My wife and I are looking at buying a house. Behind the property, there is a vacant lot. Problem is, there is an easement on the lot we are looking at buying that would give the owner the right to access the lot behind us, should they decide to build on it. Suddenly, the parking area to the left of the garage would almost disappear if this were to happen. Who can we contact to determine exactly how much area would be necessary to provide access to the back lot? Would county surveyors be able to do this?

 

a surveyor would do this for you. you could also go to the county and pull the deed for the vacant lot. make sure the garage is built according to code, and see what you can or cannot do after the fact (fence, trees, etc.) our suveyor cost $1200 for a TON of work. also make your realtor work for you. that is what they get paid for. yo might even find that the easment is not legal. who knows.

Dave

P.s. this stuff can take a while. dont get impatient, in our state (NC) there are less than 20 surveyors in the whole state.

 

-obtain a copy of the easement, the realtor my choose to help at the city county records. call first but you can just go to the records department yourself.
-the realtor has seen these things before, what is their opinion, could get an opinion from a lawyer, in any case its only an opinion.
-its a buyers market, look at another? buy the vacant land too, keep it on a separate tax number tho
-most of the time the easement "runs with the land" so new owners of the land may choose to use the easement to its full extent even if the current dont

i would stay away

 

When I was a kid we bought a house that turned out to have an unrecorded (at the time) easement that ran down our driveway and within 5 feet of the house. It was only used by the redneck trash that lived 1/2 mile from us. they tossed knives at our dog, left trash, and even a stolen boat on it. Try explaining a stolen boat in what appears to be your yard. We fought the problem for 9 years before moving.

If you can't buy both properties I would look elsewhere. In fact my home sits on 5 acres with an easement through 10 acres to the highway. We bought both pieces of propery at the same time. If we hadn't been able to buy the front 10 we would have passed rather than have to deal with the easement.

 

The size and placement of the easement should be clearly noted on the deed and should be visible on the survey.

In most cases it would follow the edge of the property line (unless terrain dictates otherwise) and it is usuable to access the property even if they don't decide to build. At one time these were probably all one lot.

See if you can buy his landlocked lot and remove the issue.

 

You'll need an ALTA survey, not a normal boundary/pin survey. ALTAs will show all encumbrances, including easements and encroachments. Boundary surveys just show the property borders and sometimes the improvements. As others have pointed out, a surveyor will be able to do either - cost for a boundary survey should be $200-$400, an ALTA will be in excess of $1k but well worth it. Also keep in mind that any encumbrances ultimately hinder value, not only now but whenever you decide to sell the property in the future.

 

I don't know bout no ALTA survey and $1,000 dollars but the standard $200 survey we use for mortgages shows the easements. Title work does too.

 

Any idea how wide an access road to a single family residential home would have to be?

 

I'm guessing around the 6-7' mark, just wide enough to get one vehicle up and down the driveway.

 

Access is determined by the agreement between the original parties. It could be anywhere between 6' to 50' wide.

The only way you will know is to check the survey &/or the title work.