Creating an exception to the 40-year recording requirement for recorded access easements

What it does

Summary by the Legislative Reference Bureau, the Legislature's nonpartisan drafting office. It's their wording, not ours.

Current law generally bars actions affecting title to real estate that are based on instruments executed or recorded more than 30 years prior to the commencement of the action unless an instrument expressly referring to the existence of the claim or defense has been recorded in the office of the register of deeds of the county where the real estate is located within 30 years after the execution or recording of the original instrument and within each successive 30-year period thereafter. Under current law, the recording requirement for recorded easements and covenants restricting the use of real estate is 40 years, rather than 30 years. Current law provides a number of exceptions to these limitation periods. For example, the recording requirement does not apply to a conservation easement or to any interest in real estate owned by a railroad corporation, public service corporation, or the state.

This bill creates an additional exception to the recording requirement for an easement that is set forth in a recorded instrument and that allows a person to travel across another's land to reach a location or for another specified purpose (access easement). In other words, under the bill, an action to enforce an access easement is not barred based on the failure to record the access easement within a certain period of time.

Who's behind it

3 senators are its authors⁠. All 3 are Republicans.

8 more lawmakers signed on in support⁠.

Versions and amendments

Every text the Legislature printed for this bill, including proposed changes. Each opens on the Legislature's site.

• Amendment Histories
• LC Amendment Memo