Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

A grant deed. The tricky part is not the form, it's the description of the easement. You should make sure the legal description is exactly right and clear. If it is for a specific physical location on the burdened property, you also should have a surveyor draft the metes and bounds.

An easement is an interest in real property, and the creation and transfer of an easement is within the statute of frauds. The creation or transfer of an easement must comply with the requirements of an instrument to convey real property. An easement may be created and transferred by an instrument other than a deed. Any document that indicates an intent by one party to establish a right to use his or her property by another party establishes an easement. An express easement usually is created by deed, but a contract between property owners can establish an easement in favor of one property owner to use or to prevent the use of a neighbor's property, even though it does not contain formal words of conveyance.

Generally, the document must include a description that adequately identifies the servient tenement. The description may be adequate by reference to a recorded map or other recorded document that contains an adequate description.

The deed or contract creating the easement need not be recorded, but an easement created by an unrecorded document may not be enforceable against a bona fide purchaser of the servient tenement.