Easements are the landmines of Colorado land sales. A buyer's title company pulls the commitment, Schedule B-2 lists seven easements you didn't know existed, and suddenly the deal is on hold. Colorado law allows nine different ways an easement can attach to land — express grant, reservation, implication, necessity, estoppel, prescription, condemnation, conservation, and statutory — and each one gets treated differently. This page walks through what each type actually means and how we buy land with complicated easement situations. Call 970-478-1022 and we'll review your commitment.
An easement is a non-possessory right to use someone else's land. Colorado recognizes easements under common law and several statutory frameworks. C.R.S. § 38-30-103 requires easements to be in writing and recorded to be enforceable against subsequent purchasers (with major exceptions for prescriptive and necessity easements).
If your parcel sits behind another parcel, you probably have an access easement recorded in the chain. If not, you may have an implied or necessity easement under Colorado case law (Bromley v. Lambert, Proper v. Greager). "Landlocked" parcels with no recorded access are a huge value drag.
Power, phone, and pipeline easements are common on rural Colorado parcels. They are typically 10-30 feet wide and run along parcel boundaries or across the center. Xcel Energy, Tri-State, and Black Hills Energy all hold thousands of Colorado easements.
Conservation easements permanently limit development in exchange for a tax credit. They run with the land forever. Most Colorado conservation easements were put in place between 2003-2010 during the peak of the state tax credit program. If your land has one, future development is off the table and value is permanently reduced.
Under Colorado's 18-year adverse possession statute (C.R.S. § 38-41-101), continuous, open, adverse use can create a permanent easement. Neighbor's driveway crossing your land for 20 years? They may have a prescriptive right. This scares buyers badly.
If a parcel is completely landlocked and once shared ownership with adjacent land, Colorado courts will sometimes impose an easement by necessity (Thompson v. Whinnery case law). But the process is litigation-heavy.
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Fremont County, 40 acres, conservation easement. Owner put a conservation easement on the land in 2007 in exchange for a state tax credit. They now wanted to sell but development was permanently off the table. We bought for recreational/grazing value, closed in 18 days.
Park County, 5 acres, shared driveway easement. Three parcels shared a single dirt access. Title commitment showed 4 overlapping grants from different dates. We closed as-is and inherited the shared-road headache ourselves.
Weld County, 80 acres, pipeline easement with ongoing royalty. A natural gas pipeline crossed the property with a $2,400/year easement payment. We bought the land and the payment stream as a package.
Saguache County, 160 acres, prescriptive easement dispute. Neighbor had been driving across the back corner for 25 years. Owner threatened to sue, then gave up. We bought the parcel as-is with the existing use in place.
Related: raw land, agricultural land, mountain land.
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Get answers to common questions about selling your land
Yes. Easements don't prevent sale — they just travel with the land. The buyer takes subject to the existing easements. We buy parcels with any number of easements and price the offer based on the post-easement buildable area and allowed uses.
A voluntary, perpetual restriction under C.R.S. § 38-30.5-101 that limits development in exchange for a tax credit. It runs with the land forever and is held by a qualified land trust or government entity. Can cut development value to near zero.
Order a title commitment or current owner search from a title company (typically $150-$400). Schedule B-2 will list every recorded easement. Unrecorded prescriptive easements may not show up and require walking the property.
An unwritten easement created by 18 years of open, notorious, adverse, continuous use under C.R.S. § 38-41-101. Classic example: a neighbor's driveway crossing your land for decades. These are real but require litigation to formally establish.
Usually modestly, unless they cross the center of a small parcel. A 20-foot powerline easement along the back fence of 40 acres is minimal. A pipeline easement bisecting a 5-acre lot is a major value hit. Location matters more than existence.
Only with the written release of the easement holder recorded at the county clerk. Easements don't expire automatically. You can sometimes extinguish by merger (same owner owns both parcels) or by proving abandonment, but abandonment is a high legal bar.
Landlocked parcels have minimal value until access is secured. Colorado courts may impose an easement by necessity if the parcel shared ownership with adjacent land historically — but litigation is required. We buy landlocked parcels as-is at discounted prices.
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