Finding a home to buy in this crazy spring home buying season can often be an accomplishment. Recent reports state that buyers often need to go through six to eight offers in order to buy a new home to live in. What happens when you realize that the home you are eyeing on has an easement?
Before anything else, let us discuss the meaning of an easement. According to Investopedia, an easement in "the right of one party to use the property of another party."
This means that your neighbor can make use of your property such as your driveway to enter inside their house. The publication also notes that easements can often cause issues and problems to the house value. For instance, public utility companies purchase easements to install wires or poles within your property. This, however, may affect the visual appeal of your home and later on affect the selling price of your house.
Trulia also notes that easements do not necessarily mean that your neighbor or the public utility companies have a right to possess your property. One should, however, know about the presence of any easements on a property before you close in on the sale of a house.
This means that buyers should also take a look into any easements on the property before buying. Such things can be found in deeds or in other documents such as homeowner association documents.
If, however, you are really dead set on buying that house even if it has an easement, the publication notes that you should also find out the kind of easement on the said property. For instance, an appurtenant easement means that the new owner has no right to cancel the easement while an easement in gross only takes place with the original owner and automatically ends when the new owner moves into the property.
