Blog · September 30, 2026
What Is a Senior Deed?
A senior deed is the earlier conveyance when one grantor sold pieces of a tract at different times. The first buyer’s description is senior. Later deeds are junior and take what is left. Seniority is about time and the chain, not about which neighbor built the nicer fence.
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First out from a common grantor
Suppose a farmer deeds the west portion to Anna in 1920 and the remainder to Ben in 1940. Anna’s deed is senior. If Anna’s deed says west to the creek, Anna gets to the creek even if a later calculation makes Ben’s remainder look tight. Ben took what the grantor still had. If the two deeds overlap on paper, the overlap is resolved in favor of the senior deed when the senior deed can be located. If there is a gap between them, the gap may have stayed with the grantor or passed by a later catch-all deed. You do not close the gap by sliding both owners toward each other. That habit rewrites both conveyances to create a peace that the documents did not.
How a plat changes the question
A subdivision plat is usually a simultaneous conveyance. The lots are created at one moment, and none is senior to the lot next door. Senior and junior rules fit sequential deeds out of a parent tract, not two lots on the same plat. A lot deed that simply recites Lot 4 of the plat takes the lot as platted, senior to later metes-and-bounds deeds that try to shave it, and junior to any easement or conveyance that already burdened the parent before the plat. Read dates. A 1950 plat does not defeat a 1920 deed of a strip across the same ground. The county GIS layer has no senior and junior. It shows one polygon per tax parcel, sometimes merged, sometimes split, with no recording timeline.
What you gather to tell them apart
You need the deeds in date order, from the common grantor, with their full descriptions, not the tax bill’s short version. Recording order and delivery rules can complicate the timeline, which is why a title professional looks at the index instead of trusting a stack of photocopies sorted by eye. Your reading job is to notice which deed came first and whether the later deed says remainder or repeats a full description that overlaps. A phone GPS will not show seniority. A measuring wheel will not show it. Do not walk the junior owner’s land to hunt for the senior corner. If the two descriptions conflict on the ground, a surveyor retraces the senior deed first and then places the junior against it.
What to do next
- List deeds from the same parent in date order.
- Mark the earliest clear conveyance as senior.
- Do not apply senior and junior rules to lots created together on one plat.
- Retrace the senior description before you judge the junior remainder.
The mix-up to avoid
Treating the newer, cleaner survey as senior because it is easier to plot. Seniority follows the earlier grant. A later survey is evidence. It is not a new senior deed.
Questions people ask
Does recording a deed first make it senior if it was signed later?
Recording rules and the facts of delivery can change the outcome, and they are local. Do not assume the stamp date is the whole story, and do not assume the signature date is the whole story either. That is a title question once the dates actually conflict.
If I buy the remainder, do I get everything the senior owner does not use?
You get what the remainder deed describes, which should be what the grantor had left. Unused land the senior deed already conveyed is not a remainder. Occupation and title are different. A mowed yard does not surrender a senior line.
Find the county map
The county GIS map is the practical place to start. Find it from the Platbookmapper directory, then treat the recorded plat and deed as the documents behind the picture.
Not a survey. County GIS and tax parcel maps are assessment and planning layers. They are not a substitute for a recorded plat, deed, or licensed survey.