Survey Plats & Easements – how they affect you.

When you go to the closing table, the person from the title company will be covering all sorts of important documents with you. One of those documents will be a survey plat of the property you are buying. It will show you what – if any – easements are on the property.

There are several types of easements with the most common being utility easements. These easements give permission to utility companies, (such as electric, water, etc.) to come on your property to maintain or repair their lines. They don’t need your permission to do this or to DIG! If your prize roses or a fence are located in this easement, count on having them removed if the utility company needs to do so.

Sometimes there are drainage easements or identified preserve areas. What you can or cannot do in these easements are usually governed (explained) by the deed restrictions.

In the diagram to the left, I have highlighted in yellow the various easements on a particular property. It has more easements than is found in many plats, but it does a good job of showing the restrictions this particular owner will need to keep in mind when landscaping or building a deck or patio.

To the back of the property is a 20 ft preserve and drainage easement. For this particular lot, the preserve easement states that the owner can’t do anything to that section other than look at it. No mowing, no picnic tables, no plantings. Look but don’t touch. This owner owns the land but can’t use it.

Along the sides of the property, there are drainage easements. This particular lot is sloped so that means that the slope must be maintained such that if there is a very hard rain, any excess water has a natural flow back to the preserve area, to prevent flooding.

It’s not uncommon to have one plat have an easement that the neighboring plat doesn’t. As a buyer, if you are concerned by what easements might be on the home you are considering, you can ask the seller for a copy of the plat survey they were given when they closed on the home. Or you can visit the county Auditor’s office where you can see the plats for neighboring homes as well, to see the BIG picture.

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