The development of usable land is an increasing challenge, no less because of issues regarding easements affecting land that may prevent development as intended or issues regarding rights of access and rights to place utilities to serve the development.
That's where a working knowledge of easements and rights of way law becomes invaluable to the real estate practitioner, developers, surveyors, and engineers. In addition, many disputes among neighbors about their respective easement rights in each others properties arise because of misunderstandings regarding statutory and common law rules affecting such rights.
In practice, granting or obtaining of an easement, right of way, or access is not always a simple matter and, sometimes, even more difficult is determining the scope and incidents of an easement or right of way. Whether a property can be used for its intended purpose or whether a property owner has the right to use amenities associated with that property can depend upon the existence, nature, scope, and quality of the easement, right of way, or access at issue.
Disputes over these issues occupy a regular portion of the Land Courts docket. That's why easements and rights of way affecting landincluding access, utility, and recreational easements for the benefit of landowners and the publiccontinue to be hot topics with which you need to be familiar in order to best advise your residential and commercial clients who encounter these everpresent issues. As more and more land not already serviced by public ways is developed, issues involving easements, rights of way, and access will continue to create disputes between developers and their abutters and this will carry over to disputes with planning boards and boards of appeal reviewing subdivision and special permit applications.
Whether you represent a surveyor, broker, developer, or a municipality, you need to be able to recognize the issues and have a working knowledge of the applicable legal principles as well as some of the practical, legal solutions to these sometimes very complex issues.
Let MCLE's expert real estate faculty bring you current on the law, recent decisions, and practical tips to master a variety of transactions involving public and private easements.
Topics include
Public and Private Easements: General Overview How Public Ways are Created Private Easements
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Creation; Rights associated with private easements; Use and scope limitations; Underlying fee
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interests; Paper streets; Termination, abandonment, and discontinuance
Easement Issues that Arise in Connection with Development of Subdivisions
Easements in Gross and Profits a Prendre
Important Statute
Summary of Significant Cases
Transaction Considerations: Drafting and Construing Easements
Title Insurance Implications
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Insurance for a legal right of access versus practical access; Evolution from older forms of title insurance policies to modern enhanced coverage policies, especially for homeowners;
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Affirmative coverage and endorsements dealing with easement and access issues
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