How to find the easement document on your property
Knowing an easement exists is not the same as knowing what it permits. The document controls: its width, its stated purpose, and its location decide what you can build, what a utility may do, and what the strip is worth. Here is how to get a copy without paying a records service, in the order that actually works.
Step 1
Start with Schedule B of your title commitment
If you have bought the property, the fastest list of every recorded easement is already in your closing file.
A title commitment or preliminary title report has a Schedule B-II section listing exceptions — the encumbrances the title policy will not insure against. Recorded easements, rights-of-way, and covenants are all listed there.
Each exception cites a document: a book and page, an instrument number, or a plat reference. That citation is what you take to the recorder. The exception text itself is a label, not the easement — it will not tell you the width, the permitted uses, or the exact location.
If you no longer have the commitment, the title company that closed your purchase will usually send a copy on request, and your policy is normally in the closing packet from your lender or attorney.
When this step is done: A list of recording numbers for every easement of record on your parcel.
Step 2
Get your parcel number and legal description
Recorders index by parcel, name, or legal description, not by street address, so you need the identifiers first.
Your county assessor publishes a free parcel search that returns the assessor's parcel number (APN), the owner of record, the lot and block or metes-and-bounds description, and usually a copy of the current deed reference.
Write down the APN, the subdivision name with lot and block if there is one, and the section-township-range if the property is described that way. Rural parcels described by aliquot part need the section, township, and range to be searchable at all.
Keep the exact spelling of the current and previous owners' names — grantor/grantee indexes are name-based, and a missing middle initial can hide a document.
When this step is done: Parcel number, legal description, and the names in the current chain of title.
Step 3
Search the county recorder's land records
This is the office that holds the original document. Most publish a free online index; copies cost a few dollars.
The office is called the recorder, county clerk, register of deeds, or — in a few states — the probate judge or land court. Its index covers deeds, plats, easement deeds, rights-of-way, and releases.
Search two ways. By instrument number, using the citations from Schedule B, to pull each known easement. Then by parcel or by owner name across the chain of title, to catch anything the title search treated as too old or too general to except.
Where the index is online but images are not, the office will still supply a copy by mail, email, or in person for a per-page fee, typically a dollar or two, with a small extra charge for certification.
When this step is done: The full text of each easement — width, purpose, location, and who holds it.
Step 4
Pull the recorded plat or subdivision map
Most residential easements were created on the plat, not in a separate deed, and the plat is where you see them drawn.
A subdivision plat shows the lot lines with dimensioned easement strips along them, plus plat notes that state the purpose of each — utility, drainage, access, sidewalk, or a combination.
Plats are recorded in a separate series from deeds, often called plat books or maps of record. Ask for the plat by subdivision name and the book and page shown on your deed.
Read the notes as carefully as the drawing. A note reserving a floating easement, or granting a blanket right until facilities are located, changes what the drawing means.
When this step is done: A scaled drawing of where each easement sits relative to your lot lines.
Step 5
Check federal and statewide records for older or rural land
Land that was once federal, or that fronts a highway or a conservation program, has records outside the county.
The Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office records site holds federal land patents, surveys, and some rights-of-way back to 1788, free and searchable by legal description.
State departments of transportation publish right-of-way plans for highway corridors; these show the acquired strip and any access control, and are usually free to request from the district office.
The National Conservation Easement Database maps conservation easements held by land trusts and agencies nationwide, which is the quickest way to check whether a restriction of that type touches the parcel.
When this step is done: Any easement or restriction created above the county level.
Step 6
Walk the ground and compare it with the paper
Prescriptive rights, implied easements, and encroachments leave physical evidence and no recorded document.
Look for what is there rather than what should be: poles, guy anchors, pedestals, transformers, manholes, valve covers, worn vehicle tracks, footpaths, culverts, and drainage swales.
Call 811 before any digging. The locate service is free nationwide and marks buried utility lines, which often reveals facilities in places no recorded easement describes.
Where physical use does not match the documents — a driveway outside its corridor, a line crossing where no easement exists — that gap is the thing to resolve, and it is what a boundary or ALTA survey is for.
When this step is done: A list of uses on the ground that the recorded documents do not explain.
Free official sources
Every source below is published by a government agency or a public registry and is free to search. None of them requires a subscription or a records broker.
BLM General Land Office Records
U.S. Bureau of Land ManagementFederal land patents, survey plats, and field notes back to 1788 — the starting point for the chain of title on land that was once public domain.
National Archives land records
U.S. National ArchivesCase files behind federal patents, including homestead and railroad grants that sometimes reserved rights-of-way still binding today.
National Conservation Easement Database
U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities and partnersMapped conservation easements held by land trusts and public agencies across the country, with the holder's name.
Call 811 before you dig
Common Ground Alliance / state one-call centersFree marking of buried utility lines, which frequently reveals facilities the land records do not describe.
FEMA Flood Map Service Center
Federal Emergency Management AgencyFloodways and regulatory floodplains, which explain why a drainage easement exists and what may be built in it.
The National Map
U.S. Geological SurveyFree topographic, hydrography, and transportation data to check drainage paths and historic road alignments.
Find your county's recorder
The county office is where the document itself lives. Our records directory lists the searchable land record and parcel sources state by state, and the state law pages name the office that records easements in each jurisdiction along with its fee structure.
Common questions
How much does a copy of an easement document cost?
County recorders typically charge one to a few dollars per page, with a small additional fee if you need a certified copy. Many offices now publish document images online at no charge, and title companies will often send copies of the exceptions listed in a commitment for free.
Can I do all of this online?
In much of the country, yes. Most counties publish a free grantor/grantee index and a parcel viewer, and a growing number publish document images. Older documents, plats, and rural metes-and-bounds descriptions are the ones most likely to require a phone call or a visit to the office.
What if the recorder cannot find anything?
That usually means the easement was created on a plat, in a subdivision declaration, or above the county level — or that it is unrecorded, such as a prescriptive or implied right. Work through the plat, the state highway right-of-way plans, and a physical inspection before concluding the parcel is clear.
Do I need a lawyer or a surveyor to do this?
Not to obtain the documents — those are public records anyone can request. You need a licensed surveyor when the question is where an easement physically sits relative to your improvements, and a real estate attorney when the question is what a document legally permits.
Once you have the document
Read the width and purpose first, then work out what the corridor costs you. The easement value calculator runs a before-and-after estimate using your state's assumptions, and the landowner FAQ covers what a holder may and may not do inside the strip.
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.
Know your easements before you close
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