Easement Agreement - Missouri

MISSOURI EASEMENT AGREEMENT

Recordable event: CREATION AND CONVEYANCE OF EASEMENT

Recording Information

1. Parties and Property

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

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

Servient Estate: the Missouri 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 OR ST. LOUIS CITY / BOOK AND PAGE / INSTRUMENT NO.]

2. Consideration and Title Treatment

Consideration paid or exchanged: [________________________________].

Select the intended title treatment:

☐ No express title covenant. Grantor conveys only the interest Grantor owns, without an express warranty of title, priority, fitness, or noninterference except as stated below.

☐ Express limited title statement: [________________________________].

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

Do not use generic deed words or a marketable-title representation without deciding what title covenant, if any, the parties intend and whether existing interests have priority.

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

☐ 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. State the width, location, surface, subsurface and air rights, frequency, vehicle or utility types, gates, parking, staging, vegetation work, lateral support, relocation, and expansion rights that were actually negotiated.

4. Term and Commencement

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

☐ Perpetual, subject to a legally sufficient termination route

☐ Fixed term ending [__/__/____]

☐ Other stated duration or condition: [________________________________]

Mo. Rev. Stat. § 442.130 requires a conveyance of an interest in land to be subscribed by the granting party or lawful agent and acknowledged or proved and certified as prescribed. It also requires the instrument to state whether every natural person executing as grantor, mortgagor, or other executing party is married or unmarried.

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 Risk Allocation

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

[____________________________________________________________]

7. Title, Priority, Marital Status, 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, spouse, and other person whose consent, subordination, joinder, release, or approval may be 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.

Mo. Rev. Stat. § 442.400 leaves an unrecorded instrument ineffective against persons other than the parties and those with actual notice until it is deposited for recording. Recording does not cure lack of ownership, authority, consent, adequate description, lawful purpose, or priority against an earlier interest.

Spouse and Marital-Property Review

Section 442.030 addresses a joint deed by spouses and provides that both spouses are bound by deed covenants when the conveyed property is held as an estate by the entirety. Section 442.130 separately requires the instrument to state the married or unmarried status of natural-person executing parties.

☐ Grantor is unmarried.

☐ Grantor is married and the Servient Estate is held by the spouses as an estate by the entirety; both spouses will execute and acknowledge the instrument.

☐ Grantor is married but title, homestead, marital-rights, or joinder consequences require a separate Missouri counsel and title determination: [________________________________].

☐ Marital status or ownership 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, period of nonuse, 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 every 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. Missouri counsel must analyze abandonment, merger, condemnation, prescription, release, and other doctrines on the facts.

11. Recording and Description Review

Mo. Rev. Stat. § 442.380 directs that an acknowledged or proved instrument conveying or affecting real estate be recorded in the recorder's office for the county where the real estate is situated.

For a county other than St. Louis City, § 59.310 supplies the recording format and first-page information requirements. The first page below the three-inch top margin must provide or point to the title, date, all grantor names and marital status, all grantee names, statutory addresses, legal description, and applicable prior book-and-page references. Section 59.310 also addresses paper, print, margins, legibility, signatures, fees, and exceptions.

For St. Louis City, use the separate requirements in § 59.313 and confirm current city-recorder instructions. Section 442.130's marital-status requirement still applies to the conveyance.

Before recording, Missouri counsel or the closing professional shall confirm:

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

12. Execution

Grantor

Signature: ________________________________________

Printed legal name: [________________________________]

Marital status: [MARRIED / UNMARRIED]

Capacity: [________________________________]

Date: [__/__/____]

Additional Grantor or Spouse, If Required

Signature: ________________________________________

Printed legal name: [________________________________]

Marital status: [MARRIED / UNMARRIED]

Capacity and reason for joinder: [________________________________]

Date: [__/__/____]

Grantee — Acceptance of Express Obligations

Signature: ________________________________________

Printed legal name: [________________________________]

Capacity: [________________________________]

Date: [__/__/____]

Missouri Acknowledgment — Natural Person Acting in Own Right

State of [________________________________]

County of [________________________________]

On this [____] day of [____________], [20____], before me personally appeared [SIGNER NAME], to me known to be the person described in and who executed the foregoing instrument, and acknowledged that [SIGNER PRONOUN] executed it as [SIGNER PRONOUN] free act and deed.

Officer signature: ________________________________________

Officer title: [________________________________]

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

Missouri Acknowledgment — Representative Capacity

Use the current form and modifications authorized by Mo. Rev. Stat. § 442.210 for the actual corporation, association, attorney-in-fact, fiduciary, or other representative signer. Do not use an individual-capacity acknowledgment for an entity or representative signature.

[INSERT CURRENT CAPACITY-SPECIFIC ACKNOWLEDGMENT]

Repeat the appropriate acknowledgment for every person whose signature must be acknowledged or proved.

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 correct recorder and statute route—county § 59.310 or St. Louis City § 59.313—has been selected.
• ☐ The first page supplies or points to every required item below the three-inch top margin.
• ☐ Grantor and Grantee names, capacities, addresses, and natural-person executing-party marital statuses are complete.
• ☐ All names match title evidence, signatures, acknowledgments, and indexing instructions.
• ☐ Servient Estate, Dominant Estate, and Easement Area descriptions are complete and internally consistent.
• ☐ Grantor execution and acknowledgment satisfy §§ 442.130 and 442.210.
• ☐ Spouse, co-owner, mortgagee, lienholder, tenant, and other consent or joinder questions are resolved.
• ☐ Current title, priority, tax, and local recording reviews are complete.

Sources and References

• Missouri Revisor — Mo. Rev. Stat. § 442.030
• Missouri Revisor — Mo. Rev. Stat. § 442.130
• Missouri Revisor — Mo. Rev. Stat. § 442.210
• Missouri Revisor — Mo. Rev. Stat. § 442.380
• Missouri Revisor — Mo. Rev. Stat. § 442.400
• Missouri Revisor — Mo. Rev. Stat. § 59.310
• Missouri Revisor — Mo. Rev. Stat. § 59.313