I had a potential client call me yesterday; his neighbor, behind him, had a survey done, and finds that the line between their property is 15' into his backyard. This is in 2 platted subdivisions, from the 1950's. The neighbor is in phase 1 and George is in phase 2. My client has lived here for over 10 years and the occupation was there before that, so he does have a potential adverse possession claim. The problem is; the neighbor has a 10' utility easement on his side of the the line and my client has a 10' utility easement on his side of the line. Both of these easements were created with their respective plats and continue through the entire block.
My question is; what happens to the easements, if they end up adjusting the boundary line?
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TIA for all of your sage advice!
Dougie
My question is; what happens to the easements, if they end up adjusting the boundary line?
I think that would very much depend on where any installed utilities are. If there are none, nobody cares.?ÿ
I would suggest that the existing rights of the utility companies would be unaffected by a successful adverse possession claim.
Even if someone found the easement to no longer exist based on the subdivision plat, the utility would win a right to a prescriptive easement. I don't believe the easement to ever go away without the release of the utility owner.
@lurker I surveyed easements for a major utility (gas and electric) for over 30 years and they would not pursue prescriptive rights related to buried utilities. Due to lack of visibility their attorneys agreed there was no notice made to affected property owners by the presence of the utility.
I would assume the easements won't change location, which brings up an interesting question. Will someone lose access to their utilities?
@kscott?ÿ
Yes, some states exclude utility companies from being able to acquire prescriptive rights
Generally, an easement will run with the land; successors and and assigns will still be burdened with the restrictions of the easement, if they own the servient property.
Thanks, everyone, for the great comments!
Is this a great board, or what?
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But what does the GIS say??ÿ Potential client turned into first name basis client rather fast.?ÿ I was always skeptical of providing advice without any boots on the ground experience and if its adverse, I would steer George to his attorney first or the neighbor's surveyor.?ÿ
If this situation develops into a BLA, which it probably should rather than a court case, the reviewing agency may question the easement issue, but probably not. A BLA is just boundaries, not easements which have to be addressed in other ways.?ÿ
I haven't given George any real advice, other than; he needs to hire his own surveyor.
I generally start by telling potential clients that I give my advice for free; but then they get what they pay for. Hopefully, this keeps me out of trouble with the Attorney's.
I try to steer people away from Attorneys, if they can help it. Attorneys don't give their advice away for free; in fact they charge dearly for it...?ÿ ?ÿMaybe that's where Surveyors screw up.
AP starts at $20k for the attorney and then climbs up.........so an attorney recently told me
@dougie?ÿ
and when the AP claims moves the property line 15' into the adjoiner crossing the easement, will the adjoiner still touch the easement? Will that disconnect him from the services?
A recent job involved a very poorly planned little subdivision with only 10 lots all side by side---sort of.?ÿ Between Lots 5 & 6 a five-foot wide utility easement is shown, which then T's on the north side and runs over the north five feet of all lots, still only five feet wide.?ÿ Most of the land to the north is owned by the owner of Lot 5, north of Lots1-7.?ÿ There is no clear definition as to who actually OWNS the area under the north-south so-called easement.?ÿ But, It's only an easement if it encumbers someone else's property.
Imagine attempting to work on any utility located within a five-foot strip.
