When you run a title search, the easements it reveals are the ones recorded in the county land records — most often utility easements, private access or driveway easements, drainage and slope easements, and, on rural or protected land, conservation easements. They appear as exceptions in Schedule B of your title commitment, they bind every future owner regardless of what anyone says at closing, and the recorded document itself controls how much they actually limit your use of the property.
Where Easements Show Up in the Title Commitment
Title companies list easements burdening the property in Schedule B, Section II of the commitment. Every item in that section is an exception, meaning the insurer will not cover losses tied to it. Each entry usually points to the full agreement with a recording reference such as a book and page or instrument number. The entry itself tells you almost nothing. The recorded document behind it is what matters.
A professional land survey is what turns that recorded language into something you can see. A surveyor preparing a land title survey must show evidence of every easement disclosed in the title documents and summarize all rights of way and easements burdening the property, including recording information and whether each one lies within or crosses the parcel.1National Society of Professional Surveyors. 2026 ALTA/NSPS Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for Land Title Surveys If the title report flags a 15-foot utility easement along the eastern boundary, the survey should show exactly where that strip falls relative to the house, driveway, and fence line. Matching those plotted lines to the measurements in the recorded document is the only reliable way to know where the restricted area really sits on the lot.
The Easements You Are Most Likely to See
Utility Easements
Utility easements are the most common kind that come up in a residential title search. They let electric companies, water departments, gas providers, and telecommunications firms install and maintain infrastructure across private land. Most subdivisions have them, often running along the back or side of lots. They are typically created when the land is subdivided, recorded on the plat, and then referenced in every deed that follows. The utility holds a permanent right to access the strip for repairs and upgrades, so you generally cannot put permanent structures in that zone.
Access and Driveway Easements
Private access easements let a neighbor or another owner cross your land to reach their parcel or a public road. They are common where a back lot has no street frontage, or in rural areas where one driveway serves several properties. The recorded document defines the specific path and the uses it allows — foot traffic only, vehicle access, or both. Language matters here. A pedestrian-only easement does not entitle the holder to drive trucks across your yard.
Drainage and Slope Easements
Drainage easements reserve a strip for stormwater runoff, usually along natural low points or engineered channels between lots. Slope easements protect hillside stability by prohibiting grading or construction that could cause erosion onto a lower property. Both restrict what you can build or plant in the designated area, which matters if you are thinking about a pool, patio, or outbuilding anywhere near the affected zone.
Conservation Easements
Conservation easements impose permanent restrictions on development to protect natural habitats, scenic views, farmland, or historic sites. Unlike a narrow utility strip, a conservation easement can cover most or all of a parcel. It runs with the land forever, so every future owner has to respect the restrictions. Typical limits include bans on subdivision, commercial development, and sometimes even where a house can be built. If you are buying property with one already in place, what you inherit are the restrictions.
Appurtenant Easements and Easements in Gross
Every easement falls into one of two categories, and the distinction tells you whether it survives a sale. An appurtenant easement is tied to the land, not to any particular person. It benefits one parcel (the dominant estate) and burdens another (the servient estate). When either property changes hands, the easement travels with it automatically. A shared driveway between two neighboring lots is the classic example. Whoever owns the back lot gets the access right. Whoever owns the front lot takes on the burden.
An easement in gross belongs to a specific person or company rather than to a neighboring parcel. Utility easements are the familiar example: the electric company holds the right regardless of which parcel benefits. Personal easements in gross, such as a fishing right granted to a specific individual, generally do not transfer unless the agreement explicitly says they do. When one of these shows up in a title search, check whether it names a company (which usually means it travels with the business) or an individual (which may mean it expires when that person dies or releases it).
What the Holder Can Do, and What You Cannot
The recorded document is the ceiling on the holder’s rights. An easement holder can enter the property and do whatever the grant allows: repair a waterline, trim vegetation near power lines, walk a designated path. The holder can also make reasonable improvements that serve the easement’s purpose, like paving a dirt access road or upgrading a drainage culvert. What the holder cannot do is expand beyond the original grant. Using a pedestrian path as a construction route, or widening a 10-foot utility strip to 20 feet, crosses the line. Courts read easement rights narrowly to protect the landowner’s remaining interest. If a holder oversteps, you can seek a court injunction to stop the unauthorized use and potentially recover damages.
From your side as the owner, the biggest restriction is that you cannot place permanent structures within the easement boundaries. A shed, concrete patio, swimming pool, or fence that blocks the area can result in a court order requiring removal at your expense. This catches buyers off guard more than almost any other easement issue, especially when the strip looks like perfectly usable yard.
You also have to keep the easement area accessible. That means not parking vehicles across a shared driveway, not letting vegetation overgrow an access path, and not regrading your yard in a way that diverts water into a neighbor’s drainage easement. Interfering with an easement can trigger lawsuits for damages and court orders to restore access. These obligations bind you whether or not you knew about the easement when you bought the property, which is exactly why the title search matters.
Who Pays for Maintenance
The default rule in most jurisdictions is that the easement holder pays to maintain the easement area. A utility company holding a pipeline easement is responsible for keeping the pipeline in good repair and restoring the surface after any work. When both parties use the easement, as with a shared driveway, maintenance costs are typically split based on relative use. The recorded agreement can override these defaults by assigning maintenance to the landowner or setting a specific cost-sharing formula, so read the actual document rather than assuming.
How Easements Affect the Property’s Value
Easements reduce what you can do with land, and that reduction shows up in market value. Appraisers typically use a “before and after” method, estimating the value without the easement and then with it; the difference is the easement’s impact. How large that difference is depends on the type of easement and how severely it limits use.
A small underground utility easement along a side property line might shave off almost nothing, perhaps a few percent of overall value. An overhead power line easement crossing the middle of a lot has a much larger impact, potentially reducing value by the majority of the affected area’s worth. Conservation easements on rural land routinely reduce assessed values by 20 to 80 percent depending on how restrictive they are, with the most severe “forever wild” restrictions at the upper end of that range. The practical question is whether the restrictions affect land you would actually want to use or develop. An easement across an unbuildable steep slope matters far less than one cutting through the only flat area suitable for an addition.
What a Title Search Will Not Reveal
A title search only turns up what is recorded in the public land records. Several kinds of legally enforceable easements exist with no recorded document at all, and finding them requires physical inspection or local knowledge. This is one of the strongest arguments for a professional survey before closing, because surveyors are required to note observed evidence of undocumented uses like worn paths, utility lines, and driveways that cross the property.
A prescriptive easement arises when someone uses another person’s land openly, without permission, and continuously for a period set by state law, typically between 5 and 20 years. The use must be obvious enough that the owner had a reasonable chance to stop it. If a neighbor has been driving across the corner of your property to reach their garage for 15 years and nobody objected, they may have acquired a legal right to continue. No document gets filed unless the user goes to court to formalize the claim, so the title search stays silent.
Implied easements come up when a single parcel is divided and one part was visibly and continuously used to benefit another part before the split. A property owner uses a path across the back half to reach the front half, then sells the back half; if the path was apparent, reasonably necessary, and in continuous use before the sale, courts may recognize an easement by implication even though nobody wrote one into the deed.
Easements by necessity arise when subdividing a parcel leaves one piece completely landlocked with no legal access to a public road. The traditional standard requires absolute landlocking, not just inconvenience, though a minority of jurisdictions apply a looser “reasonable necessity” test. These easements exist only as long as the necessity does. If a new public road later provides access, the easement can expire.
Recording Priority and Foreclosure Risk
Competing interests in real property generally follow the rule first in time, first in right. An easement recorded before a mortgage has priority over that mortgage, so a foreclosure cannot wipe it out. An easement recorded after an existing mortgage is subordinate to it, and if the lender forecloses, the property can be sold free and clear of the easement.
This matters most for conservation easements, where the landowner may have donated the easement while still carrying a mortgage. If the mortgage predates the easement and the lender never agreed to subordinate its interest, a default could extinguish the easement at a foreclosure sale. Buyers and easement holders can protect against this through a subordination agreement, in which the lender agrees to let the easement take priority, or a non-disturbance agreement, in which the lender promises the easement will survive any foreclosure. When reviewing a title search, check whether any mortgage recorded before an easement has one of these protective agreements attached.
How a Recorded Easement Can End
Easements are built to last, but they can be terminated. If one person acquires both the benefited and the burdened property, the easement is extinguished automatically by merger, because a person cannot hold an easement on their own land. If the land is later subdivided again, the easement does not spring back; a new one has to be created.
The holder can voluntarily give up the right by signing a written release. For the release to bind future buyers and lenders, it must be recorded. An unrecorded release leaves the easement visible in future title searches, creating confusion even if the holder genuinely walked away.
Abandonment is harder to prove. Simply not using an easement for years, or even decades, is not enough on its own. The holder must have taken some affirmative action showing intent to permanently give up the right, such as removing their own access infrastructure or physically blocking the route from their side. Courts require clear and convincing evidence of that intent, and the burden falls on whoever claims abandonment. In practice, that usually means a quiet title action.
Some easements end on their own terms. A 25-year construction access easement terminates at the end of the stated period. Easements created by necessity end when the necessity disappears. Easements with express end dates are the easiest to deal with in a title search because the termination is right in the recorded document.
Steps to Take When an Easement Shows Up on Your Report
Finding an easement in a title search is not unusual and not necessarily a deal-breaker. Ignoring it is the mistake that costs people money and flexibility.
- Request the full recorded document. The Schedule B entry gives you a recording reference; ask your title company for the actual easement agreement, not just the one-line summary. Permitted uses, width, maintenance obligations, and any expiration terms are all in that document.
- Get a survey. A professional land survey shows exactly where the easement falls and how it relates to existing structures, driveways, and the areas where you might want to build. Residential surveys with easement mapping typically run between $1,500 and $4,500 depending on lot size and complexity.
- Compare the easement to your plans. A 10-foot utility easement along the back fence line may not affect anything you care about. A 30-foot access easement across the middle of the lot might kill plans for an addition. The impact depends on location and intended use.
- Check recording priority. If the property has a mortgage, confirm whether the easement was recorded before or after it. An easement junior to the mortgage is at risk in a foreclosure.
- Ask about title insurance endorsements. Standard policies list easements as exceptions, but endorsements can add specific protections back in. The ALTA 9 endorsement, for example, covers certain losses related to encroachments involving easements and is issued with loan policies based on a current survey. Availability and coverage vary by state, so ask what actually applies to your transaction.2American Land Title Association. ALTA 9 Endorsement – Restrictions, Encroachments, and Minerals
- Negotiate if warranted. If an easement significantly limits the property’s usefulness, you may be able to negotiate a lower price, ask the seller to obtain a release from the easement holder before closing, or walk away if the restrictions are incompatible with your plans.
Easements are one of those areas where the dull paperwork prevents the expensive surprises. A few hours spent reading the actual recorded documents and matching them to a survey can save you from building something a court orders you to tear down, or buying land you cannot use the way you expected.