A property owner in Tremont once called our office about a chain link fence. His neighbor had put it up along what he thought was his own side yard. Turned out, part of that yard was covered by an old alley easement neither of them knew existed. Nobody was wrong on purpose. The city just never got around to updating old records after the alley stopped being used for deliveries back in the 1950s.
Stories like this show up more often in Cleveland than most people expect. Easements hide in plain sight, and an ALTA survey is one of the few tools built to find them before they turn into a real problem.
Cleveland’s Platting History Left More Easements Undocumented Than Most Buyers Expect
Cleveland grew fast in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Neighborhoods like Ohio City, Tremont, and Slavic Village were platted block by block, often by different developers working at different times. Recording standards back then were loose compared to today.
Alleys were common. So were shared paths between houses, informal rights of way for coal deliveries, and utility lines run wherever made sense at the time. Many of these arrangements were never recorded. They just became a habit. Over enough years, habit can turn into a legal easement, even without a signed document behind it.
This matters more for older properties than for newer suburbs. A modern subdivision usually has one clean recorded plat. A city block that’s been divided and redivided since 1910 might not.
An ALTA survey is built to catch this gap. It combines a title search with an actual walk of the property. The surveyor looks for what’s really there: worn paths, old fence lines, utility poles, gravel drives, and anything that suggests someone besides the owner has been using part of the land for a long time.
Recorded vs. Real: How an ALTA Survey Reconciles the Title Commitment With What’s Actually on the Ground
A title commitment tells you what’s on paper. It lists recorded easements, liens, and other claims tied to the property. But paper and ground don’t always line up.
Here’s a common scenario during an ALTA survey.The title commitment shows no shared access easement. The surveyor walks the site and finds a gravel driveway running along the property line, clearly used by both the subject property and the neighbor for years. That’s a mismatch. It doesn’t mean anyone did anything wrong. It means the real use of the land moved faster than the county’s records.
Catching this before closing matters. If a buyer only reads the title commitment, they might miss a shared drive, a fence three feet off the line, or a water line running under someone else’s yard. The survey shows both sides of the story: what the deed says and what the ground actually shows.
Lenders and title companies want this reconciliation done before loan funds. It keeps the deal safe from surprises that surface after closing, when they’re much harder and more expensive to fix.
When a Utility or Alley Easement Cuts Through a Building Footprint
Older commercial buildings sometimes sit closer to their lot lines than modern zoning would allow today. Add a utility or alley easement running through part of that footprint, and things get complicated fast.
This shows up more in neighborhoods like Detroit-Shoreway and the near West Side, where mixed-use buildings went up close together decades ago. A building might have been built partly over a recorded utility easement. An old alley right of way might still legally exist, even though the alley itself got paved over or built on years back.
For an owner planning a renovation or expansion, this is a real headache. A city permit office may deny work that touches an easement area. A bank may pause a refinance until the conflict gets sorted out. An ALTA survey shows exactly where these lines fall against the building, so an owner knows before spending money on plans that might not hold up.
Shared Driveways and Party Walls in Older Neighborhoods
Walk through almost any pre-war neighborhood and you’ll find shared driveways splitting two lots down the middle. You’ll also find party walls, where one wall serves two separate buildings standing side by side.
These setups were common and practical when the blocks were built. Land was tight, and builders shared what they could. But shared use raises questions decades later. Who takes care of the driveway? Who pays if the party wall needs repair? Who has the right to park where?
An ALTA survey maps these features clearly. It shows the exact spot of the shared drive and where the party wall sits against each property line. That clarity helps neighbors avoid arguments. It also helps buyers understand exactly what they’re taking on before they sign anything.
How Lenders and Title Companies Actually Use Easement Findings on an ALTA Survey
Once a surveyor finds an easement issue, it doesn’t just sit in a report and gather dust. Lenders and title companies act on it.
A title insurer might remove certain exceptions from a policy once the survey confirms an easement’s exact location and impact. Or they might add a specific endorsement that spells out coverage for that easement. A lender reviewing a commercial loan might ask for a revised site plan. They might require written confirmation from a utility company about access rights before they close.
In short, the survey gives everyone in the deal a clear picture to react to. Without it, these decisions get made off guesswork or old records that may not match reality anymore.
