What is an easement, and why does it matter when you buy land in Texas?

• An easement gives someone else the right to use part of your land for a set purpose. You remain the owner.
• The most common are utility easements: power, water, gas, drainage, telecom. There are also access, pipeline and road easements.
• Most easements stay with the land when it sells. The new owner takes them on.
• They show up in the title commitment and on the survey, before closing.
• They matter because they can limit where the house, shop, fence, well or septic system can go.

1. Utility easements. They let the power, water, gas or telecom provider run lines and come in for maintenance. In subdivisions they often run along the front or back of the lots.
2. Access easements. They give someone else the right to cross your land to reach theirs. Common on rural land that was split up over the years.
3. Pipeline easements. A strip where a pipeline runs, usually with rules about what can go on or near it.
4. Drainage easements. So rainwater flows where it's designed to. Building on them can cause water problems.
5. Road easements. For public roads or future widening.

They don't all weigh the same. A phone line along the edge barely changes anything. An access road through the middle, or a pipeline right where you wanted the house, changes a lot.

In the title commitment. Before closing, the title company delivers a title commitment. The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) explains that it lists potential issues, exclusions and exceptions, and that items listed there can become exceptions in Schedule B of your policy. An exception means the policy doesn't cover that item. Recorded easements usually appear there.

On the survey. The surveyor maps the land, its boundaries and what's on it: structures, fences and, where they can be located, easements. It's how you see on paper where each one runs.

In recorded documents. Each recorded easement has its own document in the county records, spelling out what it allows. The commitment usually gives the recording reference so you can pull it.

What doesn't show up. TDI lists undisclosed or unrecorded easements that aren't apparent on the land as a title defect. That's why you also walk the property: a worn track, utility poles, covers or pipeline markers are clues worth asking about.

• Where you can build. If the easement crosses the only flat spot, your house plan changes.
• The well and the septic system. Both need room and required distances. An easement can eat into the space to fit them.
• Fences, gates and livestock. Someone else's access right may require you to keep a way through.
• Privacy and use. The company or person holding the easement may have the right to come onto that strip.
• Financing. Some lenders look at legal access to the land. Your lender confirms your case.

If you're looking at land and want to go over what to ask before you offer, book 30 minutes to talk about your situation.

1. Get the title commitment on time and read Schedule B. Look up every exception that mentions an easement.
2. Pull each easement document from the county records. It says who holds the right, for what, and on which strip.
3. Order a new survey or review the existing one. The TDI notice that comes with the title commitment (Form T-7) reminds you to decide whether to buy and review a survey, and explains that a survey can be used to request a change to the area and boundary exception.
4. Lay the survey next to your plan. House, shop, well, septic, fence, driveway. If something conflicts with an easement, you see it on paper before closing.
5. If something doesn't work, object on time. The Texas contract gives you deadlines to object to what turns up in the title and survey. Miss them and things get harder.

The title company and, when needed, a real estate attorney confirm what each document means. This isn't legal advice; it's the checklist of what to review.

Both limit what you can do with the land, but they aren't the same thing:

• An easement gives a right to someone else: to use a strip of your land for something, like running a line or crossing over.
• A deed restriction puts rules on you as the owner: what kind of structures, how many homes, which animals, which uses. It doesn't give anyone the right to come onto the land.

One tract can carry both. So when you read the title commitment, sort them: some exceptions are easements, some are restrictions, and each one gets pulled and read on its own. Here's what that means for you: asking "are there any easements?" isn't enough. Ask what rules come with the land, too.

The same goes for a survey you inherit from the seller. It may show easements clearly and still say nothing about restrictions, because restrictions live in recorded documents, not on the ground. Read both kinds of paper before you decide the land works for your plan.

• "If you can't see anything on the land, there's no easement." People used to buy on a handshake like that. Recorded easements live on paper, not always on the ground.
• Reading the title commitment too late. Objection deadlines run. Read it the day it arrives.
• Relying on an old survey without checking what changed. Splits, new roads or new structures mean the old survey no longer tells the whole story.
• Designing the house before locating the easements. Easements on the plan first, design second.
• Assuming an access easement "isn't used." Even if nobody uses it today, the right may still stand.

Picture a business owner who finds several acres on the edge of Dallas-Fort Worth. The plan is a house at the back and a shop near the road. The title commitment lists a pipeline easement, and the survey shows the strip running right where the shop was going.

Because it surfaced inside the contract deadlines, there are options: move the shop, negotiate, ask the pipeline operator what's allowed nearby, or walk away as the contract allows. Found after closing, the only option would be to work around it.

This is an example, not a real client. In the land purchases Veronica Yeary handles across Dallas-Fort Worth, the title commitment and the survey get read together, as soon as they arrive.

• Schedule B of the title commitment, line by line.
• The recorded document for each easement, from the county records.
• The survey, new or reviewed, with easements located.
• Your use plan: where the house, shop, well, septic system and fence would go.
• Legal access to the land, if it's reached by a road that isn't public.
• Deed restrictions, which are a different thing from easements and also limit how you use the land.

What is an easement on a property?

It's a right someone else holds to use part of your land for a specific purpose, such as a power line, a pipeline or a road. You remain the owner. On that strip, you may be limited in what you can build or fence.

How do I find out if land has easements?

Review the title commitment, especially Schedule B, and the survey. Each recorded easement has its own document in the county records. It also helps to walk the land and ask about any sign of lines, roads or pipelines.

Can an easement be removed?

Sometimes, but it isn't simple and depends on who holds the right and what the document says. It usually takes an agreement with that person or company. A real estate attorney confirms your case.

Can I build on an easement?

It depends on the easement document. Many don't allow permanent structures on the strip. Check before you design the house or shop.

Does title insurance cover easements?

Easements listed as exceptions in Schedule B are generally not covered by the policy. That's why you read them before closing. The title company explains what your policy covers.

If you have a piece of land in mind, let's go over what to request and when. Let's talk for 30 minutes about your situation, not houses: veronicayeary.com/en/book.

Call or text 469-441-8890 · veronica@veronicayeary.com

Veronica Yeary, Realtor®, CRS, ABR, SRS and CIPS. All City Real Estate DFW. Here's what happens next: you send me the property, and we read the paperwork together.