A purchaser in offering to buy improved property is always presumed to be intending to purchase three things: 1. the land, 2. the structure, capable of occupancy and rentable, and 3. the right to maintain it. If the building stands in from the lines on all sides there is no difficulty. But in the cities a building is usually constructed to fill the entire width of the lot.

If the building exactly fills the lot, not encroaching on either side, the seller may use any description which accurately describes the land; the building will pass with a description of the land. The purchaser may, if he wishes to be sure he is signing a contract for the house he has in mind, have inserted after the description the words "known as and by the house number..........Street."

Suppose, however, that the building not only fills the entire lot, but encroaches on the lot alongside. If the encroachment is not in excess of a few inches or the building has been standing for many years, an easement has arisen permitting the building to remain. In such case a description by street number would be improper as the seller does not own and cannot convey the building and all the land upon which it stands. He should use a description which will describe the land which he owns just as if it were a vacant lot; the building and easement will follow with the land so described. The seller is protected for he is only undertaking to give what he has and the purchaser gets what he intended to buy.

Occasionally the building on the lot alongside encroaches on the seller's land, so that the seller has possession of less land than called for by his deed. How shall he then sell safely? He may use a description taking in only so much land as is actually in his possession, diminishing his width dimensions as much as necessary. He may use the description called for by his own deed using "more or less" following the width dimensions. Or he may describe merely by house number. Under any of those descriptions he can give what he contracts to convey.