Easements in Pima County, AZ

Easements you'll see most often here

• Desert wash, floodplain and erosion hazard easements
• Tucson Electric Power distribution and transmission easements
• Access easements across state trust or federal land
• Conservation and buffer overlay easements near preserves

Local things to watch for

• Wash easements restrict grading and fencing because the wash must keep conveying storm flow.
• Access across state trust land runs on a permit or lease that can expire, not on a permanent recorded easement.

How to pull an easement document in Pima County

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

1. 1

   Collect what the Pima index searches on

   Write down the parcel number from your Pima tax bill and the names of the current and previous owners. The Pima 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 Pima 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 Tucson the documents worth opening are desert wash, floodplain and erosion hazard easements, tucson electric power distribution and transmission easements, access easements across state trust or federal land and conservation and buffer overlay easements near preserves. That is what dominates local title work here, so filter to those types first if the search screen allows it.

3. 3

   What a Pima 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. Wash easements restrict grading and fencing because the wash must keep conveying storm flow.

4. 4

   Cross-check on the Pima parcel viewer

   Pima 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 desert wash, floodplain and erosion hazard easements. 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 Pima County Recorder

   Arizona charges a flat statutory recording fee per document rather than by the page, which keeps long surveyed exhibits affordable to record. 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 Pima record will not show

   Access across state trust land runs on a permit or lease that can expire, not on a permanent recorded easement. No index anywhere shows a prescriptive claim or an easement implied by necessity, because neither is ever filed. Walking the Tucson 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 Pima 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 Pima County index.

1. 1

   Agree the terms before anything is drawn

   Settle the purpose, the route, the width in feet and who pays for what with the other Pima owner first. A handshake about "access across the back" is what produces a disputed easement ten years later in Tucson, because neither the width nor the location was ever pinned down.

2. 2

   Have the strip surveyed and described

   A Arizona licensed surveyor prepares an exhibit and a legal description tied to the existing deed, and that exhibit is what the grant will attach to. The Pima 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

   Draft to Arizona formalities

   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). Name the purpose narrowly, state the width, and say plainly what the holder may not do: no widening, no added facilities, no assignment without consent.

4. 4

   Record it with the Pima County Recorder

   Recording is what makes the right bind the next buyer of the burdened Pima lot. Arizona charges a flat statutory recording fee per document rather than by the page, which keeps long surveyed exhibits affordable to record. Local context worth knowing: Wash easements restrict grading and fencing because the wash must keep conveying storm flow.

5. 5

   Confirm it landed in the Pima index

   A few days after filing, search the Pima County Recorder index under both party names and confirm the instrument appears with the correct document type and book or instrument number. Keep the stamped copy with your deed and title policy, and hand the surveyed exhibit to anyone who later works inside the strip.

• 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

Pima 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

Pima County Recorder

How fees are structured

Pima charges the same statewide flat fee per document as the rest of Arizona, with plats and surveys billed by the sheet. The Recorder publishes the current amounts.

Formatting that gets a document rejected

• Arizona's statewide format rules under A.R.S. § 11-480 apply: maximum eight and a half by fourteen inch paper and ten point or larger type.
• Half-inch margins on all sides, with a two-inch reserved band across the top of the first page.
• A caption naming the instrument and original signatures, as A.R.S. § 11-480 requires.

Electronic recording

• Recorded-document index
• Fee schedule
• Parcel viewer

Typical easement widths here

Pima County does not publish a free document setting easement widths in feet, so we do not list local numbers here rather than guess at them. The width that applies to your lot is on the recorded plat or in the grant itself. Common widths used across the country gives you a sense of what the ranges usually look like.

How to dispute an easement in Pima 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 Pima 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: Pima County Recorder

   • Pima County recorded-document search
   • Pima 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 Pima County Recorder. The same formatting rules that apply to the original easement apply here.

   Through: Pima County Recorder

   • Pima 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 Pima 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 Pima County

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

Nearby counties we cover

• Maricopa County (Phoenix)