As an award-winning SASKATOON REAL Estate agent Marla Janzen knows the city and surrounding area extremely well. She strives to find her clients the perfect new place to live while negotiating the best terms and price possible. She has a keen eye for house layout and home staging, which really benefits her clients, most of whom are past client referrals! In her latest Saskatoon real estate tip Marla explains title insurance and easement. Marla Janzen is a TRUSTED SASKATOON REALTOR®
What is Property Easement?
Property easement is defined as the right to facilitate a fraction of a property for a specified purpose. A survey will help decipher the property boundaries that will prevent any issues from determining land ownership. An easement can allow another person to encroach on your property and even though the lines are declared within the survey, these boundaries may be crossed without the owner’s express permission. An easement can be included in the title or deed to the property. A prime example of an express easement would be if the power company wanted to run power lines onto a property or a neighbour might even want to enter an agreement to share common parts of the property that extend into both boundaries.
A prescriptive or implied easement can occur if the use of property continues over an extended period of time. A good instance of this would be if a neighbour has been crossing a boundary line for years then that neighbour could have obtained a prescriptive easement that will allow him to legally cross the property line. Also, a “right of way” easement is nothing more than the allowance of someone to cross onto the property in question.
Many people forget when they are buying a house that they are actually purchasing the land the house is built on and the boundary that surrounds it. If you were to build a shed in your back yard and it happened to cross the land boundary into the property of another person this could technically be handled in a legal manner. This is something that can be avoided with proper surveys being done and the use of specified easements.
What about Title Insurance?
Title Insurance is a policy issued to the mortgage lender to protect against a defect in title. In Saskatchewan, the Land Titles system guarantees ownership of your land by title. Title Insurance policies provide no information about your property.
Only a Surveyor’s Real Property Report can assure you of the extent of your property and warn of any possible problems. Most of the time people are not going to worry about a few yards here and a few yards there, however, the same people who are okay with the encroachment might not always live there so it always is a good idea to get your bases covered legally and legitimately. This will ensure that down the road you are not going to wind up paying fines and going through a legal process that will cause nothing but problems.
Marla guarantees to provide you with a stress-free, hassle-free, wonderful experience and we are sure once you have met her that you will not contact anyone else!
Marla Janzen is a TRUSTED SASKATOON REALTOR®