# Undisclosed city easement



## KrissyFair (Jul 8, 2013)

So... I'm sorry this might be a bit of a ranty post. Yesterday guys came to flush the storm drain in front of our house. And they came to the door asking if they could look at the man hole in my backyard. The what? There's no manhole. I phoned my husband to ask if perhaps I'm losing my mind and there really is a manhole, but he laughed because the idea was so preposterous. 

Today the guys are back again and DH went out to chat. Oh ya. There really is a manhole. Buried about 4 feet underground, just behind the corner of our garage. The garage which apparently is built smack on top of an 18 inch storm sewer line - which is cracked - and that we now suspect was illegally built.

But on top of all of this there is clearly an easement, several feet wide on our already narrow property. And none of this was found by our lawyer. Is anyone familiar with this kind of thing? What our obligations are now? And is there any recourse for us since we did our due diligence but it wasn't disclosed - or found by the lawyer?

And if anyone can remind why people think home ownership is a good idea... that would be good too.


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## MRT (Apr 8, 2013)

Your lawyer is responsible for certifying clear title for you when you purchased the property (and for your mortgage lender if/when you obtained a mortgage), including identifying any easements, rights of way, etc. 

Usually they will obtain title insurance for you (unless there is a current and valid survey). Title insurance is supposed to cover any 'defects' of title (which is what appears to be the case with an unregistered easement, if that is the case here).

There could be several reasons why this happened (and not necessarily the fault of your lawyer). The easement may never have been registered, or if it is an older property, Land Titles may have failed to carry over the easement when switching over from the old Registry system. Hard to say without seeing a title search and the easement documents.

Definitely call your lawyer.


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

Not to defend lawyers, but:
1. There may be a registered easement, but lawyer was under the impression owners were aware of it (lots of properties have easements - that's why you usually want a copy of a survey before you buy); or,
2. The easement may have been there, but lawyer was unaware a garage had been built on it, because buyer didn't tell him or ask for an up-to-date survey (lawyers don't usually go out and conduct surveys or inspect homes for their clients);
3. There may have been a survey plan showing the easement, but buyer was not capable of reading a site plan to understand what it meant.

Anyway, I agree start with asking the lawyer. But this could also involve the real estate agents, municipality, seller, and buyer. There could be plenty of blame to go around. (The garage on top of the easement certainly suggests either a building constructed without municipal approval, or an error by the municipality in approving it. This is the first question - was it approved, by whom, and when. The second, separate question is why wasn't it discovered at the time of sale.)


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## Ponderling (Mar 1, 2013)

While the undisclosed easement is certianly an issue here, not all are.

In the 50's and 60's it was common to service lots with rear yard overhead or undergrond eleoctric and telephone utilities. As 60s turned to 70's this became less common, yet there are still a lot of old rear yard easements for Bell, etc. 

I have a Bell easement on the back of my property. It actually has sets of abandon buried ducts and cables in it. In thoery Bell could come back and run new wires through it, but now that they service from the front lot that would be quite an unusal move. I built my shed partially on the easement, but only did that after getting locates for digging posts, and the all clear from the Bell locator.


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

Did you get a survey done when you bought house? I would have thought it was the survey's job to check the Registry Office for this sort of stuff, not the lawyer.
But I may be mistaken...


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