How to tell if a parcel is landlocked

When evaluating the attractiveness of a piece of land, one important feature is whether or not it has access.  Is it possible to legally put your feet on it?  Or, as buyers have asked me a thousand times “would I have to take a helicopter to get to it?”

Many cities and counties will not allow construction on a parcel that lacks access.  Also, lenders may refuse to write loans to purchase or build on landlocked property.  Landlocked parcels have less value compared to parcels with access.  For this reason, sellers will want to determine if a parcel is landlocked when pricing it, and buyers want to understand the access situation when deciding whether or not to purchase it.

First, just what is access?

The most important thing to know about access is that there are two kinds:  physical access and legal access.  They are two different things.  The fact that you can see a dirt road with your eyes does not mean that you have legal access.  Further, even with legal access, there might be no visible road.

When a parcel has physical access, it is possible to drive in a car (or maybe a 4WD) on a paved or dirt road to reach the edge of the land.

When a parcel has legal access, this means that it is adjacent to an official street or there is a recorded easement across the neighbor’s private land for ingress and egress.

A parcel might have physical access but no legal access.  That is, you can drive to the land on a “road,” but the road is unofficial, and you are technically trespassing on private property when you do that.

A parcel might have legal access but no physical access.  This occurs when there is a recorded easement for ingress and egress, but no one has put in a driveway or road yet.  The access is on paper but not visible in the real world.

A parcel might have both physical and legal access.  For example, the home you are living in almost certainly has both.

A parcel might have no physical access and no legal access.  This means there is no visible road to the property, and there is no recorded easement allowing access.

What is a landlocked parcel?

Legal access is more critical than physical access. So, I focus on that. When describing access to buyers, I use the word “landlocked” to mean a parcel with no legal access for ingress and egress. If the terrain allows, you can always bulldoze a road if you have legal access.

Other Realtors and attorneys might use the word “landlocked” differently. This variation in usage makes understanding access confusing for buyers and sellers.

My super practical approach to evaluating access

In my many years as a land broker, I have noticed that two main access-related things affect a buyer’s willingness to buy a parcel of land: 1) whether there is a physical path to the property and 2) whether the title company will insure for access. Buyers care only about these two things, and since I want to sell the land, these are the two things I care about.

When assessing physical access, I use my eyes. I view the land in person. If I see a passable “road” leading to the land, then there is physical access. Or, I view the land on my computer using aerial maps. I look for what appears to be a path going to the land. Sometimes, using Google Street View or changing the view to 3D in Google Maps can help me see “roads” hidden by the trees.

To assess legal access, I order a title report. The report will indicate whether or not the title company will insure for access. I base my judgment about legal access on the title report because that’s what buyers will do. Buyers tend to be black-and-white in their thinking. Either the title company, a trusted information source, says they will insure for access, or the title company says they will not insure for access. If the title company says “no access,” buyers will inevitably fret about this. Then, either they will not purchase the land, or it will affect the price they will pay.

Sometimes, when a title company says they will not insure for access, sellers will try to convince buyers with nuanced arguments. Sellers will say they have a right to an “easement by implication” or an “easement by necessity.” Or, sellers might say they have an unrecorded “prescriptive easement.”

Sellers need to realize that a typical buyer will not be too impressed with such reasoning when a title company tells them they won’t insure for access. When there is no recorded easement, the buyer has no assurance that the neighbor won’t dispute whether it exists, where it exists, how wide it is, how they can use it, or who is responsible for maintaining it. The seller’s arguments are just words; words will not prevent a neighbor from putting up a locked gate or building a garage, blocking access and creating conflict. Even if the current neighbor is friendly and allows unrecorded access, buyers realize that the adjacent property could change hands to an unfriendly neighbor who will not allow access. Buyers understand that if there is a dispute with a neighbor, they will probably have to hire an attorney. Attorneys are expensive, and the outcome of legal action is uncertain.

Since there are other parcels buyers can purchase in the same area with easy access, they generally decide they don’t want the land enough to mess around with it. In short, buyers paying a premium for the land want to see current legal access — a road or an easement recorded with the county and a title report saying the title company will insure for access.

The good news for sellers is that landlocked parcels are saleable at some price. I mention buyers’ black-and-white thinking about access because a wise seller will want to consider buyers’ attitudes when pricing their land: If the title company will insure for access, price it higher. If the title company won’t insure for access, price it lower. If they want to sell their land, owners must adhere to these simple rules because buyers will instinctively follow them in deciding whether to buy. Buyer demand should affect seller pricing.

So, this explains why I use the expression “legal access” in a simplistic fashion to mean having a road or a recorded easement and “landlocked” as having “no legal access.” I’m talking right now, not what the buyer might arrange after a legal battle with the neighbor. Realtors sell land “as is, where is”.

If you own a landlocked parcel and want to know whether you would have the legal right to obtain access in the future, that’s a different question. Buyers won’t care, so Realtors can’t get into the weeds with you on that. Direct those questions to an attorney.

Three things you can do to tell if a parcel is landlocked

1. Study the plat map

The plat map shows the separate lots in a tract of land. Locate the parcel on the map. Does the map show a road running to it or alongside it? If so, there is probably legal access.

Note that I recommend studying a plat map, not an aerial map or Google map. Aerial maps may show you physical access, e.g., a dirt path leading to the land. But, as explained before, physical access may or may not be legal access. Google Maps shows named streets, but occasionally, a street with a name in Google will not be an official street. For these reasons, focus on the official black-and-white plat map.

2. Order a title report

When I doubt access, ordering a title report is the easiest way to get information. Title companies typically insure for “marketable access.” Marketable access is usually consistent with legal access. The title company will almost always insure for (marketable) access if there is legal access. If there is no legal access, they will not insure for access.

If the title company declines to insure for access, an item in the “exceptions” section of the title report will say something like “Lack of right of access to and from the land.” There, you have your answer.

If the title company decides to insure for access, this item will be absent from the title report. The title report will remain silent on the subject and not mention access in the exceptions section. For example, if the parcel is on a paved street, the title company will likely insure for access, but no paragraph will say, “We will insure for access because it’s on an official street.”

To summarize, a title report mentioning “no access” is bad news, while a report saying nothing about access is good news.

Note that title companies sometimes make mistakes. There have been times that I was confident there was legal access, and the title company has declined to insure for access. Conversely, there have been times when I was sure there was no access, and the title company has indicated that they would insure for access. If this happens to you, point out the possible error to the title company. For example, if you observe a physical road and they say they won’t insure for access, send the title company photos of the road and ask them to reconsider the access question.

3. Order a map of plotted easements

Title reports will include recorded easements. However, sometimes it’s hard to visualize their location. So, ask the title company to prepare a map of plotted easements. These helpful maps are usually color-coded. Here is an example:

Not all easements are for access. Further, an easement recorded on the parcel will not help you get to it. So, when ordering a map of plotted easements, tell the title company that you want them to plot any easements on the property and the easements leading to it. Tell them that your goal is to understand access. The reason it’s important to specify this is because the access easement will be recorded on the neighbor’s land, not the land for sale, and the title company might overlook it if you don’t explicitly ask to see it.

More things to be aware of when evaluating access

A road is not always a road.

Realtors often mention “roads” in their marketing. For example, they might write in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) something like “turn off of Hwy 101 onto the dirt road going the land.” It would be a mistake for buyers to assume that this dirt “road” is an official street sanctioned by the city or county and that the parcel has legal access. Sometimes, this will be the case. Sometimes it won’t.

In all likelihood, the Realtor observed a physical access road and has yet to check whether it is a legal access road, a recorded easement, or just a well-worn dirt path crossing private property. Realtors usually describe what they see with their eyes, i.e., physical access.

Smart buyers will look into whether the access is legal. They will ask the title company, city, or county (not the seller or Realtor).

Sometimes, a road is a road, but it’s not enough of a road.

Occasionally, you will find a property with a road; you can see it with your eyes, and the title company even states that they will insure for access; however, the municipality still won’t let you build! The road, while suitable access for a Mini Cooper, is too wimpy to allow big construction equipment and emergency vehicles such as fire trucks.

Once, I was listing a residential parcel in a Los Angeles neighborhood with existing homes crammed together, crawling up the hills in search of light and air. The lot I was selling had a paved official city road going right past it, next to the land, and winding up the hill. I could drive right up to the lot in my car, and the title company said they would insure for access.

The parcel had legal and physical access. The city, however, would not allow construction due to the road. Why? Because the road was too narrow to accommodate emergency vehicles. Complicating the situation, historic homes on this street were built so close to the road that the street could not be widened without slicing off part of someone’s living room. From this experience, I learned that sometimes a road offers legal and physical access, so a parcel is technically not landlocked, but the road is still insufficient to build.

Street signs do not always mark true roads.

If the street sign looks official, it almost certainly marks an actual street. Occasionally, however, you will see a handmade sign.  A person who lives out there went into their workshop, created a sign, and pounded it into the ground.  Sometimes a handmade sign does, in fact, mark a legal street.  Other times, the locals just adopted a name for an unofficial road and posted their own sign.  If the road is not official, that can mean no legal access.  So look into it to see which it is.

Some streets are made of paper.

Sometimes, a named street will appear in black and white on the plat map. The parcel might even have a street address, e.g., 98765 Sunny Valley Rd. Yet, you will see no street when you visit the land in person. No paved street, no gravel street, and no dirt path. Nothing.

You might have legal access on paper, but you must develop the entire street to city or county standards to build. The street is a “paper street.” It exists on the paper plat map but not in the real world.

Street signs do not always mark official roads.

If the street sign looks official, it almost certainly marks an actual street. Occasionally, however, you will see a handmade sign. A person living nearby went into their workshop, created a sign, and pounded it into the ground. Sometimes, a handmade sign does mark a legal street. Other times, the locals just adopted a name for an unofficial road and posted their own sign. If the road is not official, that can mean no legal access. So look into it to see which it is.

Sometimes, even a street does not mean access.

Once in a while, a parcel will be directly next to a street or highway, and yet there is still no adequate access for ingress and egress! This is especially common when the artery is a major thoroughfare, like a highway or four-lane road. Cars stream by the land at a high rate of speed. The transportation authority might not allow anyone to install a driveway off the major artery onto the land because it could create a traffic hazard.

Sometimes, the city/county/transportation authority will grant special permission after a review process. However, until they grant authorization, the parcel is effectively landlocked, even though it is next to an artery.

Locked gates can matter.

A few years ago, I was selling privately owned land near a city water supply. A big community water holding tank was at the top of a hill. A dirt-access road led from an official paved street to the water tank and went through the land I was selling. This dirt access road appeared on the tax assessor’s plat map and so seemed to be legal access. However, the city had placed a locked gate adjacent to the paved road, blocking the entrance to the dirt road leading to my client’s land and the water supply. The city would not give my client, the seller, a key.

A buyer for this parcel wanted to determine if there was legal access. To get an answer, I asked the title company if they would insure for access. I emailed the title company a photo of the access road and locked gate. I thought they would see the road on the plat map, see the same road in the photo, and insure for access. Surprisingly, the title company said no! The gate, locked by the city, was the reason.

The buyer, aware of all this, bought it anyway. Then, he hired an attorney to take the city to court because they were impeding access to his land. Once the buyer receives access through the gate, the title company will insure for access, and the land will be worth much more.

“No trespassing” signs do not always mean there is no legal access

When listing a parcel for sale with a recorded easement for access, I sometimes drive up to the land only to discover a “No Trespassing” sign. Typically, the sign was posted by a neighbor who lives in a house nearby. The neighbor’s house is surrounded by vacant land. The neighbor doesn’t own the surrounding parcels, but he figures that there’s no good reason for anyone to be sniffing about near his home.

It is common for neighbors to treat land near their house like they own it, even when they don’t. Few people understand the concept of an easement, and the neighbor may be unaware that there is one. So, the bottom line for a potential buyer in this situation is yes, there is an easement, but no, the neighbor will not be happy to learn about it. Also, in general, no, the seller does not know the neighbor, and no, the seller will not talk to the neighbor about access and removing his sign. Buyers who encounter no trespassing signs should expect to have some work in front of them communicating with the neighbor and will want to consider this when deciding whether to purchase.

Conclusion

Determining access is usually straightforward. Most of the time, you can look at the plat map and order a title report, and you will have your answer. Other times, understanding access can be tricky. Sellers should consider ease of access when pricing their land, and buyers should investigate access thoroughly before purchasing.