How to amend an existing property easement

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By polihali
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amend an existing property easement

As a former title examiner, I had to provide customer support to various homeowners, developers, and attorneys. One of the more frequently questions asked by our customers was how to alter an existing easement on a piece of property.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Step 1

In order to make any kind of amendments to an easement (other than ADDING an easement to a property), first of all, you will need to determine who all may need to agree to the changes. Normally, that means figuring out who the owners of all of the properties that are benefited by the easement are. Sometimes, all of the benefited properties are identified in a single document which originally created the easement. Other times, that is not the case, and the research becomes much more complex. If you are unusually lucky, you may find that in the document that originally established the easement, the grantor has granted the authority to make amendments of the easement to a homeowners association, or a certain road committee. However, this is fairly uncommon, from my experience. Most often, this information should be obtained from, or at least verified by a local title insurance company.
Step 2

Once you have found out who all may need to agree to the amendment, you should make contact with those parties to find out if they agree, in principal, to your proposal. Assuming you have the agreement of the necessary parties, you should then contact a real estate attorney to have an amendment of the easement agreement drawn.
Step 3

Depending on what kind of amendments you are looking for and depending on the level of complexity involved in making such amendments (for example, reducing or expanding the length/width of the easement, changing the degrees, angles, and bearings of a particular area of the easement, changing the use of the easement, adding or eliminating parties of their right to use said easement, etc.), the cost of your agreement may vary significantly. It may be wise to get an estimated cost from your attorney (and a surveyor, if needed) in your initial meeting with him/her. Usually he/she will have a base charge for the initial production of the document, and then the charges will go up in conjunction with the complexity level of the document.
Step 4

Keep in mind that your amendment agreement will not become a legally-binding document until it has been signed by all parties who have an interest to the easement, with all of their signatures properly notarized by a notary agent. Finally, this agreement must be filed with the local office for real estate records appropriate for your area (usually the County Auditor's Office, the Registrar, or the Clerk's Office) so that it may be served as a public record.