Can you give yourself an easement?

iceaxe · Dec 18, 2011

There are two properties side by side owned by same person. He sold one of the properties and somehow got new owners to give him blanket easement for free on his remaining property. What are the mechanics of giving yourself an easement?

MtnViewRanch · Dec 18, 2011

My guess would be that the easement was put in with the sale of the property. We have a similar situation and when-if we sell the front property we will stipulate the easement when the property gets sold. Actually where we live the county will no longer allow a land locked parcel
to be sold. An easement has to be granted. For us we would want a larger than normal easement along with the easement that already exists.

iceaxe · Dec 18, 2011

MtnViewRanch said:
My guess would be that the easement was put in with the sale of the property. We have a similar situation and when-if we sell the front property we will stipulate the easement when the property gets sold. Actually where we live the county will no longer allow a land locked parcel
to be sold. An easement has to be granted. For us we would want a larger than normal easement along with the easement that already exists.

Interesting. Thanks.

greasemonkeyok · Dec 18, 2011

I'm confused. Seller owns two tracts, Tract A and Tract B. He sells Tract B to new owner, and gets new owner to give him a blanket easement on Tract A? Some information is missing in this story or I am just stupid.

two_bit_score · Dec 18, 2011

Owner A can convey whatever rights in the property he owns to the new owner B as long as new owner B agrees in the contract. Owner A could subdivide the tract to take out a portion of parcel 1 sufficient to provide him access to parcel 2 thereby enlarging parcel 1. Or he could retain an easement across parcel 1 to provide access to parcel 2. usually in the best case this would be deeded and recorded. Doing it this way he has the rights of use but does not pay taxes on the easement. New owner B has ownership subject to the easement.

Another question comes in regarding mineral rights. Did owner A reserve the mineral rights on parcel 2 completely or did he convey them entirely to owner B along with the mineral rights to the property subject to the easement?

One should always fully investigate what they are buying when purchasing real property. What you see may not be what you are getting or may not be all you are getting.

greasemonkeyok · Dec 18, 2011

I understand what you are saying Two-Bit-Score, but that is not congruent with the OP:

"got new owners (of Tract B) to give him (seller) blanket easement for free on his remaining property (Tract A)"?

How did the new owners have any rights in Tract A to convey to the seller? Now if we are talking about the seller reserving an easement across Tract B, I get it. As for giving yourself an easement on land you already own, well...., that must be some sort of legal masturbation or something.

two_bit_score · Dec 18, 2011

I would not know of any reason to reserve an easement unless you were selling the property. I guess you could deed an easement to yourself on property you own in contemplation of selling it later so that you could represent to a buyer that the 'easement is already in place'.

I just wouldn't do it as an easement, myself. I would prefer to do it as a subdivision of the second tract with me retaining ownership of the access and just slightly decreasing the size of the parcel. But that's just me.

The OP may be thinking there were two separate transactions when in fact it was all done at the time of the sale and as part of the deal.

greasemonkeyok · Dec 18, 2011

If you are keeping A and selling B, but your access to the public road is across B, wouldn't you reserve an easement so you could get to the public road?

two_bit_score · Dec 18, 2011

greasemonkeyok said:
If you are keeping A and selling B, but your access to the public road is across B, wouldn't you reserve an easement so you could get to the public road?

If it were me I'd separate off a portion of tract B and keep ownership of that portion of the tract. Tract B would be subdivided with whatever amount needed for me to have unfettered access to the tract A.

For myself I would prefer that over retaining an easement.

You could possibly have to do it as an easement if you were constrained by some deed restriction or something where all tracts had to be a minimum size and or some restriction was in place against subdividing.