Land Use & Property Rights
Easements, access & landlocked land
Getting to your land starts with easements and recorded access. This page covers common types, the 30-foot road myth, and landlocked land.
Start here
What an easement is
An easement is a legal right for someone to use part of your land for a set purpose — a power line, a shared driveway, a neighbor's access. Many easements are 'appurtenant' and stay with the land when it sells, but some are personal, temporary, limited, or can be terminated — so don't assume every easement runs with the land forever.
Four kinds
Easements come in different forms
Some are written down and easy to find. Others can exist without a single piece of paper. The type tells you how hard it may be to spot, and how solid it may be.
- Express easement
- Written down and usually recorded — the cleanest kind to find and read.
- Easement by necessity
- Created when a parcel would otherwise be landlocked.
- Prescriptive easement
- Earned by open, continuous use for the legal period — like adverse possession, but for a use rather than ownership.
- Implied easement
- Inferred from how the land was used and divided, even without a written grant.
A myth worth correcting
The "30-foot road" rule isn't what people think
A common myth: that every undocumented 'public road' is automatically a 30-foot strip, 15 feet from the centerline. Not so. RSMo 229.010 says roads established under it must be at least 30 feet wide — it does not turn every old road into a guaranteed 30-foot strip. The real width and location depend on deeds, plats, county-court road orders, dedication, prescription, maintenance history, and MoDOT or county records. Before you build or fence near a road, check with the road authority and get a survey.
Easement checklist
Before you rely on an easement, pin down…
- Exactly where it runs, and how wide it is.
- Its purpose — and whether the use can expand beyond that.
- Who is allowed to use it.
- Who maintains it, and who pays.
- Whether there are gate rights, and who controls the gate.
- How it handles drainage and utilities.
- Whether it can be relocated, and by whom.
- Whether it's exclusive or shared.
- How and when it can be terminated.
- Whether it shows up in the title work, or could be an unrecorded implied/prescriptive right a title search may miss.
- For a shared private road: get a WRITTEN road-maintenance agreement before you buy — 'everyone's always chipped in' is not a plan.
Access before a purchase
Landlocked land
If your land has no legal way in or out, you don't just 'petition the county.' A landlocked owner petitions the CIRCUIT COURT to establish or widen a private road of strict necessity (RSMo Chapter 228, e.g., 228.342). The affected neighbors become parties to the case, and the route and compensation are decided through the lawsuit — relief is not automatic. The lesson for buyers: confirm RECORDED legal access before you buy, not just a dirt track someone has been using.
When a big project comes through
Transmission lines and pipelines
Big transmission lines and pipelines (like the Grain Belt Express) can hold condemnation power to force an easement across your land — with compensation. See Eminent domain & your protections.
If you're facing one of these, read eminent domain & your protections next — it covers notice, compensation, and why you should not sign first.
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