Blanket Easement definition

I'm skeptical too.....

Sorry, I can't help and just flat-out don't like blanket easements. You can try to define them if you like, but I am concerned that a court might come up with a different definition than you developed. I would try to convince clients to create a specific easement and easement location for future work. I may be wrong, though. I'll wait and see what other guys say.

You have a few things to consider beyond finding a friendly definition of blanket.
Who were those easements granted to? Does the intent statement in the certificate of owners limit use? The list goes on...
No way would i advise my client against getting a specific easement. That goes for both estates...
My 02

When I worked for Verizon, we typically would go back out and get a specific easement on a parcel if we were doing an upgrade or reconfiguration. At least in New York, utilities did not like to rely on old blanket easements.....

Be careful as the others have suggested.

What may appear, either in graphics or words, as an uncontested ability to utilize a property in its entirety, without restriction (a "Blanket" easement)...there is actually probably no such animal. Courts have ruled rights of that nature are fee simple, not easements.

Without going into great detail many court rulings in Oklahoma concerning blanket easement have been shot down. The devil is in the details. Most older blanket easements, for say a transmission line, are merely a permission to construct in a convenient location. Of course, specific verbiage in any easement grant is paramount.

Even though the exact location of the transmission line is not stated or described, the courts have ruled (in several cases) the easement only exists where the transmission line is located. Any other, or newer, utilities require being addressed, unless it is a maintenance or replacement of the original line.

It is too easy to address easements and right-of-ways at the time of construction or placement. Messing around with an "iffy" (at best) blanket easement is just asking for trouble down the line.

Something about an ounce of prevention vs a pound of cure....B-)

We use "Permanent Utility Easement" This allows us to install underground and above ground utilities. Kind of a catch all, takes care of water, sewer, telephone, fiberoptics, power, above or below ground... not sure if that is what you're after.

-JD-

> We use "Permanent Utility Easement" This allows us to install underground and above ground utilities. Kind of a catch all, takes care of water, sewer, telephone, fiberoptics, power, above or below ground... not sure if that is what you're after.
>
> -JD-

Good Point. I was thinking of a blanket easement to just say the purpose(s) of the easement across a piece of land, without describing a specific location within the parcel (no m&b description); so that the easement company could lay their utility anywhere within the land without staying inside a described strip.

I hadn't thought of it in terms of an easement that covers multiple uses in favor of different companies or agencies. I have seen those termed as "multipurpose easements". The other day I ran across an easement that described a specific area of land but had no purpose associated with it.

Blanket easements, in my humble opinion, cause problems that could be avoided by a small amount of planning and forethought. I would rather follow a description that is poorly written yet discernible than an ambiguous easement that is impossible to tie down, not to mention the headaches it causes when attempting to subdivide from a parcel that is encumbered by a blanket easement. My $0.02

Filing a blanket easement on a piece of property is just plain stupid. Try figuring out what piece of paper goes with which utility placement when there are numerous water lines, power lines, tele lines all over the tract.

Blanket easements were an easy way to obtain an easement in the start up days in the early to mid 1900s because people wanted water and electricity and most of the time the route was determined as the construction was being done on a best and easiest and cheapest place to build basis.

What they do is tie up the whole original tract with the easement in the future even though no other route may be chosen.

Rural electric, gas and water systems were usually the ones obtaining a blanket easement and some early distribution pipelines from wells to storage facilities.

Most of the time, no location surveys were made to where utility sits.

They were also used by DOT for one description to cover obtaining an easement for extra areas for drainage and construction along the route of new road.

Blanket Deeds were also written in this style.

Many did not sign those and condemnation was made on those properties and will only show up in District Court Records.

Many DOT records referenced as Volume and Page are actually Cause Numbers.

😉

This should be illegal

A large majority look like this.

I don't remember ever seeing the actual term "blanket easement" used on a plat or in a document. This is the first time. It might be a piece of slang rather than a legal term.

The difficulty with giving someone a definition of a blanket easement is that you would be talking about what rights they have, so in effect you'd be giving legal advice. It's better not to go there, especially considering the court cases Paden mentioned. If the communication company wants a specific easement and is willing to pay for the necessary survey work, that doesn't really seem like a problem.

In Minnesota it has been illegal for 40 years for utility companies to acquire blanket easements, and they have to confine old ones on request of the servient property owner. That law was put in place to protect property owners from the problems caused by undefined easements. Oddly enough, telephone and cable-TV companies are still acquiring blanket easements here. They say they are not utility companies under the law.

If you must write a blanket easement for a property, instead of pinpointing the location, the purpose should be very specific. For example, an easement across the property of John Doe, located in the NW 1/4 of the NW 1/4 of section 4, T-3-N, R-2-E, xxxxxx county, state, and recorded at deed book xxx, page xxx, for the purpose of maintenance and upkeep of an existing sanitary sewer line..."

My 0.02

What I have become familiar with is the situation that was rampant in the 1960's when rural water districts were being formed to provide potable over wide rural areas by use of cheap plastic pipe and trenchers/backhoes. Farmers Home Administration was the primary lender for these startup water districts that were basically cooperatives. They provided all the standard verbage for bylaws, constitutions, rules, regulations and all sorts of other documents relevant to getting things going. They provided the general forms for obtaining easements from the dozens to hundreds of landowners through whose properties the main lines had to run. The standard form was basically a blanket easement where the entire property was identified.

Through the years courts have ruled that the entire property is no longer encumbered once a line is installed. Further, running one line is fine but adding a second somewhere else on the property at a later date is a no no. This was challenged early on by some landowners who felt they were being taken advantage of. The thought was that the easement was for a specific purpose which was the creation of a main line. Later extensions from that main line required another easement. One board on which I was serving simply wanted to increase capacity by installing a second line parallel with the first and only about five feet from it. Sorry, Charlie. Get a new easement.