This started becoming an issue in the Philadelphia area a long time ago.  Usually banks, but increasingly everyone else is doing this.  If I get a deed like this, I always go back to prior deeds to find if there is a metes and bounds description somewhere in the chain and include that with the search.

Think about it this way - be happy your client has standards like this - probably the reason they use you instead of some off-shore operation.  The more we stray from the real way of doing our jobs, the more acceptable it becomes to the industry as a whole to take shortcuts like quick and dirty legal descriptions.  When the issue has arisen, I always try to stress the importance of a full legal with the client.

Off the top of my head, there is no legal reqirement for a metes and bounds description in PA.  Statutes allow you to refer simply to a lot designation on a recorded plan, or in counties where they have adopted the UPI statutes you can refer to the original deed that contains the metes and bounds or just the parcel number itself (although the statute is a bit confusing on this point).  Case law from the last 200 plus years has permitted the enforcement of deeds with no better legal than "my house in X township" if it is sufficiently descriptive to identify the property uniquely.

So, in short, I would always track down the a deed with the full metes and bounds description (if one exists) lest we lose yet another traditional and important aspect of land titles due to some in our industry taking shortcuts.

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