FL · Fort Lauderdale
Easements in Broward County, FL
Broward County lots are almost entirely platted, and water management easements are the single most common restriction homeowners run into.
Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury Division
Visit the office websiteThe county publishes a free public parcel viewer showing platted easement strips.
Filing fees
Florida's statutory rate is a first-page fee plus a per-page fee, with an extra charge per indexed name beyond the first two.
Check the current fee scheduleAbout 20 years of open, continuous, adverse use is generally required.
Fla. Stat. § 95.361; Downing v. Bird, 100 So. 2d 57 (Fla. 1958)
Read the Florida rulesEasement lookup by address in Broward County
Have a Fort Lauderdale-area street address? Enter it on our free lookup and we match it to the right lot, then show where recorded strips sit on an aerial map.
- Type the full street address, including Fort Lauderdale or the city name.
- Confirm the lot outline. Broward County publishes a free public parcel map, which we use to match the address to its lot.
- Compare any strip we show against the recorded document at the Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury Division; the recorded grant is always the final word on location and width.
Easements you'll see most often here
- Water management and drainage easements
- Utility easements along side and rear lot lines
- Lake maintenance easements
- Access easements for interior and flag lots
Local things to watch for
- Water management districts hold easements separately from the county.
- Screen enclosures and pools are the usual sources of easement encroachment claims here.
How to pull an easement document in Broward County
The whole search takes about half an hour once you know what the index wants.
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Collect what the Broward index searches on
Write down the parcel number from your Broward tax bill and the names of the current and previous owners. The Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury Division indexes instruments by party name, not by street address, so the owner names are what actually find the document.
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Run the names through the Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury Division index
Search grantor and grantee for each owner across the full period they held title, then repeat for the owner before them. In Fort Lauderdale the documents worth opening are water management and drainage easements, utility easements along side and rear lot lines, lake maintenance easements and access easements for interior and flag lots. That is what dominates local title work here, so filter to those types first if the search screen allows it.
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What a Broward 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. Water management districts hold easements separately from the county.
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Cross-check on the Broward parcel viewer
Broward 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 water management and drainage easements. Treat the lines as approximate: county GIS is digitized from tax maps and routinely sits several feet off a surveyed line.
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Order the copy from the Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury Division
Florida's statutory rate is a first-page fee plus a per-page fee, with an extra charge per indexed name beyond the first two. 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.
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What the Broward record will not show
Screen enclosures and pools are the usual sources of easement encroachment claims here. No index anywhere shows a prescriptive claim or an easement implied by necessity, because neither is ever filed. Walking the Fort Lauderdale 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 Broward 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 Broward County index.
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Agree the terms before anything is drawn
Settle the purpose, the route, the width in feet and who pays for what with the other Broward owner first. A handshake about "access across the back" is what produces a disputed easement ten years later in Fort Lauderdale, because neither the width nor the location was ever pinned down.
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Have the strip surveyed and described
A Florida 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 Broward 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.
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Draft to Florida formalities
The instrument must be signed and acknowledged before a notary to be recordable. Florida recording requirements sit at Fla. Stat. § 28.222 (clerk as recorder). 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.
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Record it with the Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury Division
Recording is what makes the right bind the next buyer of the burdened Broward lot. Florida's statutory rate is a first-page fee plus a per-page fee, with an extra charge per indexed name beyond the first two. Local context worth knowing: Water management districts hold easements separately from the county.
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Confirm it landed in the Broward index
A few days after filing, search the Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury Division 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.
Broward 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
- Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury Division, Recording Section
- How fees are structured
- Priced by number of pages and number of names; the county publishes a recording fee and documentary tax calculator that takes both.
- Formatting that gets a document rejected
- Grantor and grantee names printed legibly in the body, with mailing addresses.
- A legal description of land located in Broward County.
- Grantor signatures plus two witnesses, each witness's name and address printed beneath the signature under Fla. Stat. § 695.26.
- A complete notary acknowledgment with names, date, signature, printed name and commission expiration.
- Electronic recording
Typical easement widths here
Broward 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 Broward 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 Florida should look at anything contested.
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Pull the recorded instrument first
Before anything else, get the document itself. Search the Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury Division, Recording Section 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: Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury Division, Recording Section
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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
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Get a current survey staking the strip
A surveyor licensed in Florida 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 Florida
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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 20 years of open, continuous, and adverse use under Fla. Stat. § 95.361; Downing v. Bird, 100 So. 2d 57 (Fla. 1958). 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: Florida recording and prescription rules
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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
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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 Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury Division, Recording Section. The same formatting rules that apply to the original easement apply here.
Through: Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury Division, Recording Section
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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 Broward 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 Florida property attorney before filing.
Through: The trial court serving Broward County
Look up another county or read the Florida easement law page for the statewide rules behind these steps.
Nearby counties we cover
Check your own lot
Upload your title commitment and we'll translate Schedule B into plain English, then map the easements against your parcel boundary. Free.
Common questions about finding easements in Broward County
How do I find out if my Broward County property has an easement?
Start with the title commitment or owner's policy from your purchase. Easements are listed in Schedule B. Recorded easements are also indexed by the Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury Division, and the county's free public parcel viewer usually shows platted easement strips. A current survey catches anything used on the ground but never recorded.
What easements are most common in Broward County?
Water management and drainage easements, Utility easements along side and rear lot lines, Lake maintenance easements, among others. Water management districts hold easements separately from the county.
Can a neighbor gain a permanent right to cross my Broward County land?
In Florida, open, continuous, and adverse use generally has to run for about 20 years before a prescriptive easement can be claimed. Permission given in writing usually stops the clock, because the use is then no longer adverse.
Does an easement lower property value in Fort Lauderdale?
It depends on where it sits and what it prohibits. A narrow utility strip along a rear lot line rarely affects value. An easement that crosses the buildable area, bars fences and structures, or gives someone else a driveway through the yard can meaningfully limit what the property can become.
How do I get an easement in Broward County?
Agree the purpose, route and width in feet with the other owner, have a Florida licensed surveyor prepare an exhibit and legal description, sign a written grant before a notary, then record it with the Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury Division. Recording is what makes the right bind the next buyer of the burdened lot.
What does it cost to record an easement in Broward County?
Florida's statutory rate is a first-page fee plus a per-page fee, with an extra charge per indexed name beyond the first two. The survey and drafting normally cost far more than the filing itself, so budget for those first.
Work on easements in these counties? Get listed free.
Our directory is for licensed surveyors, title abstractors, abstract and search companies, and real estate attorneys. Listings are free, we verify the license number before anything is published, and we never list a firm that did not ask to be there. People reach these pages already holding a title commitment or a plat with a corridor across it, which is the point at which they start looking for someone local.
Know your easements before you close
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General educational reference only. Prescription periods and their exceptions change, and several states set the period by case law rather than by statute. Read the linked official code and consult a licensed attorney in that state before relying on any of it.