Road access and landlocked land: how to check before you buy

Physical access vs legal access

Physical access is whether you can get there: a track, a gate, a ranch road through a neighbour's pasture. Legal access is whether you have a right to use that route that will survive a change of neighbour. Only legal access protects you, your lender and your future buyer.

Land has legal access when it fronts a public road, or when a recorded easement gives the owner a right to cross someone else's land to reach one. A handshake arrangement, a gate the neighbour leaves unlocked or a road everyone has used for years is not the same thing on paper.

What 'landlocked' means

A landlocked parcel has no frontage on a public road and no recorded easement across the land around it. It can still be bought and sold, often cheaply, but it can be hard to finance, insure, build on or resell.

Some states give owners of landlocked land a legal route to get an easement, either through the courts (an easement by necessity, which usually requires the land to have once been part of the same property as the land it crosses) or through a statutory process that typically means paying the neighbour. These take time and money, and the outcome isn't guaranteed. Treat a landlocked parcel's price as reflecting that.

Kinds of easement you'll see

Access easements come in a few forms, and they are not equally strong:

• Express easements: written and recorded with the county. The strongest kind. Check the width, the route, who maintains it and whether it allows utilities as well as driving.
• Plat easements or private roads in a subdivision: shown on the recorded plat, often with a road maintenance agreement among owners.
• Prescriptive easements: rights claimed from long, open use. Rules vary by state, and they usually need a court to confirm them.
• Implied easements: rights a court may find from how the land was divided. Useful in a dispute, but not something to rely on when buying.

Public roads, county roads and road maintenance

Not every road with a name is maintained by anyone. Some counties keep roads that are public but no longer maintained, and some roads were never formally accepted. Ask the county road department whether the road is on its maintained-road list, and who plows or grades it.

A driveway onto a public road may also need a permit and a culvert, especially from a state highway. See the due diligence checklist for the permit items that go with access.

What it means for your offer

Make legal access a condition of the contract. Ask the title company for an owner's policy that insures access, and read the commitment's exceptions for anything that limits it. If access depends on an easement, get a survey that shows the easement on the ground. Utilities usually follow the same route, so access affects power and water too.

How do I know if a property has legal access?

Check whether it fronts a public road, and if not, look for a recorded access easement in the deed and county records. A title company can confirm whether access is insurable.

Can you build on landlocked land?

Sometimes, but it's hard. Counties may refuse building permits without legal access, lenders often won't finance it, and getting an easement can take a negotiation or a court case.

Is a road easement the same as owning the road?

No. An easement is a right to use someone else's land for a purpose, such as driving to your property. Its terms set the route, width and who maintains it.