On this page
01
Anatomy of a deed
A deed is a document that transfers an interest in real property.
At its core a deed says: the grantor conveys this property to the grantee. The other parts identify the parties, the land, anything held back, and the terms.
Most deeds have the same parts, in the same order.
An examiner reads three parts most closely: the granting clause (what is moving), the description (which land), and the reservations and exceptions (what is held back). Those are the parts that change who owns what.
02
The granting clause & habendum
The granting clause conveys the interest: "grant, bargain, sell, and convey." The granting clause is the language that transfers the interest.
The habendum clause, "to have and to hold," answers a different question: what kind of estate does the grantee take, and for how long? "Unto Grantee, her heirs and assigns, forever" is the classic formula for fee simple: the grantee owns it permanently and can pass it on.
The "to have and to hold" clause, defining the duration and extent of the estate granted. In deeds it usually confirms fee simple. In an oil and gas lease, the habendum clause sets the primary and secondary term (see Topic 03).
Usually the granting clause and habendum agree, and you read past them. Problems arise when a deed's clauses conflict, for example when the granting clause states one fraction and a later clause states another. How a court resolves that depends on the state and the wording. For an examiner:
- Read the whole deed, every time. Don't stop at the granting clause and assume the rest is boilerplate.
- Flag internal conflicts instead of resolving them in your head. Inconsistent fractions in a deed are a common source of title disputes.
03
Reservations vs. exceptions
A deed can hold something back in two ways. Either one can sever the minerals.
A reservation keeps a right for the grantor out of what is conveyed. Convey the land, reserve the minerals, and the grantor still owns the minerals. This is a common way minerals get severed.
An exception leaves something out of what is conveyed. If the grantor owned the excepted part, the grantor keeps it, and the deed severs just as a reservation would. If someone else already owned it (a prior reservation, an easement, an outstanding mineral interest), the exception notes that it isn't part of the conveyance.
An examiner keeps asking where each outstanding interest came from. If a deed reserves or excepts minerals the grantor owned, the severance happened in that deed. If it excepts an interest someone else already owned, as in the example above, the severance happened earlier, and you look further back up the chain.
Drafters often write "excepting and reserving" together. Courts generally look at what the parties meant, not which label they used, so read the substance. Also check the fractions: a grantor can keep or convey only what the grantor owned. When a deed's fractions add up to more than that, the result depends on state law. The Fraction of what? lesson lets you try this with numbers.
04
Mineral deeds & royalty deeds
Once minerals are severed, they are bought and sold like other property. A mineral deed conveys the minerals. A royalty deed conveys much less.
A mineral deed conveys the mineral estate. The grantee becomes a mineral owner who can lease, collect bonus, and receive royalty.
A royalty deed conveys only the right to share in production. The grantee is paid when a well produces, with no right to lease and no bonus.
The hard cases are deeds that blur the line. A grantor conveys "an undivided 1/16 royalty in and to the minerals." Is that a royalty interest or a fractional mineral interest? Drafters have used "mineral" and "royalty" loosely for a long time, and the two readings can differ a lot in value.
When a deed mixes "mineral" and "royalty" language, read it closely. How it is resolved depends on the state.
05
Legal descriptions
A deed needs a description that identifies the land. Three description systems cover most of what you'll see:
- Metes & bounds means walking the boundary: "beginning at the iron pin on the north line of the county road; thence N 45° E, 320 feet to a stone…" Common in older deeds and in states surveyed before the rectangular system.
- The rectangular survey (township and range, also called the Public Land Survey System): the grid laid over most states west of the original colonies. Texas and most eastern states don't use it. Land is described by section, township, and range, counted from a principal meridian. Most oil and gas descriptions in the West use it.
- Lot & block: "Lot 7, Block C of the Sunset Acres subdivision, per the recorded plat." City land, described by reference to a recorded map.
A township is a square about 6 miles on a side, divided into 36 numbered sections of about one square mile (nominally 640 acres) each. Sections along the north and west edges of a township are often irregular. Descriptions divide sections into quarters, and quarters into quarters:
160 ac
A complete description names the principal meridian, and usually the county and state, because the same township and range numbers repeat under different meridians.
In counties that index records by tract, the description is how you find the documents touching the land. In counties that index by name, you search by owners' names and use the description to tell which documents cover your land. Either way, check the description on every instrument against the tract.
To practice reading these, try the PLSS legal descriptions lesson. For Texas surveys and abstracts, try the Texas legal descriptions lesson.
06
Recording & constructive notice
An unrecorded deed is not void. Recording gives the world notice of the deed, and in a dispute an unrecorded deed can lose to a later buyer. Exactly whom an unrecorded deed binds varies by state.
Every county keeps public land records. Once a deed is recorded, later buyers are treated as knowing about it. That is constructive notice. A later buyer is treated as knowing what the records show, whether or not the buyer looked.
The standard example is a double sale:
Someone who buys an interest for value, in good faith, without notice of a competing claim. Recording acts generally protect a bona fide purchaser over an earlier buyer who failed to record.
States use different kinds of recording acts ("race," "notice," and "race-notice"), which can change the result in close cases. Under any of them, a buyer should record promptly and search the records before buying.
The county records hold most of a tract's ownership history, but not all of it. Heirship, production, state oil and gas commission orders, and federal (BLM) lease records live partly or wholly outside the county records. An examiner reads the chain of title in order and then fills the gaps the county records leave.
07
Review questions
Check yourself. Tap a question to see the answer.