Legal Descriptions
Florida accepts three description systems: metes and bounds, lot and block, and the government rectangular survey.
Metes and bounds
Starts at a point of beginning, then follows courses (bearings) and distances back to the POB. Monuments control over distances, and distances control over area. The phrase more or less signals an approximate boundary.
Lot and block
Refers to lot and block numbers on a plat recorded in the county public records. Precise and very common in Florida subdivisions.
Government survey
The Public Land Survey System measures from a principal meridian and baseline into townships six miles square. Each township has 36 sections, each one mile square and 640 acres. Section numbering begins in the northeast corner and snakes west-east, east-west through the township. Florida's baseline and principal meridian run from Tallahassee.
Subdivision math: a half-section is 320 acres, a quarter-section 160, a quarter-quarter 40, and a quarter-quarter-quarter 10.
Traps
Read a description from right to left, starting with the smallest unit. The north half of the southeast quarter of Section 12 equals one-half times one-quarter times 640, or 80 acres. Also know 43,560 square feet per acre and 5,280 feet per mile.
Worked example
A parcel measures 660 feet by 1,320 feet. Area = 660 x 1,320 = 871,200 square feet, divided by 43,560 = 20 acres.