[WSBARP] WSBARP Digest, Vol 108, Issue 19

[Carmen Rowe]

I guess I am a bit confused as they are just asking you to use the language
specifically required in the statute? Why exactly is that wrong legal
advice?

While I can appreciate the frustration with what are often seemingly
erroneous (and sometimes just wrong) requirements by recording officers,
the language in this - aside from simply enforcing the statute - sounds
like what the courts have long held as the requirements for a valid legal
description. That smacks of ... uniformity? which I see as a good thing?

It sounds like they just allowed non-compliant descriptions in the past.
Replacing old forms of legal descriptions with newer references and aiming
for some consistency may be annoying in that it requires a little digging
if you're the first to blaze the path for that property, but I can see
sense in it (aside from, again, simply following the statute).

I can also understand the disclaimer about using legals from the assessor's
office, given that people too often point to that in legal challenges
(i.e., try to say that using the assessor's description equates using a
proper legal description in a legal document, notwithstanding the
disclaimer on the assessor's site).

I think in practice on the first go around you can use the short-hand on
the assessor's site as a vast majority of the time it will be correct. If
it gets kicked back, there are many free ways to look into it. As someone
suggested, anyone dealing in property is well served to make connections
with title officers, who will typically look up such things as a courtesy.
Also, these days so many property documents are online, I've been able to
locate legals in prior recorded deeds.

Carmen Rowe



Phone: (360) 669-3576 (direct cell)
Email:  Carmen at GryphonLawGroup.com

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> I just received a letter from a County Auditor who advised that an
> abbreviated legal description I used ?is not accurate? citing RCW
> 65.04.045.  I looked at that statute and see that it was last amended in
> 2005.  Notwithstanding using, what the county shows as an abbreviated legal
> on their Assessor?s website, hundreds of times since 2005,  the Auditor now
> advises that what must be used is ?the name of the Plat, do not use Org. or
> Orig Add?.  The statute reads?  "abbreviated legal description of the
> property" means lot, block, plat, or section, township, range, and
> quarter/quarter section,?..  The name of many of the Town ?plats? in this
> area are shown as Original Addition to the Town of ______.  Or ?Railroad
> Addition to the Town of ______.?  The auditor goes on to say ?The
> Assessor?s website should not be used to obtain property descriptions.  If
> you need help with a legal description or an abbreviated legal description,
> please contact a title company or surveyor?.   My gues!
>  s is that some memo has come from the State, possibly the Department of
> Revenue, Excise Tax section??? Because this isn?t a new statute.  It?s not
> bad enough that the recording fee is now over $200 for the first page? but
> now we have to get a title report to record a simple gift deed?
>
> Anyone have any authority to counter the legal advice I have received from
> an Auditor?s Office?
>
> Thanks
>
> Josh
>
>
>
> Joshua F. Grant
>
> P. O. Box 619
> Wilbur, WA 99185
> 509 647 5578
>
> jgrant at advocateslg.com
>
>
>
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