Easements in Fulton County, GA

Easements you'll see most often here

• Sanitary sewer easements crossing rear yards
• Stream buffer and drainage easements
• Electric and gas utility easements
• Shared driveway easements on infill lots

Local things to watch for

• Sewer easements often run through the back of a lot with no visible surface marker.
• State stream buffers restrict clearing in addition to any recorded easement.

How to pull an easement document in Fulton County

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

1. 1

   Collect what the Fulton index searches on

   Write down the parcel number from your Fulton tax bill and the names of the current and previous owners. The Fulton County Clerk of Superior Court 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 Fulton County Clerk of Superior Court index

   Search grantor and grantee for each owner across the full period they held title, then repeat for the owner before them. In Atlanta the documents worth opening are sanitary sewer easements crossing rear yards, stream buffer and drainage easements, electric and gas utility easements and shared driveway easements on infill 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 Fulton 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. Sewer easements often run through the back of a lot with no visible surface marker.

4. 4

   Cross-check on the Fulton parcel viewer

   Fulton 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 sanitary sewer easements crossing rear yards. 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 Fulton County Clerk of Superior Court

   Georgia sets a flat statutory filing fee per real estate instrument, the same whether the easement runs one page or ten. 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 Fulton record will not show

   State stream buffers restrict clearing in addition to any recorded easement. No index anywhere shows a prescriptive claim or an easement implied by necessity, because neither is ever filed. Walking the Atlanta 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 Fulton 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 Fulton County index.

1. 1

   Settle scope with the burdened owner first

   Owners around Atlanta 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 GA licensed surveyor

   Nothing gets signed until a Georgia surveyor stakes the route and writes a legal description keyed to the current deed call. The Fulton 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. Confirm the current Georgia signing and acknowledgment rules before the parties meet. Because Stream buffer and drainage easements 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 Fulton County Clerk of Superior Court

   Recording is what makes the right bind the next buyer of the burdened Fulton lot. Georgia sets a flat statutory filing fee per real estate instrument, the same whether the easement runs one page or ten. Local context worth knowing: Sewer easements often run through the back of a lot with no visible surface marker.

5. 5

   Check the index, then file the stamped copy

   A few days after filing, search the Fulton County Clerk of Superior Court 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

Fulton 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

Fulton County Clerk of Superior and Magistrate Courts, Real Estate Division

How fees are structured

Georgia sets a flat $25 statutory fee per real estate instrument with no page limit (O.C.G.A. § 15-6-77(f), effective January 1, 2020); the Clerk publishes the current schedule.

Formatting that gets a document rejected

• The tax parcel identification number is required on documents affecting real property, under Georgia House Bill 1036 effective August 27, 2018.
• Under O.C.G.A. § 44-2-14(b), a conveyance or encumbrance must show the name and mailing address of the person it is to be returned to at the top of page one; leaving it off does not by itself impair the recording.
• Plats, maps and floor plans must be filed electronically rather than on paper.
• The Real Estate Division does not take credit cards at the counter. Cash, business check or money order only.

Electronic recording

• Recorded-document index
• Fee schedule
• Parcel viewer

Typical easement widths here

From Subdivision Regulations of Fulton County, Georgia, Article IX (Required Improvements), § 9.5 Detention/Retention Design.. 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.

• Graded access easement to a detention or retention pond - 20 feet

  Where a stormwater pond serves more than three lots, the county requires a 20-foot graded access easement running from the public or private road right-of-way to the pond.

• Maintenance access easement around a detention or retention pond - 10 feet

  In addition to the 20-foot access strip, the Regulations call for a separate 10-foot access easement for ongoing maintenance of the pond parcel, alongside a required landscape strip and security fence.

• Fulton County Subdivision Regulations (Article IX, § 9.5.3, Layout Design Standards)

How to dispute an easement in Fulton 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 Georgia should look at anything contested.

1. 1

   Pull the recorded instrument first

   Before anything else, get the document itself. Search the Fulton County Clerk of Superior and Magistrate Courts, Real Estate Division 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: Fulton County Clerk of Superior and Magistrate Courts, Real Estate Division

   • Fulton County recorded-document search
   • Fulton 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 Georgia 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 Georgia

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 20 years of open, continuous, and adverse use under Ga. Code Ann. §§ 44-9-1, 44-5-163. 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: Georgia recording and prescription rules

   • Georgia 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 Fulton County Clerk of Superior and Magistrate Courts, Real Estate Division. The same formatting rules that apply to the original easement apply here.

   Through: Fulton County Clerk of Superior and Magistrate Courts, Real Estate Division

   • Fulton 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 Fulton 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 Georgia property attorney before filing.

   Through: The trial court serving Fulton County

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

Nearby counties we cover

• Gwinnett County (Lawrenceville)
• Cobb County (Marietta)