Easements in Oakland County, MI

Easements you'll see most often here

• Backlot lake access and dock easements
• County drain and open watercourse easements
• Private road easements serving lakefront plats
• Sanitary sewer easements running between lots to the lake shore

Local things to watch for

• Lake access easements rarely say how many boats or docks are allowed, which is the fight that ends up in court.
• County drain easements give the drain commissioner access for machinery and spoil storage along the watercourse.

How to pull an easement document in Oakland County

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

1. 1

   Collect what the Oakland index searches on

   Write down the parcel number from your Oakland tax bill and the names of the current and previous owners. The Oakland County Register of Deeds 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 Oakland County Register of Deeds index

   Search grantor and grantee for each owner across the full period they held title, then repeat for the owner before them. In Pontiac the documents worth opening are backlot lake access and dock easements, county drain and open watercourse easements, private road easements serving lakefront plats and sanitary sewer easements running between lots to the lake shore. That is what dominates local title work here, so filter to those types first if the search screen allows it.

3. 3

   What a Oakland 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. Lake access easements rarely say how many boats or docks are allowed, which is the fight that ends up in court.

4. 4

   Cross-check on the Oakland parcel viewer

   Oakland 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 backlot lake access and dock 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 Oakland County Register of Deeds

   Michigan charges a flat per document recording fee statewide, so a long lake access agreement costs the same to record as a one page grant. 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 Oakland record will not show

   County drain easements give the drain commissioner access for machinery and spoil storage along the watercourse. No index anywhere shows a prescriptive claim or an easement implied by necessity, because neither is ever filed. Walking the Pontiac 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 Oakland 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 Oakland County index.

1. 1

   Settle scope with the burdened owner first

   Owners around Pontiac 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 MI licensed surveyor

   Nothing gets signed until a Michigan surveyor stakes the route and writes a legal description keyed to the current deed call. The Oakland 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. Michigan recording requirements sit at MCL 565.201 (requirements for recording). Because County drain and open watercourse 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 Oakland County Register of Deeds

   Recording is what makes the right bind the next buyer of the burdened Oakland lot. Michigan charges a flat per document recording fee statewide, so a long lake access agreement costs the same to record as a one page grant. Local context worth knowing: Lake access easements rarely say how many boats or docks are allowed, which is the fight that ends up in court.

5. 5

   Check the index, then file the stamped copy

   A few days after filing, search the Oakland County Register of Deeds 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

Typical easement widths here

Oakland 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 Oakland 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 Michigan should look at anything contested.

1. 1

   Pull the recorded instrument first

   Before anything else, get the document itself. Search the Oakland County Register of Deeds 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: Oakland County Register of Deeds

   • Oakland County recorded-document search
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 Michigan 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 Michigan

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 15 years of open, continuous, and adverse use under Mich. Comp. Laws § 600.5801. 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: Michigan recording and prescription rules

   • Michigan 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 Oakland County Register of Deeds.

   Through: Oakland County Register of Deeds

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 Oakland 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 Michigan property attorney before filing.

   Through: The trial court serving Oakland County

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

Nearby counties we cover

• Wayne County (Detroit)
• Kent County (Grand Rapids)