An easement gives someone other than the landowner a legal right to use part of the property: for access, a utility line, drainage, or a conservation restriction. Some types are recorded and appear as a numbered exception in your title commitment; others, including prescriptive easements and easements by necessity, can bind the land without ever reaching paper.
What does an easement actually do to a land title?
An easement is a nonpossessory right to use someone else’s land for a specific purpose, and it doesn’t transfer ownership: the underlying parcel still belongs to the owner, subject to that right, according to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute. Easements can be affirmative, meaning the holder may do something like cross the land, or negative, meaning the owner is barred from doing something like blocking a view. Most attach to the land itself rather than to a particular owner, so a buyer inherits both the burden and the benefit of whatever was granted before the sale. That’s the part buyers underestimate: an easement created decades ago by a prior owner you’ve never heard of can still control what happens on the parcel you’re about to close on, and it keeps controlling it long after the seller who granted it is gone. Before you evaluate any specific easement, it helps to know which legal category you’re looking at, because the category determines whether the right is even visible in the chain of title you’re about to inherit.
Express easements: what actually shows up in Schedule B
An express easement is created by a written, signed document, typically a grant, a reservation carved out in a deed, or a standalone easement agreement, and it’s the type most likely to be recorded and listed as a numbered exception on your title commitment. Because it’s on paper, it’s also the type you can actually read before closing. Pull the referenced instrument itself, not just the one-line description in Schedule B, and check the exact width, location, and purpose against a current survey. A title company summarizing an easement as “10-foot utility easement per plat” is telling you it exists, not where it runs relative to the buildable area, driveway, or septic field you’re planning. Ask the title company for the recorded instrument by its book-and-page or document number, not just a summary line, and confirm the grantor named in that instrument actually owned the servient parcel at the time it was signed.
Prescriptive easements: the kind your title report often won’t show
A prescriptive easement is acquired through open, notorious, and adverse use of someone else’s land for a continuous statutory period, rather than through any written grant. Oregon, for example, requires ten years of qualifying use, according to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute. Because no document was ever signed or recorded, a title search of the public record can miss a prescriptive easement entirely, and a standard owner’s policy’s Covered Risk 4 only insures the legal right of access shown in public records, not rights created by conduct on the ground, per GRS Group. Before closing, walk the boundary lines yourself. A worn path, a long-standing fence off the surveyed line, or a neighbor’s driveway crossing the corner of the parcel is physical evidence a title search can’t pick up, and any of it is worth raising with the seller and title company directly during your due diligence period, while you can still negotiate or walk away.
Easements by necessity: the landlocked buyer’s fallback, and its limits
An easement by necessity is implied by law when a landlocked parcel was once part of a larger tract under common ownership. The buyer typically has to confirm two things: unity of ownership before the tract was split, and that the necessity for access existed at the moment of the split, with some states requiring strict landlock and others accepting a lesser “reasonable necessity” standard, according to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute. This matters because a seller or agent may describe access as “fine, there’s an easement by necessity” when no such easement by necessity has ever been recorded, tested, or even asserted in court. If a title report shows no recorded access easement and you’re relying on necessity instead, that’s a live legal question, not a settled fact. Get it resolved before you close, not after: record an express easement, and if access already runs through a recorded easement, ask the title company to insure it with an ALTA 17.1 endorsement. Owners who discover this problem after the fact are often the same people who end up selling a landlocked parcel at a discount rather than litigating access years down the road.
Utility easements: usually low-risk, but check the width against your build plan
A utility easement grants a company the right to install and maintain lines, pipes, or equipment across a strip of the property, and it’s typically recorded and disclosed as a routine title exception, because utility providers have every incentive to protect their own recorded rights. The buyer-relevant question isn’t whether one exists; most parcels have at least one. It’s how wide the strip is and where it falls relative to where you actually want to build, park, or drill a well. Because an easement grants a right to use the land rather than a possessory interest, per Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute, the utility holder can generally enter to maintain or replace its lines without asking permission each time, so factor that ongoing access into where you plan a home site, well, or septic field relative to the recorded strip. Cross-reference the recorded width and centerline against your survey, not just the plat sketch, and if the property fronts a rural road, ask the utility provider directly whether unrecorded overhead lines or poles predate the current recording system.
Conservation easements: read the deed, not just the exception line
A conservation easement is a restriction, typically granted to a land trust or government entity, that limits future development or land use to protect conservation values, according to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute. It runs with the land in perpetuity: it binds every future owner, not just the one who originally granted it. This is the conservation easement category with the least room for buyer error. A title commitment that lists “conservation easement per instrument #12345” is not the same as knowing what that easement actually prohibits. Order and read the full recorded easement deed before closing. It will spell out what’s still permitted, often agriculture, hunting, or limited recreational use, and what’s permanently off the table, usually subdivision, most new structures, and commercial timber harvest. Unlike a restrictive covenant a homeowners’ association might eventually vote to amend, a conservation easement held by a land trust or government agency generally can’t be negotiated away after closing. The restriction survives the sale and binds every subsequent owner, so price the land as if the restriction is permanent, because it is.
Drainage easements: the encumbrance rural and ag buyers miss
A drainage easement grants the right to move water, often through underground tile lines, across a neighboring parcel, and it can be created by express written agreement, by prescription after years of use, or by implication when a single tract with an existing tile system was later divided, according to the Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation at Iowa State University. The same source notes that in Iowa, private drainage systems installed after July 1, 1969 must be recorded with the county recorder, but drainage records are kept separately and aren’t automatically part of a title search, and even an easement the buyer had no notice of will still be upheld as valid against the new owner. If you’re buying agricultural or rural land, ask the seller directly whether any tile lines cross the property in either direction, and request any recorded drainage agreements by name rather than assuming the title commitment already captured them.
Party wall easements: shared walls on subdivided or infill lots
A party wall sits on or straddles the boundary line between two properties and is used by both, and absent a recorded agreement stating otherwise, adjoining owners are generally presumed to hold it as tenants in common with mutual easement rights to keep it standing, according to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute. This shows up less often on raw acreage than on subdivided residential lots, infill parcels, or land with an existing structure straddling a boundary, but when it applies, the presumption of shared ownership and shared maintenance cost holds whether or not anyone ever signed anything. If a survey shows a wall, fence, or retaining structure sitting on the boundary line, ask whether a party wall agreement was ever recorded, and if not, get the maintenance and cost-sharing terms in writing before closing rather than relying on the legal presumption to sort it out later.
Comparing the seven types before you sign
| Easement type | Usually recorded? | Where a buyer would see it | What to ask for before closing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Express | Yes | Schedule B exception, referencing the instrument | The full recorded document, checked against a current survey |
| Prescriptive | Rarely | Often not shown at all | A boundary walk, neighbor interviews, and an ALTA survey |
| By necessity | Rarely | Not shown unless already litigated | Chain-of-title review back to the parcel’s severance |
| Utility | Usually | Schedule B exception | Recorded width and centerline versus your build plan |
| Conservation | Yes | Schedule B exception, referencing the easement deed | The full conservation easement deed, read in full |
| Drainage | Sometimes | May be recorded separately from title records | Direct disclosure from seller; recorded drainage agreements |
| Party wall | Sometimes | May not be recorded at all | A recorded party wall agreement, or written terms before closing |
Before you sign a purchase agreement, ask your title company which of these seven categories, if any, apply to the parcel, and for the ones that “usually” or “rarely” get recorded, don’t treat a clean title commitment as proof none exist. A title commitment reflects what’s in the public record, not what’s true on the ground, and legal access as insured by a standard policy is a narrower guarantee than most buyers assume. For land that turns out to be genuinely encumbered or effectively landlocked, some owners decide the cleaner path is selling rather than untangling the easement question themselves. Companies that buy land for cash, including AMM Land Sales ((815) 384-6153), take on parcels with exactly these kinds of access and title complications as part of the purchase. For more on evaluating a parcel before you commit, see AMM Land Sales’s guide to buying land.