What Is an Easement?
An easement is a legal right for someone else to use part of your property for a specific purpose, such as utilities, drainage or access. It usually runs with the land and limits what you can build there.
Common types
Utility easements for power, water, sewer, gas and telecom lines; drainage easements for swales, pipes and ponds; access easements giving a neighbor or the public a way across; sight distance easements at intersections; and conservation easements restricting development.
Easements can benefit a neighboring property (appurtenant easements) or a person or company such as a utility (easements in gross). Their terms, including width and allowed uses, are set by the recorded document.
How to find them
Recorded easements appear in the title commitment and are typically shown on a boundary or ALTA survey with dimensions and recording references. Subdivision plats often show standard easements along lot lines. Some easements, such as prescriptive easements, may not be recorded.
Read the title commitment's exception list together with the survey. A surveyor can plot recorded easements when the documents contain enough description, and will note when they cannot be located.
What you can build
Generally you may not build permanent structures that interfere with the easement's purpose. Fences, sheds, pools and retaining walls in utility or drainage easements may be prohibited or removed at the owner's expense. Regrading a drainage easement can block water and create liability. Ask the easement holder and the local government before building.
Engineers designing site improvements check easements early, because moving a building, driveway or pond to avoid one can change the whole layout.
Frequently asked questions
Can I remove an easement?
Only by agreement with the holder, abandonment or court action, depending on the type.
Who maintains a drainage easement?
It varies; often the property owner maintains it while the government has the right to access it.
Do easements show on a site plan?
They should. Engineers use the survey to locate easements before designing.
Sources
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