Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Maryland

Re: New Property Owner's Rights with regard to easements

I'm not sure that I understand your facts exactly. Certainly, there's nothing wrong on its face with having one recorded document referencing another recorded document; that happens all the time; of course, one would expect that the title report before closing would have disclosed all recorded easments (including both the 15 foot and 24 foot easments). The problem is that usually, consumers have no opportunity or great reason to read a title report before settlement. It's the title company and mortgage company that are interested in the info; but they would not typically care about some utilitiy easment, b/c they exist frequently.

The real question is whether the developer sold you "less" than you had contracted to buy or otherwise misled you. I'm not sure what you mean when you say that you have no "usable" yard. The existence of an easment doesn't make the yard "unusable" for most things that a yard would be used for. It might be unwise to construct a garage over the easment, but otherwise use should be fine.

Plese give me a call at your leisure and I will be happy to chat briefly with you about your rights.

Lawrence R. Holzman, Esquire

Joseph, Greenwald & Laake, P.A.

6404 Ivy Lane, Suite 400

Greenbelt, MD 20770

(301) 220-2200

fax (301) 220-1214

Disclaimer: Please note that the posting of this response is not intended to constitute legal advice. You should contact an attorney to obtain information applicable to your situation. This posting is not confidential or privileged and does not create an attorney/client relationship.

Re: New Property Owner's Rights with regard to easements

I represent a title company - something I should disclose to you as a part of this reply. From your posting it sounds like you attended settlement and were presented by the title company with a location drawing depicting the 15 foot easement instead of the 24' easement. In that instance, the settlement officer was disclosing the easement as it appeared on the location drawing in explanation of the exceptions which will appear in an owner's title insurance policy. It is an unfortunate truth that some settlement officers neither examine the title that they are closing nor prepare the commitment letter that goes out to the lender. A possibility exists that the settlement officer knew as little about the easement as you did. This is not an excuse - only an explanation.

The question that you must ask is whether you would have been compelled to complete the closing even if the easement had been disclosed to you at settlement. If the answer is "yes", then the ommission of disclosure may not be found to have resulted in any monetary loss. The ultimate answer to your dilemma is grounded in your contract to purchase the property and whether the seller or developer misled you or actively concealed the existence of the relocated easement.

If the easement was known and not disclosed (or concealed)by the seller and the seller knew that concealment of the easement would have affected your decision to purchase the property at the time that you entered into your contract, you may have a claim back against the seller. A claim against the title company or the surveyor, however, would be difficult to pursue.