Easement Deed Forms

All Easement Deed Forms Offered Here:

Available for immediate download
Fill in the blank on the computer
Meet state statutory requirements for content
Formatted to meet local requirements for recording
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Include supplemental forms that may be required by state or county

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Each state has its own statutory requirements for easement deed forms. These requirements determine the content or text that is in the deed.

Easement deeds must meet statutory conditions for content and format. In addition, many local recording authorities add requirements for margins, paper size, property identification, and many other details. If a deed form is not in accordance with both the local and state standards, there may be additional fees charged for recording or the form may be rejected altogether.

An easement is a certain right to use the real property of another for a specific purpose without possessing or owning it. The easement deed is the legal document that grants such right. Easements are most often created by express language in an easement deed, but easements are also created by implication, which occurs when a land owner divides his or her land into smaller pieces and sells a smaller piece to another person. Parties generally grant an easement to another party, or reserve an easement for themselves.

Most Easements fall into one of four basic types:

1. Right-of-way (most common),
2. Easements of support (pertaining to excavation),
3. Easements of light and air,
4. Rights pertaining to artificial waterways.

An easement is either affirmative or negative. Affirmative easements permit the holder to do a specific action on another individual's land. A negative easement is one that denies an owner of the right to do something on the property. For example, a land owner might enter into an agreement with an adjoining landowner not to build a high structure that would obstruct light and air that goes onto the adjoining owner's land.

An appurtenant easement requires the existence of at least two parties and two parcels of land. An appurtenant easement is attached to the land permanently and benefits the owner. The party gaining the benefit of the easement is the dominant estate (or dominant tenement), while the party granting the burden is the servient estate (or servient tenement).

For example, the owner of parcel A holds an easement to use a driveway on parcel B to gain access to A's house. Here, parcel A is the dominant estate, receiving the benefit, and parcel B is the servient estate, granting the benefit or suffering the burden.

A dominant estate is the parcel of real property that has an easement over another piece of property (the servient estate). The type of easement involved in dominant and servient tenements is almost always an appurtenant easement. Likewise, it is almost always an affirmative easement. In real estate law, the dominant tenement is the property retained when the original owner (the seller or grantor) splits off a property and conveys part of the original property; the owner then retains an easement for an access (such as a driveway or utilities).