Buyers Beware Easements Impact, Recently I sold a HUD Home to a client in the Greater Oakland County area, a nice home not one you would picture in your mind as a HUD Home. The home was a beautiful tri-level in a fantastic area and seemed to be priced very well and a great value. The home is on a beautiful wooded lot with many trees and a wonderful waterfall pond in the yard, there was also this large shed with a canopy style roof to sit under during sunny days or warm summer nights. Inspection time, the City came out and my buyer was told that the beautiful shed had to either be torn down or moved at her own expense. The previous owners had built this shed under and around the utilities easement also without a permit from the City.Although there are many other types of Easements that can be disclosed by a private Seller, when it comes to buying a HUD Home make sure to have a City Building Inspector come to determine if there are any other easements that you are not made aware of. I want to share the importance of Buyers Beware Easements Impact on properties and have share my thoughts here for all potential Home Buyers.
Buyers Beware Easements Impact if you are thinking about buying a property that comes with an easement, be sure you understand how it could affect your life and the property’s value. An easement means a third party has been granted the right to use a defined area of an owner’s property for a general or specific purpose (see box). Easement restrictions could, for example, prevent you from building on the easement area or from installing fencing that would prevent access to or through it.
There are many different types of easements. A common one—a right-of-way easement—allows a specific person or persons to travel across a piece of land owned by someone else. This type of easement is sometimes used in rural areas so farmers or ranchers can get to a piece of property they own that does not have road frontage.
Easements may be granted as permanent arrangements that continue indefinitely or until a release is given by the person receiving the easement. In this case, the easement would normally become part of the property deed.
An easement can also be granted as a limited-time agreement—expiring at a stated time, when a specified event occurs or when the benefiting person dies. Limited-time easements are normally not recorded as part of a deed description.
Other easements you may encounter could grant the right for a utility company to run lines or poles—even high-tension power lines—over, on or under the property, or for a local government or housing development to install sewers or water mains or allow access to a park, for example.
Buyers Beware Easements Impact: Just because an easement is not being used does not mean it will never be used. Should the benefiting party decide to exercise their right, can you live with whatever impact their use might have on your property and lifestyle? Be sure to consult a qualified real estate attorney for advice. In addition, carefully consider whether future buyers will shy away from the property because an easement exists.
Other Common Easements
- Provide pathways across two or more pieces of property.
- Forbid neighbor from blocking view with a wall of trees.
- Allow neighbor to use owner’s driveway to reach neighbor’s home.
- Permit public access to beach or park through private land.
- Grant historic preservation organization rights to enforce alteration restrictions.
- Allow an individual to fish in a privately owned pond.
- Permit land owner to drive cattle over another’s land.
- Restrict development, commercial and industrial uses on a property to preserve views, habitat or other amenities of the land.
- Utilities Easements