pinewood Addition" — and the plat itself carries the measurements.
Distances and bearings are only one kind of evidence. When a description conflicts with what is on the ground, courts in most states apply a general priority of calls: natural monuments, then artificial monuments, then adjoiners, then courses and distances, with area last. The exact order varies by state and by case, which is one reason boundary questions belong with a licensed surveyor.
A well-written description returns exactly to the POB. Many don't, usually because of a transcription error — a flipped quadrant, a transposed digit, a monument tie read as a boundary call, or a curve entered with arc length instead of chord. Our guide to checking metes and bounds closure walks through the math and the usual suspects.
Yes. New surveys in non-PLSS states are written in metes and bounds every day, and most rural deeds in the eastern U.S. and Texas carry them.
It signals that the stated acreage or distance is approximate and that the monuments and boundaries control over the number.
You can plot it to understand its shape and check whether it closes. Only a licensed surveyor can tell you where the line actually is on the ground. See our metes and bounds plotter guide.