Easement Agreement

ALABAMA EASEMENT AGREEMENT

Recordable event: CREATION AND CONVEYANCE OF EASEMENT

Recording Information

1. Parties and Property

Grantor / Servient Owner: [FULL LEGAL NAME AND CAPACITY]

Grantee / Easement Holder: [FULL LEGAL NAME AND CAPACITY]

Servient Estate: the Alabama real property described in Exhibit A.

Dominant Estate, if any: the real property described in Exhibit B.

Easement Area: the area described in Exhibit C and shown on any attached survey or drawing.

Current title instruments: [COUNTY / BOOK AND PAGE / INSTRUMENT NO.]

2. Consideration and Intended Title Covenants

Consideration paid or exchanged: [________________________________].

The parties shall not rely on generic conveyance words to create an unintended title warranty. Ala. Code § 35-4-271 addresses implied covenants arising from specified words in conveyances of estates in fee. Select the intended treatment for this easement:

☐ No title covenant. The easement is created and conveyed without representation or warranty of title, priority, fitness, or noninterference, except the express statements in this Agreement. Any implied covenant is limited to the fullest extent permitted by law.

☐ Express limited title covenant. Grantor states only: [________________________________].

☐ Other title treatment approved by Alabama title counsel: [________________________________].

3. Creation, Classification, and Scope

For the consideration stated above, Grantor creates and conveys to Grantee the easement described in this Agreement over the Easement Area.

The easement is:

☐ Appurtenant to the Dominant Estate and intended to benefit and burden the identified estates as stated below

☐ In gross in favor of [IDENTIFIED PERSON OR ENTITY]

☐ Exclusive, but only to this stated extent: [________________________________]

☐ Nonexclusive

Purpose:

☐ Ingress and egress

☐ Utilities — identify type: [________________________________]

☐ Drainage

☐ Parking

☐ Construction or temporary access

☐ Conservation

☐ Other: [________________________________]

Permitted users and benefited parcels: [________________________________]

The exact rights created are:

[____________________________________________________________]

No right is created by implication from a generic purpose label. Width, location, surface, subsurface and air rights, frequency, vehicle or utility types, gates, parking, staging, vegetation work, lateral support, relocation, and expansion rights must be stated or shown.

4. Term and Commencement

Commencement: [__/__/____] or upon [________________________________].

☐ Perpetual, subject to a legally sufficient termination route

☐ Fixed term ending [__/__/____]

☐ Other duration or stated condition: [________________________________]

Under Ala. Code § 35-4-20, a conveyance alienating land must be on paper, signed at its foot by the contracting party or a properly authorized agent, and witnessed as that section specifies. Under § 35-4-23, a proper acknowledgment satisfies the witness requirement.

5. Use Standards and Reserved Rights

Grantee may use the Easement Area only for the stated purpose and within the stated scope.

Access hours or operational limits: [________________________________]

Construction and installation standards: [________________________________]

Restoration after work: [________________________________]

Grantor’s retained use, so long as it does not unreasonably interfere with the express easement rights: [________________________________]

Prohibited uses: [________________________________]

Relocation, if any, requires: [WRITTEN CONSENT / CONDITIONS / COST ALLOCATION / NEW DESCRIPTION / RECORDED AMENDMENT].

6. Maintenance, Costs, and Insurance

No fixed insurance limit, liability cap, consequential-damages exclusion, or indemnity is imposed by this form. Any negotiated risk allocation must identify the covered conduct, claims, parties, insurance interaction, survival, and nonwaivable limits:

[____________________________________________________________]

7. Title, Priority, Homestead, and Consent Gate

• ☐ Current title evidence identifies every owner of the Servient Estate and Dominant Estate.
• ☐ The Easement Area and parcel descriptions were prepared or reviewed by a qualified surveyor or title professional.
• ☐ Existing easements, restrictions, leases, mineral interests, utilities, possession rights, and access rights were reviewed.
• ☐ Each mortgagee, lienholder, tenant, co-owner, association, governmental entity, and other person whose consent, subordination, joinder, or approval is required has been identified.
• ☐ The intended priority against existing and future interests is documented.
• ☐ Zoning, permitting, environmental, drainage, utility, road-access, and subdivision requirements were reviewed.

Ala. Code § 35-4-90 makes an unrecorded real-property conveyance inoperative against later purchasers for value, mortgagees, and judgment creditors without notice when their rights accrue before recording. Recording does not cure lack of ownership, authority, consent, adequate description, lawful purpose, or title priority against an earlier interest.

Homestead Review

☐ The Servient Estate is not the homestead of a married individual Grantor.

☐ The Servient Estate is or may be the homestead of a married individual Grantor. The spouse shall give the voluntary signature and assent, with the officer’s certificate, required by Ala. Code § 6-10-3.

☐ Homestead status is uncertain and must be resolved before execution.

8. Transfer, Benefit, and Burden

The intended transfer rules are:

[____________________________________________________________]

For an appurtenant easement, identify how the benefit and burden pass with the Dominant and Servient Estates. For an easement in gross, identify whether and how the holder may assign, divide, sublicense, or permit use by affiliates, contractors, customers, tenants, or successors.

No assignment or successor clause expands the physical scope or purpose stated in Section 3.

9. Breach and Remedies

Notice address and method: [________________________________]

Cure period, if appropriate: [________________________________]

Available remedies remain subject to applicable law and proof. This Agreement does not make injunctive relief, specific performance, attorney fees, self-help, damages, waiver of security or bond, unilateral reformation, arbitration, exclusive forum, or jury waiver automatic.

Negotiated remedies or dispute terms, if any, must be separately drafted and reviewed:

[____________________________________________________________]

A breach notice, default declaration, bankruptcy event, or one party’s recorded affidavit does not by itself terminate or erase the easement under this form.

10. Amendment and Termination

This easement may be amended or terminated only through a legally sufficient route applicable to every estate and interest then existing, followed by recording when needed to protect title.

Potential routes selected and drafted by counsel:

☐ Recorded release signed and acknowledged by the current easement holder and any other required person

☐ Recorded agreement signed and acknowledged by all required current owners and holders

☐ Stated fixed expiration or condition: [________________________________]

☐ Recorded court order or judgment

☐ Other legally reviewed route: [________________________________]

Nonuse alone, breach, bankruptcy, transfer, a private affidavit, condemnation, or common ownership is not declared by this form to terminate the easement automatically. Alabama counsel must analyze abandonment, merger, condemnation, prescription, release, and other doctrines on the facts.

11. Recording and Description Review

Ala. Code §§ 35-4-50 and 35-4-62 place recordable real-property conveyances in the office of the judge of probate for the county where the property is situated. Section 35-4-73 requires a recorded deed, contract, or other conveyance of a land interest to recite an individual grantor’s marital status.

Under Ala. Code § 35-4-74, an instrument that describes the land by reference to a plat must attach and incorporate the plat, identify the plat book and office, or otherwise supply a metes-and-bounds description, subject to the section’s stated exception.

Before presentation for recording, Alabama counsel or the closing professional shall confirm:

• current county formatting, margin, indexing, parcel, return-address, cover-sheet, original-signature, and e-recording requirements;
• recording fees and any privilege, transfer, documentary, or other tax treatment;
• the recordable event and the names and capacities used in the indexing fields;
• every consent, joinder, subordination, release, and referenced exhibit; and
• that the acknowledgment matches each signer’s actual individual or representative capacity.

12. Execution

Grantor

Signature: ________________________________________

Printed legal name: [________________________________]

Marital status: [________________________________]

Capacity: [________________________________]

Date: [__/__/____]

Grantor’s Spouse — Homestead Assent, If Required

Signature: ________________________________________

Printed legal name: [________________________________]

Date: [__/__/____]

Grantee — Acceptance of Express Obligations

Signature: ________________________________________

Printed legal name: [________________________________]

Capacity: [________________________________]

Date: [__/__/____]

Alabama Acknowledgment — Individual

State of [________________________________]

County of [________________________________]

I, [NAME AND STYLE OF OFFICER], hereby certify that [SIGNER NAME], whose name is signed to the foregoing conveyance and who is known to me, acknowledged before me on this day that, being informed of the contents of the conveyance, [SIGNER NAME] executed it voluntarily on the day it bears date.

Given under my hand this [____] day of [____________], [20____].

Officer signature: ________________________________________

Officer title: [________________________________]

Commission expiration, if applicable: [__/__/____]

Alabama Acknowledgment — Representative Capacity

Use this block for an entity, fiduciary, attorney-in-fact, or other representative signer.

State of [________________________________]

County of [________________________________]

I, [NAME AND STYLE OF OFFICER], hereby certify that [SIGNER NAME], whose name as [REPRESENTATIVE CAPACITY] is signed to the foregoing conveyance and who is known to me, acknowledged before me on this day that, being informed of its contents, the signer, in that capacity and with authority, executed it voluntarily for and as the act of [PRINCIPAL / ENTITY].

Given under my hand this [____] day of [____________], [20____].

Officer signature: ________________________________________

Officer title: [________________________________]

Commission expiration, if applicable: [__/__/____]

Repeat the appropriate acknowledgment for every signer whose acknowledgment or assent must appear on or be attached to the recordable instrument. Ala. Code § 35-4-29 supplies substantially the individual and representative-capacity forms.

Exhibit A — Servient Estate

[FULL LEGAL DESCRIPTION]

Exhibit B — Dominant Estate

[FULL LEGAL DESCRIPTION OR “NOT APPLICABLE — EASEMENT IN GROSS”]

Exhibit C — Easement Area

[METES-AND-BOUNDS, CENTERLINE AND WIDTH, OR OTHER PRECISE DESCRIPTION]

[ATTACH SURVEY OR DRAWING IF USED; STATE WHETHER TEXT OR DRAWING CONTROLS]

Recording Checklist

• ☐ The first page identifies the recordable event and the county.
• ☐ Grantor and Grantee names, capacities, addresses, and individual Grantor marital status are complete.
• ☐ All names match the title evidence, signatures, acknowledgments, and indexing instructions.
• ☐ The Servient Estate, Dominant Estate, and Easement Area descriptions are complete and internally consistent.
• ☐ Any plat reference satisfies Ala. Code § 35-4-74.
• ☐ Grantor execution satisfies Ala. Code §§ 35-4-20 and 35-4-23.
• ☐ Every required homestead spouse has signed and assented under Ala. Code § 6-10-3.
• ☐ The acknowledgment follows the applicable substantial form in Ala. Code § 35-4-29.
• ☐ Current title, priority, consent, subordination, and tax reviews are complete.
• ☐ Current county fee, format, cover-sheet, parcel, e-recording, and return requirements are confirmed.

Sources and References

• Alabama Code official site, Title 35, Chapter 4: https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/code-of-alabama?section=35-4-20
• Ala. Code § 35-4-29, acknowledgment forms: https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/code-of-alabama?section=35-4-29
• Ala. Code § 35-4-62, county of recording: https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/code-of-alabama?section=35-4-62
• Ala. Code § 35-4-73, marital-status recitation: https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/code-of-alabama?section=35-4-73
• Ala. Code § 35-4-74, plat or description requirement: https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/code-of-alabama?section=35-4-74
• Ala. Code § 35-4-90, recording priority: https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/code-of-alabama?section=35-4-90
• Ala. Code § 35-4-271, specified conveyance words: https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/code-of-alabama?section=35-4-271
• Ala. Code § 6-10-3, married-person homestead conveyance: https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/code-of-alabama?section=6-10-3