Real Estate Escrow Unit 17

A future or potential easement is called a

A future or potential easement is called a quasi-easement. This easement is the part that is benefited and that would otherwise be the dominant estate if it were located on another parcel of land and is called the quasi-dominant tenement. The part of the owner's land that serves the quasi-dominant tenement is called, quite understandably, the quasi-servient tenement.

A license

A license is written permission for a personal and revocable right. However, it does not convey any legal interest in the estate. It grants only a right to enter someone's land when it would be otherwise unlawful to do so. A license, unlike an easement, is a personal, revocable, unassignable, and uninheritable permission that expires with the death of the holder. A license can even be created by an oral agreement between the parties.

The Rectangular Survey System

According to the Bureau of Land Management, the rectangular survey system was first proposed by Thomas Jefferson. The U.S. rectangular survey system, and the public land survey system (PLSS) it established, is the basis for the creation of townships and sections and established 42 initial beginning points.

After completing a survey, the land surveyor (or the civil engineer)

After completing a survey, the land surveyor (or the civil engineer) must file a record of the survey in the county where the survey was made.

Any ALTA land survey must meet the Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for ALTA/ACSM Land Title Surveys as adopted by

Any ALTA land survey must meet the "Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for ALTA/ACSM Land Title Surveys" as adopted by ALTA, the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, and the National Society of Professional Surveyors.

Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC&Rs)

CC&Rs are private rights established by prior owners of the land that impose limitations on the use and occupancy of it, including any improvements on it.

Easements such as those for water, oil pipelines, telephone lines and railroad rights-of-way

Easements in gross are not limited to roadways and may cover a vast range of rights relating to the servient land. (An exception to this rule is the easement in gross created by the power of condemnation through the doctrine of eminent domain). To makes rules about easements a bit more complex and difficult for the title officer to immediately determine insurability, some easements such as those for water, oil, and gas pipelines, electric transmission lines, telephone lines and towers, and railroad rights-of-way, although all are easements in gross, are transferable even though no dominant estate exists. The fundamental principle is that the holders of these easements should have the right to sell, assign or otherwise transfer them for the benefit of public good for the services they provide. As such, they do present an exception and may be insured.

All the following regarding easements are correct except

Even though a grant deed may make no mention of these easements, they are usually automatically transferred along with fee title. As with most interests in land, they are subject to being lost through adverse possession by another or prescription. The owner of the servient estate cannot sell them separately, and they are assumed by any purchaser of the dominant estate.

Lines of longitude

Lines of longitude, called meridians, run vertically and are perpendicular to lines of latitude

All the following about easements are correct except

Many easements as described are actually not easements at all because they do not possess all the necessary characteristics required of true easements. The fundamental characteristic of a true easement is that it benefits another particular piece of land, called the dominant estate. The land that is encumbered by the easement, that which gives up a right for the benefit of the dominant estate, is called the servient estate.

The base line is

The east-west line that runs through the initial point is called a base line. This line is perpendicular to the principal meridian.

The most common way to locate points on the surface of the earth is by standard reference points in the form of

The most common way to locate points on the surface of the earth is by standard reference points in the form of geographic coordinates.

The open and notorious use of another's land with the knowledge of the servient estate landowner, and the landowner's passive failure to stop such use, may establish

The open and notorious use of another's land with the knowledge of the servient estate landowner, and the landowner's passive failure to stop such use, may establish an easement by prescription. Such use must also be adverse, exclusive, uninterrupted, and continuous for the period of time necessary to establish the right by prescription (five years under California Civil Code Section 1008).

The Points of Beginning

The other type of POB is more permanent. Those used today are the coordinates based on an intersection of a specific latitude and longitude. These are identified by a permanent steel object driven into the ground by the surveyor; these monument markers identify the location.