Land records · Parcel maps · October 5, 2026
How to Find Easements on a Property: Deed, Plat, GIS
How to find easements on a property: read the deed and title report, check the recorded plat notes, and confirm utility lines on the county GIS viewer.
How to find easements on a property means checking more than one office. An easement is a recorded (or sometimes implied) right to use someone else’s land for a limited purpose—utilities, access, drainage, conservation, and more. County GIS can hint at utility corridors, but the controlling text is usually in deeds, plats, and title exceptions.
Start with the title report and deed
- Read Schedule B exceptions on any title commitment or policy; easements are often listed by recording reference.
- Pull the current deed and recent prior deeds. Easements may be reserved, granted, or referred to “of record.”
- Order or download the documents cited by book/page or instrument number from the county recorder.
Easement vs right of way explains how those labels overlap on maps and in deeds.
Check the recorded plat
Subdivision plats commonly show utility easements along lot lines, drainage easements, and dedicated streets. Notes on the plat can reserve widths even when the tax map draws a thin line. Walk through how to find a recorded plat and how to read a plat map if the symbols are new.
Use the county GIS viewer carefully
Open your county from our county GIS map directory. Turn on utility, easement, or right-of-way layers if the viewer offers them. Click the parcel and read any easement attributes in the identify popup. Treat those layers as a starting point: they can be incomplete, generalized, or out of date compared with recorded instruments.
If you are planning a driveway across a strip that might be shared, a gravel tonnage estimate for the approach is on AsphaltTons’ 100-foot driveway gravel guide.
Unrecorded and implied rights
Some access or utility rights are implied by long use or by necessity when a parcel is landlocked. Those may not appear as a neat polygon on GIS. A surveyor or real estate attorney in your state is the right next step when the records and the ground disagree.
How to find easements on a property FAQ
Does the county GIS map show all easements?
Not reliably. Some viewers have utility or easement layers, but recorded deeds, plats, and title exceptions are the authoritative sources.
Are utility easements always on the plat?
Many are shown on subdivision plats, but others are created by separate recorded easement deeds or older instruments not drawn on the tax map.
Can an easement exist without being recorded?
Sometimes rights arise by implication, necessity, or long use under state law. Those may not appear in the recorder’s index as a neat document.
Who can explain an easement on my lot?
A title company, real estate attorney, or surveyor in your state can interpret the documents and how they affect building plans.