Easement survey: cost, utility and property easement surveyors
An easement survey is a licensed surveyor's drawing that plots every recorded easement crossing your parcel and shows the exact location and width of each utility, drainage, access and right-of-way strip on the ground. It answers a question a title report cannot: your title commitment only lists that easements exist, and a county GIS map does not show them at all, but the survey ties each one to your actual boundary and structures. A standalone easement survey typically costs $500 to $1,200 on a residential lot, or is folded into a boundary survey for less than ordering both separately. Most take one to two weeks.
Licensed · insured · verified pros Free for clients Last updated July 2026
Traverse
3 matched · licensed in · near
·
$2M insured ★ () mi
est. quote ·
Free for clients · You choose who to talk to
What does an easement survey show?
An easement is a recorded right that lets someone other than you use a defined strip of your land for a specific purpose: a utility company running a sewer or power line, a neighbor crossing to reach a landlocked parcel, a municipality maintaining a drainage swale. An easement survey is the drawing that takes those rights off the page and puts them on the ground. A licensed surveyor pulls every easement document referenced in your deed and title work, then measures and plots each one on a map of your parcel, showing where it runs, how wide it is, and what it sits over or under.
The reason this is a distinct product is that the documents most buyers already have do not locate anything. Your title commitment lists easements in Schedule B, the exceptions the title insurer will not cover, but it does no more than name them: a deed book and page, a purpose, sometimes a width, almost never a position relative to your house. A county GIS parcel map does not show easements at all. So a lot can carry three utility easements, a shared driveway easement and a drainage easement, all perfectly valid, and none of them visible until a surveyor draws them against your boundary and your buildings.
Surveyors sort easements two ways, and both belong on the drawing. An appurtenant easement benefits a neighboring parcel, like a shared access drive; an easement in gross benefits a company or agency, like a utility corridor, and runs with the infrastructure rather than the land. On the map you will see each one hatched or shaded as an "easement line," labeled with its recording reference, its width, and often the utility or party it serves. That is the deliverable a lender, a builder, a title company or a buyer actually uses.
Does a survey show easements when your title report already lists them?
People assume the title commitment or the county map already tells them where the easements are. Here is what each document actually does. Only the survey locates an easement on the ground.
| Title commitment (Schedule B) | County GIS parcel map | Easement survey | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lists the recorded easements that exist | Yes | No | Yes |
| Locates each easement on the ground | No | No | Yes |
| Shows the width of each easement | Rarely | No | Yes |
| Ties easements to your boundary and buildings | No | No | Yes |
| Flags a blanket easement over the whole parcel | No | No | Yes |
| Shows visible utilities and access on the ground | No | No | Yes |
| Sealed and defensible for a permit or dispute | No | No | Yes |
The title report and the survey work together: the title search finds the paper, the surveyor puts it on the map. If you are ordering a survey anyway, ask the surveyor to plot the Schedule B easements while they are on site, which usually costs far less than a separate visit. Full pricing for every survey type is in the land survey cost guide.
How much does an easement survey cost?
Price tracks how much record research the easements need, how many there are, and whether you also need the utilities located on the ground. These are the ranges licensed US surveyors quote in 2026.
| Scope | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Easement survey folded into a boundary survey, suburban lot | $450 - $900 |
| Standalone easement survey, platted lot under 0.5 acre | $500 - $1,200 |
| Add locating the utilities on the ground, not just the paper strips | add $300 - $800 |
| Rural, wooded or metes-and-bounds parcel | billed hourly, $150 - $250 per crew hour |
| Easement exhibit and legal description to create a new easement | $500 - $1,500 |
| ALTA/NSPS survey plotting all Schedule B easements (commercial) | $2,500 - $10,000 |
The cheapest way to get your easements mapped is almost never a standalone easement survey. It is a boundary survey with the easements plotted at the same time, because the surveyor is already researching the deed and measuring the parcel. Order them separately and you pay a second mobilization for the same trip.
How to get an easement survey
1.
Gather your title work and deed
The surveyor starts from the recorded documents, so hand over your deed, your title commitment or policy, and any prior survey. Schedule B of the title commitment is the master list of the easements that need to be located. The more of this you provide, the fewer research hours the surveyor bills.
2.
Tell the surveyor why you need it
Locating easements for a fence or a shed is a lighter job than a full easement exhibit for a title claim or a new construction permit. If a lender, a title company or a building department is driving the request, say so, because their format requirements decide what the sealed drawing has to contain.
3.
Hire a surveyor licensed in the state where the lot sits
Licensure does not cross state lines. Verify the license on your own state board site rather than trusting a logo, and read <a href="/blog/how-to-verify-a-land-surveyor-license" class="font-semibold text-pop hover:underline">how to verify a land surveyor license</a> if you are not sure how. A seal from a surveyor registered in another state is not valid for your parcel.
4.
Decide whether you need the utilities located
A basic easement survey plots the recorded strips from the documents. If you need to know where the pipe or cable physically runs inside its easement, that is a utility locate, an extra step and an extra fee. For anything you plan to build near, it is usually worth it.
When you need an easement survey
These are the situations where not knowing exactly where an easement runs turns into a real and expensive problem.
- You are building a garage, addition, pool, shed or fence and need to keep it clear of a utility or drainage easement
- A title commitment lists easements you cannot find or understand, and you want them located before closing
- You are buying a property and the survey turns up a blanket easement that could sit anywhere on the lot
- A neighbor is using a driveway, path or corridor across your land and you need to know the exact recorded rights
- You own a landlocked parcel and need an access easement drawn and legally described
- A utility company has asked to run a new line and you want the easement exhibit prepared correctly
- You are developing or subdividing and the plat has to show every easement of record
- A dispute has started over what an easement holder may do, and you need a sealed drawing to settle it
The easement problems a survey exists to catch, and the ones it cannot
The single most useful thing an easement survey catches is a blanket easement. A normal easement is a defined strip: ten feet along the rear line, say. A blanket easement is granted over the entire parcel, with no fixed location, and sometimes reaches beyond the boundary. Utility companies took them routinely on older subdivisions. On the drawing the surveyor will state that the easement is blanket, which tells you the utility can, in theory, require access anywhere. That is the kind of finding that changes what you can safely build, and it never shows on a GIS map.
What a record-based survey cannot always find is an easement that was never recorded. Prescriptive easements, created when someone uses a path or a driveway openly for years, and implied easements do not appear in the deed record, so they will not be on the drawing unless there is physical evidence on the ground the surveyor can note. This is why a good surveyor walks the property rather than working only from paper: a worn track, a shared driveway, or a power pole standing where no recorded easement exists are all clues that the record is incomplete.
The practical payoff is knowing what you may build and where. Easements are not setbacks, and the two get confused. A setback is a zoning distance from the property line; an easement is a use right held by someone else. Where they overlap you must satisfy whichever is more restrictive: a five-foot side setback under a ten-foot utility easement means keeping your structure ten feet back, not five. And building over an easement is its own hazard, because the holder can make you tear the structure out at your own expense to reach their infrastructure. We cover that in detail in can you build on an easement.
If your real question is simply where your corners are before you build, an easement survey is more than you need; order a property line survey and ask for the easements to be plotted on it. If you already know where the lines are and only need them marked in the field, property line marking is the cheaper job. The matcher at the top of this page returns quotes from license-verified local surveyors so you can describe the situation and let them scope the right product.
Easement survey questions
What is an easement survey?
An easement survey is a map prepared and sealed by a licensed land surveyor that plots every recorded easement crossing a parcel, showing the location, width and purpose of each utility, drainage, access and right-of-way strip. It ties those rights to the actual boundary lines and structures, which a title report and a county GIS map do not do.
Does a survey show easements?
A boundary survey shows recorded easements when the surveyor is asked to research and plot them, which is standard practice on most jobs. The surveyor locates each easement from the deed and title documents and draws it on the parcel. Unrecorded easements, like prescriptive rights, only appear if there is physical evidence on the ground.
Does a boundary survey show easements?
Usually yes. A standard boundary survey researches the deed, the recorded plat and adjoining records, and plots the easements it finds along with the boundary lines and corners. Confirm easement research is included when you order, because a bare-bones corner survey may skip it. Ask specifically for easements of record to be shown.
How much does an easement survey cost?
A standalone easement survey on a platted suburban lot runs about $500 to $1,200 in 2026. Folded into a boundary survey it adds little to the $450 to $900 boundary price, because the research overlaps. Locating the physical utilities inside their easements is an extra $300 to $800, and rural parcels are billed hourly.
What does an easement look like on a survey?
An easement appears as a hatched, shaded or dashed strip on the drawing, labeled with its width, its recording reference (a deed book and page or instrument number), and often the utility or party it serves. A blanket easement covering the whole parcel is called out in a note rather than shown as a strip, because it has no fixed location.
What is a blanket easement?
A blanket easement is granted over an entire parcel instead of a defined strip, so the holder, usually a utility, can access any part of the property. They were common on older subdivisions. Because it has no fixed boundary, a blanket easement can affect where you build anywhere on the lot, and a surveyor will flag it as blanket on the drawing.
Who pays for an easement survey?
The party who needs it pays. A buyer or owner ordering it to build or to clear a title question pays for their own survey. When a utility or a neighbor wants a new easement across your land, the party seeking the easement typically pays to have it surveyed and legally described. In a sale, who pays is negotiable in the contract.
Can an easement survey be used to remove an easement?
Not by itself. A survey documents where an easement is; it does not extinguish it. Removing or relocating an easement requires a recorded release or amendment agreed by the holder, or a court action. The survey is the evidence that supports that process, showing the easement's exact position and any conflict with your use of the land.
Related pages
Three quotes beat six voicemails
Describe the parcel once. Up to 3 license-verified, insured surveyors covering your county quote it, usually within 24 hours. Posting is free for clients and quotes are never marked up.