A Blanket Gas Easement and an Encroaching Block Wall
Your firm has an order for an ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey of a 12.4-acre commercial parcel in Clark County supporting a lender's refinance. The requested Table A items are 1, 2, 3, 6(a), 8, 11, 13, and 18. The title commitment lists an unreleased 1962 'blanket easement for a gas transmission line over and across the rear 30 feet' with no recorded centerline, no bearing and no distance. You find no surface markers, no pipeline signs and no cleared corridor. Fieldwork also shows that the neighboring building's concrete block wall and a 0.6-foot roof overhang cross the record west line at the rear of the parcel; the wall is 0.2 foot inside your client's parcel at the north end and 0.4 foot outside at the south end. The title officer asks you to 'just leave off anything that would kill the loan.' The client wants the easement 'drawn in where it probably runs so the plat looks complete.'
1. How do you depict the 1962 blanket easement on the plat, and why not simply draw a plausible 30-foot strip?
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Under the ALTA/NSPS standards, an easement of record is shown when its location can be determined from the record documents or from observed physical evidence. A blanket easement with no centerline, no bearing, no distance, no recorded exhibit and no surface evidence cannot be located.
The correct treatment is a note on the face of the plat, not a drawn line. The note identifies the recording reference and date of the 1962 instrument, states that a blanket easement for a gas transmission line exists of record across the rear 30 feet, and states that its actual location cannot be determined from the record or from evidence observed in the field and therefore is not depicted. If the utility later provides a centerline, a locate ticket or visible markers appear, you depict the line and note the source of the location.
Drawing a 'probable' path is a misrepresentation: it shows encumbered area that may not exist, misleads the lender about which improvements are affected, and could be relied upon as a survey determination you did not make. The note preserves the lender's awareness without inventing geometry.
2. How is the wall and overhang handled, and how do you respond to the title officer's request?
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Table A Item 2 was ordered, so encroachments must be shown. Plot the block wall and the overhang with offsets to the record line at both the north and south ends (0.2 ft inside, 0.4 ft outside) plus the 0.6-ft overhang, label it as an encroachment, and add a note describing the crossing. The varying offsets are shown because they are the fact; a single averaged dimension would be false.
On the title officer's request: you cannot omit a known encroachment that a requested Table A item requires. Omitting it is a misrepresentation to a lender who will rely on the certification, and it exposes you to Board discipline and liability. The legitimate options are to complete the item and let the title company take exception in its commitment, or, if the lender does not require Item 2, to have the client remove the item from the order and to state clearly on the plat which Table A items were and were not performed. What you do not do is show the item as performed while suppressing the encroachment.
3. What must accompany the certified plat before it is delivered?
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Before sealing and delivering:
- The standard ALTA/NSPS certification, signed and sealed by the licensee in responsible charge, naming the parties to whom it runs.
- The date of the fieldwork and the date of the plat, kept distinct.
- The basis of bearings and the coordinate system, if any.
- A complete list of the Table A items actually performed, keyed to the order.
- The source and effective date of the title information relied upon, plus the record references for all instruments shown.
- A legend defining every symbol, including the monument symbols and the line styles used for record lines, occupation lines and encroachments.
Also notify the client in writing, before delivery, of the blanket easement and the encroachment and of how each is depicted, so there is no later claim that you concealed or surprised them. The certification covers what is shown on the plat; it is not an opinion of title, and a note should say so.