What’s an Easement in Texas Real Estate Law?

If you’re closing on property in the North Texas area, a real estate attorney from Springer & Lyle can assist you in reviewing the title commitment, title documents, survey, and deed to determine what easements and other interests affect your property. If there are easements, you’ll need to know something about your rights and obligations relative to those easements. An easement constitutes a right to use part or all of the real estate belonging to someone else. There are various types of easements. Almost all easements are affirmative in that they permit somebody else to use the owner’s land. The law permits negative easements, but they’re unusual.

There are easements appurtenant and easements in gross. Easements appurtenant run with the land. They remain even if ownership of the land has been transferred. An easement appurtenant might be created across a neighboring property for the benefit of a landlocked property to give the owner the landlocked property access to a roadway. An easement in gross will benefit a particular individual. It gives them the right to use property owned by somebody else for either the user’s lifetime or as long as the other person owns that land.

The most common easement we see is the utility easement. They give utility companies the right install, maintain cables, and/or access utility lines. They’re ordinarily noted and seen on a survey of a property. If a homeowner wants to build a structure on their property such as a garage or swimming pool, they should not build it over a utility easement. If the utility company wants to repair or perform maintenance on its lines, the homeowner could be required to remove their structure. Texas law also recognizes other types of easements. Since nearly every urban property and many rural properties have easements, you’ll want to know exactly what you’re buying or selling. That’s yet another reason to have a knowledgeable and experienced real estate attorney from Springer & Lyle represent your interests in a real estate closing. Contact us about your real estate transaction.