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But it is now a scholastic question. Realtor just called and said that owners called surveyor office and surveyor states that that easement - a yellow highlighted area in pic 2 - is actually NOT on the property in question. That also coincides with what realtor said - parcel numbers on deed did not match parcel in question.
Seller is now resolving this mess.
Yes, there is pipeline easement in NW corner. About 5 000 sf. We decided to not worry about that. Plenty left.
We wanted to do a duck pond down in wetland. About right where the darn easement is marked.
I talked with the new friend who didn't want to buy when he looked at the county map (listing did not state this) and found his drain field would be on the lot next door.
Sometimes you just can't put it on your lot and that's why it's on the neighbor's to begin with.
This guy didn't want to buy the house because he just felt he should let the neighbor know he was going on the neighbor's property if he needed to do something with the drain field. He also had to walk through the neighbor's private property that is not the drainfield in order to access the drain field. The neighbor had trees growing in such a way that in order to get machinery to the drain field if he ever needed to do that he'd have to take down some trees. The husband is also very much a guy who wants his stuff in his box. He's very particular and a tad bit controlling in a good way.
So that is his reason for not buying with his drain field on someone else's lot.
We have looked at homes ourselves where there was a drain field on neighbors' lots. In one case the neighbor had a play set on it which the realtor said was not right and the seller was trying to fight it nicely. Just too many hassles in our minds so those homes were non-starters for us.
I spent half my working life in the real estate business, and in the areas we did business, they would not allow a property to have a drain field or if required a back up drain field on anything but the property the home is located on. If a property was being divided, it would not have been allowed to divide it in a way to have a drain field for another home on a property.
It sounds nuts and kind of primate to allow drain fields on other properties.
I would have passed on the property right away regardless if it was a drain field for septic or water run-off. Environmental rules change often with what is allowed and not allowed and become more restrictive. Because it is a neighbor's effluence on another's property, it would be that property owner's responsibility to make whatever changes to fit the new environmental restrictions.
If the neighbor decided to abandon the septic system, it would be the property owner of that drainage field to follow whatever environmental guidelines were in place at the time. That could have no financial consequence (nothing has to occur) or could be a very large bill (if the guidelines mandate that all the soil must be removed as hazardous waste). It's the same concept as a home heating oil tank that's buried in the ground. In some states, when it's abandoned, nothing has to occur or it's ok just to fill it with sand, or it and the ground around it must be removed. These are the guidelines in place today, but sure as shootin' subject to change. An easement on a property other than the standard (utilities at curbside for example) would probably make me say "next".
If the neighbor decided to abandon the septic system, it would be the property owner of that drainage field to follow whatever environmental guidelines were in place at the time. That could have no financial consequence (nothing has to occur) or could be a very large bill (if the guidelines mandate that all the soil must be removed as hazardous waste). .
Have you ever heard of someone having to remove soil from a septic field as hazardous waste? That would have required a whole lot of hot peppers in that diet and a whole lot of people eating them!
Seriously, though, the septic drain field should not have any harmful products as long as the septic tank was doing it job.
Have you ever heard of someone having to remove soil from a septic field as hazardous waste? That would have required a whole lot of hot peppers in that diet and a whole lot of people eating them!
Seriously, though, the septic drain field should not have any harmful products as long as the septic tank was doing it job.
Laughing! But yes. In Massachusetts and in Pennsylvania.
But it is now a scholastic question. Realtor just called and said that owners called surveyor office and surveyor states that that easement - a yellow highlighted area in pic 2 - is actually NOT on the property in question. That also coincides with what realtor said - parcel numbers on deed did not match parcel in question.
Seller is now resolving this mess.
Yes, there is pipeline easement in NW corner. About 5 000 sf. We decided to not worry about that. Plenty left.
We wanted to do a duck pond down in wetland. About right where the darn easement is marked.
Without seeing the entire document, it's difficult to determine what the physical location of the easement might be, or why there is no grantee.
Even if the easement document encumbers another parcel on the face of the document, it doesn't mean you don't have restrictions on that land. For example, if there were physical improvements constructed at the time of the recordation that would indicate the intent was to encumber the parcel, then it creates issues.
If the realtor claims that a Land Surveyor is involved, you should be able to get a copy of the written document, stamped and signed, that specifies that the physical location of the easement described in the deed does not conform to the location shown on the record map.
That doesn't remove the possibility that there is an encumbrance on the land though; physical improvements built in reliance on the record map at the time of development, continued open and notorious use of the land for this purpose, or any other form of unwritten right might exist.
The easiest (ha!) way to extinguish would be to determine which parcels benefit from the easement either as written or make use of the existing improvements, and secure quitclaim deeds from all of those property owners for any interest in the area in question.
There's a lot of research that needs to be done here to make any sort of determination though.
Good post, thank you.
Well, the surveyor I talked to clearly indicated that said easement in question is actually on neighbor's property. Both neighbors across the street have drain fields in THEIR properties.
Surveyor is developing new, updated map that will be stamped and official by the next week Friday. Then, according to him, County will have no choice but to strike it off the title.
We requested 2 week extension, accepted by seller, till that map is furbished.
I think we are good here. Surveyor told me that easement is actually marked twice on two different parcels - one that has drain field and, by error, on our property in question.
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