What Happens When you Need to Change an Easement

04/29/2024 11:51 AM Mark Goodman

Easements are, ideally, meant to be future proof. But in practice, that’s simply not always the case. As time goes by and ownership changes, the needs of an easement can shift. So what do you do if you need to make changes to an easement? In this article, we are going to dive into how to go about making changes to an easement.

A Hypothetical Example

Imagine you purchase a new property that is located adjacent to a shopping center. Let’s say that there is already in place an easement agreement between the various owners of the shopping center for nearby streets which would allow potential shoppers to use these streets to access the shopping center.
Now imagine that the city is requiring you to acquire an emergency access easement across the shopping center property (adjacent to yours). Who do you need to get this easement from?

In this scenario, it really depends on where the easement runs. If the easement is to be exclusively on the developer’s parcel, then you would need to get the easement from the developer. However, if the easement is to run on the streets that are co-maintained by the various owners, then you would need to get all of those participants to agree to a modification of the reciprocal easement.

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