Question 1 of 9: The Phrase "More or Less" in Land Descriptions

Question 1: The Phrase "More or Less" in Land Descriptions (10)

Question text not reproduced: the examination questions are © Engineers and Geoscientists BC. Open the official past paper (linked at the top of this page) to read the question, then follow the worked solution below.

(a) How and why "more or less" is used

"More or less" is a qualifying phrase attached to a recited dimension or area in a land description — for example "one hundred feet more or less to the water's edge" or "containing two hectares more or less." How it is used: it is appended to the stated distance, or to the computed area, precisely at the point where the description relies on a measured figure rather than on a controlling boundary. It tells the reader that the recited number is an approximation and that the true limit is fixed by something else in the description — a monument, a natural feature, or an adjoining parcel.

Why it is used: because in the hierarchy of evidence, monuments and natural boundaries control over measurement. A description that reads "to the west limit of Lot 6, one hundred feet more or less" makes the west limit of Lot 6 the true boundary; the hundred feet is only an aid. The phrase protects both grantor and grantee from small discrepancies between the record measurement and the ground, which are inevitable given instrument error, the imprecision of older surveys, and the ambulatory nature of water boundaries. It signals that a later survey finding, say, 99.4 ft to the called-for monument has not created a shortfall or a gore — the call to the monument governs and the parcel simply runs to it. Historically, when chaining was coarse and township surveys were run quickly, the phrase was a candid acknowledgement that the figure could not be trusted to the foot.

(b) Relevance when the plan shows NAD83 coordinates

Yes — the phrase remains relevant, although the size of the "more or less" shrinks. Coordinates, including NAD83(CSRS) values, rank at the bottom of the hierarchy of evidence, below original monuments and below the plan's bearings and distances. A coordinate is a derived quantity: its value depends on the datum realisation, the control station used, the transformation, the epoch, and the observation method, and it carries its own positional uncertainty. In that sense a published coordinate is itself a "more or less" statement — it locates the corner only to the precision of its realisation, not perfectly.

Consequently, even on a modern plan the boundary is still where the monument is, not where the coordinate computes; if a found, undisturbed original iron bar disagrees with its published NAD83 coordinate, the iron bar governs. Coordinates neither eliminate the ambulatory character of a water boundary nor remove ordinary positional uncertainty, so a description tied to a corner still legitimately carries "more or less." What changes is magnitude: on a tightly controlled, integrated (coordinated) cadastre the practical tolerance implied by "more or less" is small — centimetres rather than the feet of a nineteenth-century township survey. The phrase therefore remains a correct legal reflection of the principle that recited quantities are subordinate to controlling evidence, even as measurement technology narrows the gap it covers.