Working with a property easement lawyer is important when easement questions arise. Arizona real estate law provides for a startling number of different rights that a person may have with respect to a parcel of land. It is not just as simple as, well, “fee simple,” which is full and complete ownership over a parcel, which allows a person to do as they please, subject to laws of conduct, code, deed restrictions (CC&Rs), and zoning. In addition to full or partial ownership of the land, a person may have an easement, or a right to legally access and/or use a portion of that land for specific reasons.
Easement rights to real estate can be complex and confounding to many, including the holder of the easement and the landowner. A property easement lawyer at Provident Law® can assist you in understanding more about easement rights under Arizona law, including implied easements. Contact Provident Law® today by calling our office at (480) 388-3343 to schedule a consultation about your real estate matter.
Easements in General
Easements give people a right to access or use someone else’s land for a limited purpose. A familiar example of easements includes the areas needed to run gas or power lines beneath a property – and the utility company’s right to dig to reach those lines for whatever reason.
Under Arizona law, you can establish an easement in several different ways. Sometimes people create easements expressly, by contract, deed, or other written agreement. In other cases, people form easements due to necessity, such as when a parcel of property is “landlocked,” and the owner of the property needs some way to access it. People also may earn easements by “prescription,” which means they have been openly using the easement in a particular way for at least ten years.
Defining Implied Easements
Implied easements are a subcategory of easements that many think of as “court-created” easements. For the most part, implied easements arise when a court overseeing a property dispute determines that they already are in existence. The court will base the easement’s existence on the facts and circumstances of a property transfer, from which it may determine that the parties intended an easement to exist – or when, as mentioned above, such an easement is “necessary” – even if the parties did not write the easement into the deed or contract or record it in any other way. Implied easements often occur when a landowner has subdivided a parcel of property and sold the smaller pieces without expressly defining how the new owners will access each piece of property.
Contact an Arizona Property Easement Lawyer for Assistance
When you’re looking to buy a property in Phoenix or anywhere else in the state of Arizona, you’ll need an experienced property easement lawyer with strong scruples by your side if someone challenges your right to access it – or for any other reason. Contact Provident Law® today by calling our office at (480) 388-3343, emailing us, or filling out the form on our contact page. An experienced property easement lawyer is ready to talk with you about your real estate issue and explain how we can help.
At Provident Law, our real estate attorneys represent parties on either side of real estate and financing transactions, including buyers, sellers, landlords, tenants, lenders, borrowers, trustees, guarantors, shareholders, partners, and others. We structure, negotiate and document a wide variety of real estate and financing transactions, including leases, purchase and sale agreements, loans, and development agreements for various commercial and residential projects.
Christopher J. Charles is the founder and Managing Partner of Provident Law, is a full-service commercial real estate law firm. He is a Certified Real Estate Expert with the State Bar of Arizona and a former “Broker Hotline Attorney” for the Arizona Association of REALTORS® (the “AAR”). Mr. Charles serves as an Arbitrator and Mediator for the AAR concerning real estate disputes. He is a licensed Real Estate Instruction and teaches continuing education classes at the Arizona School of Real Estate and Business.
Mr. Charles holds the AV® Preeminent Rating under the Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review rating system, which is the highest possible rating for legal ability and ethical standards.