7 Easements That Limit What You Can Build

An easement gives someone else a legal right to use part of land you own, and the seven types owners run into most are utility, drainage, access, pipeline, conservation, necessity, and prescriptive easements. Some sit in your deed or a recorded plat; others, like necessity and prescriptive easements, may not appear anywhere until a survey or a dispute reveals them.

Why does a title search or deed not catch every easement?

Your deed and title commitment show the easements that were formally granted and recorded against your parcel, but two of the seven types below are created by law or by conduct rather than by a signed document, so they don’t reliably show up in a records search. An easement by necessity attaches automatically when a landlocked parcel is carved off a larger tract, and a prescriptive easement can form from years of someone else’s open use of part of your land, according to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute. Both can surface for the first time when you pull a building permit, order a new survey, or a neighbor tells you they’ve always used a strip of your land.

What is a utility easement, and where can’t you build because of it?

A utility easement lets a utility company install and maintain power lines, water, sewer, gas, or cable infrastructure across a strip of your property, and you generally can’t build permanent structures inside it. According to the City of Stillwater, Oklahoma, these easements “almost always exist along streets and along rear lot lines, and sometimes exist between two lots,” and construction is barred within them because of setback requirements tied to the easement itself — an obstruction there can delay outage repairs and leave you responsible for any damage caused when the utility has to remove it. You still own the land under the easement and can typically landscape it with plants that don’t interfere with access, but sheds, decks, additions, fences that block equipment access, and anything with a foundation are usually off-limits.

What is a drainage or stormwater easement, and how much buildable area does it take?

A drainage or stormwater easement reserves a strip of your land for water to flow, pool, or be piped through, and it removes that strip from your buildable footprint even though you still own and mow it. Fairfax County, Virginia prohibits “additions, decks, and certain types of fences” within storm drainage easements to preserve system function and maintenance access, and notes these easements are permanent and survive any sale of the property. Grading, filling, or landscaping that changes how water moves through the easement is typically restricted too, not just structures — so a plan to level a low corner of the lot for a garage pad can run into the same restriction as building a shed on it. Documentation usually shows up on the plat you received at closing or in the county’s land records office.

What is an access easement, and can you build over a shared driveway?

An access easement, sometimes called an ingress-egress easement, gives another parcel owner the legal right to cross part of your land to reach a road, and you generally can’t build anything — a fence, a gate that stays locked, a parking pad — that blocks or narrows that right of passage. According to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute, this is a classic affirmative easement: it lets the holder perform an action, like traveling across the land via a private road, on property someone else owns. Shared driveways are the most common version owners run into, and disputes usually start when one side wants to widen the drive, add parking along it, or gate it off — all of which can conflict with the recorded easement’s terms even though the pavement sits entirely on your parcel.

What is a pipeline or transmission easement, and how far back must you build?

A pipeline or transmission easement grants an energy or utility company the right to install and access a line across your land, and it typically bars any permanent structure across the entire right-of-way width, not just a narrow trench line. Pipeline Safety Trust states that “construction of buildings and other permanent structures (swimming pools, anchored play equipment, patios, fences, etc.) are not allowed on transmission pipeline right-of-ways,” and warns that the company may also retain the right to clear vegetation blocking aerial inspection of the line. Unlike a standard utility easement, width and terms vary from contract to contract, so the only way to know your actual no-build zone is to read the specific recorded agreement rather than assume a standard buffer.

What is a conservation easement, and does it block building entirely?

A conservation easement is a permanent deed restriction, usually held by a land trust or government agency, that limits development to protect the land’s natural, agricultural, or scenic character — and whether it blocks building outright depends entirely on the terms negotiated when it was created. According to the Texas Land Trust Council, a landowner donating a conservation easement “could choose to limit the right to develop a property, but keep the rights to build a house, raise cattle and grow crops,” and restrictions are customized rather than one-size-fits-all — some reserve a specific area where limited construction is still allowed. The permanence is the part that catches owners off guard: because it must be granted in perpetuity to qualify for its intended purpose, a conservation easement doesn’t expire, and a later owner inherits the same restrictions the original owner agreed to, whether or not they realized that going in.

What is an easement by necessity, and why might it not be in your deed?

An easement by necessity is an unwritten legal right to cross a neighboring property when that’s the only way to reach a landlocked parcel, and it attaches automatically at the moment a larger tract is split into pieces — no recording required. Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute explains that it requires two things: the properties were once under common ownership, and the easement was necessary for access at the time they were separated. That combination cuts both ways for an owner. If your own parcel is landlocked, this doctrine may be the only legal basis you have to reach it, but if a neighboring landlocked parcel relies on crossing your land, you may be blocked from building anything — a fence, a structure, even certain landscaping — across the access route, even though no easement document was ever recorded against your property.

What is a prescriptive easement, and how does someone gain rights to your land without paperwork?

A prescriptive easement lets someone acquire a legal right to use part of your land simply by using it openly, continuously, and without your permission for a period of years set by state law — with no deed, contract, or recording involved at any point. Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute lists the core elements as open and notorious use, use that is adverse to the owner’s rights, and a continuous period that varies by state; a well-worn footpath, a neighbor’s driveway that crosses a corner of your lot, or a decades-old fence line in the wrong spot are the usual fact patterns. Because nothing gets filed until the use is challenged or confirmed in court, a prescriptive easement is the type most likely to surprise an owner mid-project — you find out when you stake out a building site and a neighbor points out they’ve been driving across that exact spot for twenty years.

How do these seven types compare?

The seven types differ most in who holds the right, how much of your buildable area they take, and whether they were ever recorded anywhere you could have found them before now, as the table below summarizes.

How do you find every easement affecting your buildable area before you break ground?

Start with the documents you already have, then verify them against the county’s own records and a current survey, because your closing paperwork only reflects what was recorded and known at the time you bought. A practical sequence:

1. Reread your deed, title commitment, or owner’s title policy from closing for any listed easements.
2. Pull the recorded subdivision plat for your parcel, which typically shows utility and drainage easement locations.
3. Search the county recorder’s or register of deeds’ index by your parcel number for any easement, right-of-way, or agreement filed against the property after you closed or missed the first time — King County, Washington, for example, lets owners search recorded documents online by parcel ID once they have it from the assessor’s office.
4. Order a current boundary and improvement survey. This is the only step that reliably catches unrecorded easements by necessity, prescriptive claims, and encroachments a document search can’t show, since a surveyor plots physical evidence of use, not just paper.
5. Before applying for a building permit, ask your local planning or building department whether the parcel is affected by any easement on file with the county, separate from what your own search turns up.

What can you do if an easement conflicts with your building plans?

Your options depend on how the easement was created and who holds it, but the range typically runs from redesigning around it to negotiating a relocation or release. A recorded utility, drainage, or pipeline easement can sometimes be relocated if you cover the cost and the new route works as well for the holder, and a recorded easement can occasionally be released outright if every party with an interest agrees or if it’s demonstrated the easement no longer serves any purpose. A conservation easement is the exception — because most are recorded in perpetuity specifically so they can’t be renegotiated later, redesigning your project around the protected area, not around the easement itself, is usually the only realistic path. If you’re not planning to build at all and the easement is one more complication in a parcel you’d rather not deal with, land in that position is still sellable; a buyer weighing buildable area against legal access simply prices the easement into the offer rather than treating it as disqualifying. AMM Land Sales looks at parcels with recorded and unrecorded easements as part of ordinary due diligence and can make a cash offer that accounts for how much of the lot is actually buildable, without asking you to resolve the easement first.

Owners who discover a prescriptive easement or an easement by necessity mid-project often assume it invalidates their ownership somehow — it doesn’t. It just means part of the parcel isn’t yours to build on the way you’d planned. The same is true of a conservation easement: the land is still yours, the restriction just runs with it permanently. Understanding which of these seven categories you’re dealing with, and whether it was ever recorded, is what determines whether the fix is a redesign, a negotiation, or living with a smaller footprint than you expected. For more on how easements and other title issues affect land you already own, see the owning-land guide; if the parcel is landlocked and relies on a neighbor’s easement for any access at all, selling landlocked land and our related piece on whether landlocked property can be sold cover that specific case in more depth.