Found in the Land Records
Easements created by a recorded instrument
These are created by a document that gets recorded against the parcel. An easement search reports the ones found of record for the term you select, with the instrument attached.
Usually recorded
Easement Appurtenant
An easement appurtenant benefits one parcel, the dominant estate, and burdens another, the servient estate. It attaches to the land rather than to a person, so it ordinarily passes to the next owner of each parcel when either one is sold.
This is the type most people mean when they say a property "has an easement." A classic example is a driveway easement letting one lot reach a public road across its neighbor. Because it runs with the land, buying the burdened parcel usually means buying the burden with it.
Usually recorded
Easement in Gross
An easement in gross is a right held by a person or a company rather than by a neighboring parcel. There is a burdened property but no benefited one, which is why utility easements take this form.
A power company holding the right to run and maintain lines across a lot holds an easement in gross. Commercial easements in gross are generally transferable, so the holder named in a decades-old instrument may not be the company that services the line today.
Usually recorded
Utility Easement
A utility easement gives a provider the right to install, access, and maintain electric, gas, water, sewer, or telecommunications infrastructure across private property.
Utility easements are the most common encumbrance we report. They matter because they constrain what can be built where: an addition, pool, or detached garage placed over a utility easement may have to come out at the owner’s expense if the provider needs access.
Usually recorded
Right-of-Way Easement
A right-of-way grants passage across a parcel. It can serve a neighbor, a utility, or the public, and it is the easement most likely to be load-bearing for whether a parcel is usable at all.
For a landlocked parcel, the right of way is the property’s access to a public road. Buyers sometimes assume a driveway in daily use is documented; whether an instrument exists, and what width and use it actually permits, is a question the record can answer.
Usually recorded
Drainage Easement
A drainage easement reserves part of a parcel for the flow or retention of stormwater, often in favor of a municipality or a homeowners association.
These are frequently created on the subdivision plat rather than by a separate deed, which is one reason a search that reaches back to the original platting can surface burdens a shorter search would not.
Usually recorded
Conservation Easement
A conservation easement permanently limits development or use to protect farmland, habitat, water, or a historic structure, and is typically held by a land trust or a government body.
Conservation easements are usually perpetual and are recorded, so they show in a title search. Because they cap what can ever be built, they can affect both value and financing well beyond the term of any single owner.
