Easement
An easement is a legal right allowing one party to use a portion of another party's land for a defined purpose — such as access, utilities, or drainage — without owning it.
What an easement is
An easement grants a specific, limited right to use land the easement holder does not own. The land stays in the owner's title, but the holder may use the defined portion for the stated purpose. Easements run with the land, meaning they typically survive a sale and bind future owners.
Common types of easements
Frequent types include access or right-of-way easements (crossing a parcel to reach another), utility easements (power, water, sewer, pipeline), drainage easements, and conservation easements that restrict development to preserve open space. Each can reduce the usable, developable area of a parcel.
Why easements matter in diligence
An easement can sharply limit what a buyer can build, where, and how. Identifying easements is a core part of due diligence — they appear in the title report and recorded documents, and they should be reconciled against the parcel's boundaries and intended use before closing. Paxiv's parcel and ownership intelligence, with one-click links to authoritative county records, helps teams research a parcel before ordering full title work.
Paxiv by the numbers
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| City infrastructure coverage | Water, sewer, and storm — mapped per parcel Sourced from municipal GIS, city by city rather than one national feed — the city-level layer most nationwide parcel tools do not carry at all. |
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Where this data comes from
Paxiv's parcel, ownership, and zoning records link back to the originating county assessor, county recorder, or municipal zoning code, with flood data from FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer and geographic reference data from the U.S. Census Bureau — so every figure can be checked against its authoritative source rather than taken on faith.
- County assessor and recorder offices — Parcel boundaries, ownership of record, assessed values, and transaction history. Every record in Paxiv links back to the originating county office for one-click verification.
- City and county zoning ordinances — Zoning classification per parcel, linked to the municipality's own published zoning code so the underlying ordinance can be read directly.
- FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer — Flood zone, Special Flood Hazard Area status, and base flood elevation, resolved by point-in-polygon lookup against FEMA's own published layer.
- U.S. Census Bureau — Census tract containment via the Bureau's official geocoder, plus TIGER/Line geographic reference files.
Frequently asked questions
What is an easement in real estate?
An easement is a legal right to use a portion of someone else's land for a specific purpose — such as access, utilities, or drainage — without owning that land. Easements usually run with the land and bind future owners.
Do easements transfer when a property is sold?
Most easements run with the land, meaning they survive a sale and bind subsequent owners. They are typically recorded and appear in the title report, which is why identifying them is part of due diligence.
How do easements affect land value?
An easement can reduce a parcel's usable or developable area and constrain what can be built, which can lower its value. The impact depends on the easement's type, location, and scope relative to the intended use.