Property Ownership, Legal Descriptions, and Land Use
Ownership forms and descriptions
Massachusetts recognizes severalty, tenancy in common, joint tenancy, and tenancy by the entirety, which is available to married couples and carries a right of survivorship. Legal descriptions take three main forms: metes and bounds, lot and block or plan reference, and the government survey system (not used in Massachusetts). In metes and bounds, monuments control over distances and bearings, and a description that closes is preferred. Registered (Land Court) land uses a certificate of title; recorded land uses book and page at the Registry of Deeds.
Land use controls
Massachusetts land use questions center on zoning and subdivision. A variance requires hardship, and a self-created hardship will be denied; a special permit is discretionary relief for uses the bylaw allows. Nonconforming uses may continue but cannot be substantially extended. Approval Not Required (ANR) plans confirm that a division of land does not require subdivision approval. The Wetlands Protection Act gives local conservation commissions authority through orders of conditions, and Chapter 40B comprehensive permits allow subsidized housing to bypass some local zoning where a town falls below the 10 percent affordable housing threshold.
Traps
Expect: 'Adverse possession ripens in 7 years' (false, it is 20 years in Massachusetts, as is a prescriptive easement); 'A variance can fix a use the owner created' (false); 'Assessed value is a legal description' (false).
Rule of thumb
For any land use question, ask: is this a permitted use, a special permit, or a variance? Only a variance involves hardship.