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To determine if there is a utility easement on your property, you can check your property deed or contact your local county assessor's office for information. Utility easements are typically recorded in property records and indicate areas where utility companies have the right to access for maintenance or installation of utility lines.
What else can I help you with?
Can I legally refuse a utility easement on my property?
No, you cannot legally refuse a utility easement on your property. Utility companies have the legal right to access your property for maintenance and installation of utility lines.
How can you buy back a utility easement or part of it?
A utility easement is a feature of the property you own, not a loss of property. A utilty easement is a section of your property that needs to be left accessible to the utility (electric company, phone company, etc.) for service, repairs, upgrades etc. You can use the space such as erect a fence but you need to know that if the utility needs to access your easement space they have the right to move or destruct what you have erected.
Who pays taxes on an easement?
On the property the easement is on/over? That depends on the terms of the easement given and agreed to. The most common forms of easements, utility and right of way easements the property owner pays the property taxes.
How wide is an easement?
There is no set width for an easement. An easement is defined by an agreement between the two property owners. Some easements have standard sizes such as roads or utility easements.
How far away from a utility easement do you have to be?
The area on either side of a utility easement is generally stated in the instrument that created the easement. For example, "no structures within 15 feet of either side of the center line". Check with the title company or attorney who represented you when you purchased your property for a copy of the easement document.
Can a utility company legally compel a property owner to grant an easement?
Yes, a utility company can legally compel a property owner to grant an easement through a process called eminent domain, which allows the government or certain entities to take private property for public use with fair compensation to the property owner.
If a utility owns an easement across the middle of your property do you have to allow them access across your private property?
Yes, because that is exactly what an easement is. The right to go onto another person's land usually for a specific and limited purpose. However, you may refuse to let the utility people go anywhere else on your property except on the exact portion of land that is covered by the easement. Such easements are usually restricted to that portion of the land so as to enable the utility to read the meter or repair damaged equipment. The terms of the deed of easement will specify where the utility can go.
If a utility easement is no longer in use how do you get a release from the utility company?
You need to contact the easement department of the utility company that owns the easement and ask for a release. The utility must research the easement in their records which is sometimes a very complicated process. They may require a fee for the research and release. That fee can run in the hundreds of dollars. On the other hand they may refuse to release it at all even if it is not in use. Once they have property rights some utility companies don't let them go.
Is the property owner responsible to maintain the utility easement?
You need to review the document that created the easement to determine that type of responsibility. All the terms should be included in that document.
What is the definition of presumptive easement Can a utility company claim presumptive easement when they never asked for an easement from the property owner?
Presumptive easement occurs when the access or easement has been used for so many years it has become an established easement. The owners permission is not necessary if they allowed it to go for years without complaint.
What is the easement of an electric company called?
Utility easement, they are common.
Does an easement devalue your property?
It depends on the easement and the type of property. As a rule, easements lower the value of the realty because granting an easement cedes one or more of the "bundle of rights" of absolute unencumbered ownership (fee simple title). As such, an easement reduces the rights of the property owner and therefore devalues the property. In some cases easements can enhance the property by providing access to an otherwise landlocked parcel or utility services to potentially residential property; in such a case an easement can enhance property value by providing access or allowing a higher level of development and a correspondingly higher value.
