Easement and Right-of-Way Surveys
An easement gives someone other than the landowner the right to use a defined piece of ground for a stated purpose - a utility line, a shared driveway, access to a tract behind yours, a drainage route. The whole value of that arrangement depends on one thing: that everyone can tell exactly where it starts and stops. An easement survey is what makes that possible.
What This Service Covers
There are two sides to this work. The first is creating a new easement: before it is granted and recorded, the area has to be surveyed and described precisely - width, location, bearings and distances, and how it relates to the boundary and the improvements around it. A recorded easement is only as good as its description, and a vague one causes exactly the dispute it was written to prevent.
The second is finding an easement that already exists. Old record language is often loose - "a right of way along the north side," a width with no located centerline, a route described by features that are long gone. Retracing it means research into the recorded documents, then field work to reconcile that record with what is actually on the ground. Right-of-way work is the same discipline at corridor scale: locating where a road or utility right-of-way limit actually falls relative to your property, which is what setbacks, fences, entrances, and encroachment questions all depend on.
How the Work Runs
Research the record.
We pull the deeds, recorded easements, plats, and right-of-way plans that bear on the area, and read what they actually grant - purpose, width, location, and any limits on use.
Locate it on the ground.
The crew locates the corridor or area, the physical evidence of its use, and the improvements in and around it, tied to the underlying property boundary.
Map and describe.
We prepare a sealed exhibit showing the easement area against the boundary, with a metes-and-bounds description in a form your attorney can attach to the instrument that gets recorded.
What You Get
- A signed, sealed easement exhibit or plat showing the area against the property boundary
- A metes-and-bounds legal description of the easement area, suitable for recording
- Right-of-way limits located relative to your lines, where a road or utility corridor is involved
- A clear record of where an existing easement falls - and, where the record is ambiguous, a plain statement of what is and is not resolvable from it
What Affects Timing
- The length and complexity of the corridor or area being defined
- How clear or how vague the recorded description is - ambiguous language means more research
- Whether the underlying boundary has to be resolved before the easement can be positioned
- Terrain, vegetation, and access along the route
- Our current field schedule
When You Need This Survey
- Granting a utility company access across your property
- Creating or defining a shared driveway or a new access easement
- Providing legal access to a landlocked tract
- Buying land that is crossed by an easement, or land whose access depends on one
- Resolving a question about how far an easement extends or what it permits
- Building, fencing, or placing an entrance near a road or utility right-of-way
Questions We Hear About Easement & Right-of-Way Surveys
My deed mentions a right of way, but nobody knows where it is.
That is one of the most common calls we get. We research the recorded documents, retrace what they describe, and locate the physical evidence of use on the ground. Sometimes the record resolves cleanly; sometimes the language is genuinely ambiguous, and in that case we document what the record supports and where the uncertainty lies, so you and your attorney are working from facts rather than assumptions.
Do I really need a survey to grant an easement?
You need a description good enough that a stranger can find the same ground twenty years from now - and that is what a survey produces. Easements written from a rough sketch or a general direction are the ones that end up in disputes, because the parties who agreed on the intent are not always the parties who own the land later.
Can you tell me whether I have a legal right to cross my neighbor's land?
No - that is a legal question, and it belongs with an attorney. What we can do is survey and map what the record documents describe and what the physical evidence shows, which is usually exactly what an attorney needs in order to answer it.
Content reviewed by Jacob Doss, Licensed Surveyor (TN RLS 3333 | KY PLS 4612), Doss Land Surveying, LLC. Serving Macon, Smith, Sumner, Trousdale, Clay, and Jackson Counties, TN, and Allen and Monroe Counties, KY. We also take on projects throughout the rest of Tennessee and Kentucky - just ask.
Easement to grant, or one you cannot find on the ground? Start with the survey.
(615) 670-9856info@dosssurveying.comServing Macon, Smith, Sumner, Trousdale, Clay, and Jackson Counties, TN, and Allen and Monroe Counties, KY.
We also take on projects throughout the rest of Tennessee and Kentucky - just ask.