Possible Easement Issue

[Jon Mason]

I purchased a rental property in 2018 that was a totally normal real estate transaction with no existing easements or irregularities mentioned.

During the reno I found out that back in the 50's when the house was built, the city (presumably) had run the sewer line out of my back yard and tied it in with our neighbor's sewer line, and then run it out to the main line on a side street, rather than running each sewer line up to the main at the street our address is on. (i.e. I'm one lot away from a corner lot, and our sewer runs through the corner lot to hit the side street.)

Anyway, a while back I had messaged the owner of the house next door to introduce myself, and just last night he replied to my message basically saying our sewer line runs through his property and he never gave us an easement to do that, nor does he know of one that exists. I'm fairly certain both houses and their respective sewer lines were in place prior to either of us owning these houses, but I have a very limited knowledge of how all that works legally.

Googling this scenario was unsuccessful. Any recommendations on how I should proceed in the event that this guy decides to try and be a headache?

[John Livingston Bullier]

Oh boy, I wish I was LESS qualified to give advice on this topic, but unfortunately I've dealt with shared sewer lines, unrecorded easements, etc. on at least 6 occasions (one of which I'm currently dealing with). Is there a reason why it's become an issue right now? Or is it just something you've now been made aware of?

One problem is that sewer line easements are unlikely to show up on the preliminary title report of the property they benefit. The reason is that the easement does not encumber that property, it encumbers the property it runs across. It benefits you, for sure, but the prelim and title insurance policy is meant to detect and protect against title encumbrances only.

Your neighbor would have seen the easement in HIS title insurance policy, but if you have any doubts he's being truthful you can always ask the title company that wrote your policy to look into. Any title company can do it though. It costs me anywhere from $0-350 in Portland, OR.

If there is no recorded easement, and you want there to be, then I would try to get an easement recorded with the neighbor. Maybe offer to contribute towards the cost of replacing their section of line. If he doesn't agree then I would look into your states law's surrounding prescriptive acquisition of an easement. Here is a link to a Quick summary.