Easements in Maricopa County, AZ

Easements you'll see most often here

• Public utility easements along front and rear lot lines
• Drainage and retention easements on desert subdivisions
• Irrigation district ditch and canal easements
• Shared driveway and access easements on flag lots

Local things to watch for

• Older parcels often carry irrigation easements that never appear on the subdivision plat. Check the deed chain, not just the plat.
• Retention basin easements can cover a large share of a corner lot's rear yard.

How to pull an easement document in Maricopa County

The whole search takes about half an hour once you know what the index wants.

1. 1

   Collect what the Maricopa index searches on

   Write down the parcel number from your Maricopa tax bill and the names of the current and previous owners. The Maricopa County Recorder indexes instruments by party name, not by street address, so the owner names are what actually find the document.

2. 2

   Run the names through the Maricopa County Recorder index

   Search grantor and grantee for each owner across the full period they held title, then repeat for the owner before them. In Phoenix the documents worth opening are public utility easements along front and rear lot lines, drainage and retention easements on desert subdivisions, irrigation district ditch and canal easements and shared driveway and access easements on flag lots. That is what dominates local title work here, so filter to those types first if the search screen allows it.

3. 3

   What a Maricopa hit looks like

   A result row gives you a recording date, an instrument or book-and-page reference, the parties and a document type. None of which tells you where the strip runs. Open the image and read for the width in feet and the distance from the lot line. Older parcels often carry irrigation easements that never appear on the subdivision plat. Check the deed chain, not just the plat.

4. 4

   Cross-check on the Maricopa parcel viewer

   Maricopa County publishes a free public parcel viewer. Find the lot, turn on the plat or easement layers, and see how the recorded strips sit against your boundary. Particularly public utility easements along front and rear lot lines. Treat the lines as approximate: county GIS is digitized from tax maps and routinely sits several feet off a surveyed line.

5. 5

   Order the copy from the Maricopa County Recorder

   Arizona sets recording fees by statute at a flat rate per document rather than per page, so a multi-page easement costs the same as a one-page one. The Recorder publishes the current amount. A plain copy is enough to read and to hand a contractor; a certified copy is only needed for a court filing or a lender.

6. 6

   What the Maricopa record will not show

   Retention basin easements can cover a large share of a corner lot's rear yard. No index anywhere shows a prescriptive claim or an easement implied by necessity, because neither is ever filed. Walking the Phoenix lot for worn paths, poles, meters and vent stacks catches what the record misses.

Once you have the document, how to read a recorded easement walks through each clause and what to confirm before you build.

How to get an easement in Maricopa County

Creating a new easement is a different job from finding an old one. Here is the local sequence, from the first conversation to a stamped instrument in the Maricopa County index.

1. 1

   Settle scope with the burdened owner first

   Owners around Phoenix say yes far more often to a specific request than a general one. Bring the purpose, a route you can point at, a width in feet and an offer, and the conversation is about price rather than about whether the idea is reasonable at all.

2. 2

   Fix the location with a AZ licensed surveyor

   Nothing gets signed until a Arizona surveyor stakes the route and writes a legal description keyed to the current deed call. The Maricopa County parcel viewer is fine for planning the route, but its lines are digitized from tax maps and are not survey grade, so never let a grant rely on them.

3. 3

   Write the grant narrowly, then have it acknowledged

   The instrument must be signed and acknowledged before a notary to be recordable. Arizona recording requirements sit at A.R.S. § 33-411 (recording gives constructive notice). Because Drainage and retention easements on desert subdivisions rights are common here, spell out whether this grant covers only the stated use or opens the strip to other utilities later.

4. 4

   Record it with the Maricopa County Recorder

   Recording is what makes the right bind the next buyer of the burdened Maricopa lot. Arizona sets recording fees by statute at a flat rate per document rather than per page, so a multi-page easement costs the same as a one-page one. The Recorder publishes the current amount. Local context worth knowing: Older parcels often carry irrigation easements that never appear on the subdivision plat. Check the deed chain, not just the plat.

5. 5

   Check the index, then file the stamped copy

   A few days after filing, search the Maricopa County Recorder index under both party names and confirm the instrument appears with the correct document type and book or instrument number. Send a stamped copy to the title company and to any lender that consented, then store the survey with it so a future buyer inherits the whole picture.

• Getting an easement across someone else's land
• Granting an easement on your own land
• What it costs to record an easement
• Utility corridor requirements: what is allowed inside the strip

Maricopa County recording rules in detail

Transcribed from the office’s own published pages. Fees change, so check the current schedule before you file.

Office that records easements

Maricopa County Recorder

How fees are structured

Arizona sets a flat fee per document, so page count does not change the cost of a standard easement. Plats and surveys are the exception and are charged by the sheet.

Formatting that gets a document rejected

• Paper no larger than eight and a half by fourteen inches, printed at ten point or larger, per A.R.S. § 11-480.
• At least a half-inch margin on every side throughout; anything printed inside the margin does not impart notice.
• Page one needs a two-inch top margin reserved for the recording stamp, with the left three and a half inches of that band kept clear.
• A caption at the top stating the type of instrument, plus original signatures and legible text for certified copies.

Electronic recording

• Recorded-document index
• Fee schedule
• Parcel viewer

Typical easement widths here

From Maricopa County Subdivision Regulations, Chapter 3 (Subdivision Design Principles, Standards & Minimum Improvements Required).. These are the widths the county requires when new strips are created; the easement on any one lot is whatever its recorded plat or grant says, which can be wider or narrower.

• Rear-lot public utility easement - 16 feet

  The Regulations set 16 feet as the width 'normally required' for utility easements along rear lot lines in residential subdivisions, kept as straight and long as practical to avoid extra manholes, poles and guy wires at angle points.

• Sanitary or storm sewer easement - 20 feet

  Sanitary and storm sewer easements are typically at least 20 feet wide in the county's drainage and utility design practice, but this figure could not be verified against a specific numbered section of the county's own published Subdivision Regulations, which do not contain a Chapter 9.

• Vehicular non-access easement on double-frontage lots - 1 feet

  A minimum one-foot-wide strip along the arterial-street side of a double-frontage lot is required to block driveway access onto the arterial, distinct from the utility or drainage easements on the same lot.

• Maricopa County Subdivision Regulations (Chapter 3, § 303)

How to dispute an easement in Maricopa County

A plain walkthrough of the sequence owners generally follow, with the local office for each step. This is background reading, not legal advice. A property attorney licensed in Arizona should look at anything contested.

1. 1

   Pull the recorded instrument first

   Before anything else, get the document itself. Search the Maricopa County Recorder index by your name, the prior owner's name, or the parcel number, and download the recorded easement with its exhibit. A strip drawn on a plat or shaded in a county map viewer is a depiction, not the grant. The recorded instrument is what controls the width, the route, and what the holder may do inside it.

   Through: Maricopa County Recorder

   • Maricopa County recorded-document search
   • Maricopa County free parcel viewer
2. 2

   Read the legal description against your lot

   Compare the description in the grant with your deed. Check the stated width in feet, the point of beginning, and whether the strip is fixed by bearings and distances or described loosely as a route "as now used." Vague descriptions are the most common reason a strip ends up in the wrong place, and they are also the most common reason a dispute is winnable.

   Through: Your own deed and title policy

3. 3

   Get a current survey staking the strip

   A surveyor licensed in Arizona can set the recorded strip on the ground and show whether the pipe, pole line, driveway, or fence actually sits inside it. Encroachment outside the recorded corridor, or use well beyond the stated purpose, is the factual basis most disputes turn on. Bring the surveyor the recorded instrument and the plat, not just the county map.

   Through: A surveyor licensed in Arizona

4. 4

   Check whether the right was ever properly created

   An easement binds your lot if it was granted in writing and recorded, implied when the land was split, taken by a public body, or built up by 10 years of open, continuous, and adverse use under Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 12-526. If none of those fit, for example the use was always by permission, or the grant was never recorded before you bought, the claimed right may not attach to your title at all.

   Through: Arizona recording and prescription rules

   • Arizona official state code
5. 5

   Put the objection in writing to the holder

   Write to the utility, district, or neighbor who holds the right. State what the recorded document allows, what is happening instead, and what you are asking for. Relocation, repair, a narrower corridor, or a written release. Utilities and districts often have a right-of-way or encroachment desk that resolves overbuilt strips without litigation, and a dated letter also stops a neighbor's permissive use from hardening into a prescriptive claim.

   Through: The easement holder's right-of-way department

6. 6

   Record any agreement you reach

   A relocation, a reduction in width, or a full release only binds the next owner if it is recorded. Have it drafted with a legal description and an exhibit, signed and notarized, then filed with the Maricopa County Recorder. The same formatting rules that apply to the original easement apply here.

   Through: Maricopa County Recorder

   • Maricopa County recording fee schedule
7. 7

   Quiet title is the remaining route

   If the holder will not release or correct the strip, the dispute is decided by the trial court that hears real property cases for Maricopa County. A quiet-title or declaratory action asks the court to say what the easement is, where it sits, and whether it still exists. Deadlines, notice requirements, and the standard of proof vary by state, so speak with a Arizona property attorney before filing.

   Through: The trial court serving Maricopa County

Look up another county or read the Arizona easement law page for the statewide rules behind these steps.

Nearby counties we cover

• Pima County (Tucson)