Easements on Davie Acreage: What Buyers Must Verify
What easements are on a Davie acreage property, and how do you find them?
Most Davie acreage parcels carry at least one recorded easement, usually a drainage easement along a canal, a utility easement near the road, or an access easement across a private drive. You find them by reading the title commitment Schedule B-II against a current survey and pulling the recorded plat from the Broward County Property Appraiser. An easement runs with the land, survives the sale, and can decide where you are allowed to put a barn, pool, or fence.
An easement is a recorded right that lets someone else use part of your land for a specific purpose. You still own the ground. You just cannot use it in any way that blocks the purpose the easement protects. On a quarter acre in a gated community that rarely changes your plans. On a one to five acre parcel in western Davie, where you bought the land precisely so you could add a barn, a paddock, a workshop, or a pool, an easement in the wrong spot can quietly erase the exact use you paid for.
This is one of the questions I walk acreage buyers through before they ever waive inspection. The listing photos never show the easement. The survey does.
The three easements that matter most on Davie acreage
On western Davie acreage, in the Long Lake Ranches (33330) and Hawkes Bluff (33330) corridor and the broader 33330 acreage belt, three types come up again and again.
Drainage easements. Western Davie sits in a managed water system. Canals move stormwater across the region, and the land next to them is reserved so the water district and the town can maintain flow. The South Florida Water Management District holds right of way along roughly 2,100 miles of canals, and the rule near a canal embankment is blunt: the strip must stay clear of trees, shrubs, fences, and other objects that get in the way of access. The Town of Davie records its own drainage easements that dedicate part of a lot to stormwater and bar permanent structures, fences, and paving that would slow the water down. If a canal runs along the back of the parcel you are buying, assume a maintenance strip behind it is spoken for until you confirm otherwise.
Utility easements. Power, water, cable, and telephone lines run through recorded corridors, often along the front or a side property line. You can usually keep grass, and sometimes a fence with permission, but sheds, additions, and pools are generally out. A utility easement is the classic reason a buyer discovers the pool has to move.
Access and ingress egress easements. Interior acreage parcels are sometimes reached by a shared private drive rather than a public road frontage. Florida law recognizes a statutory way of necessity: under Florida Statute 704.01, an owner of landlocked land used or intended for a home, agriculture, timber, or raising stock has the right to an access easement to the nearest practicable road, with compensation to the neighbor whose land it crosses. That statute is a backstop, not a plan. If your access depends on crossing someone else’s land, you want the easement recorded and clear before closing, not litigated after.
How to find every easement before you close
You have the inspection and title period to run this down. Treat it as a checklist, not a hope.
1. Order a current survey. A boundary or ALTA survey plots the parcel lines and draws in the recorded easements. A survey costs more on large acreage than on a small lot, so get a quote before you order, but on acreage it is not optional. The survey is what turns a line in a legal document into a shape on your land.
2. Read Schedule B-II of the title commitment. This is the section of the title commitment that lists what the owner’s policy will not insure, and recorded easements live here. Read every exception. Match each one to the survey so you know exactly where it sits.
3. Pull the recorded plat. Start at the Broward County Property Appraiser for the parcel folio and legal description, then find the plat. Platted utility and drainage easements are drawn right on it.
4. Search the official records. Recorded easements, road maintenance agreements, and covenants are searchable through Broward County official records for documents from 1978 forward. Older acreage may have easements recorded before then, which the county retrieves through its copy services.
5. Confirm the governing drainage district. Some Davie parcels drain under the water management district, some under a local drainage district, and the permit rules differ. Confirm which one governs your exact folio, because that office is who says yes or no to a fence or structure near the canal.
Every step here produces a document. Keep them. The moment you want to add a barn or a pool, the survey and the recorded easements are the first thing the permit office asks for.
What an easement actually stops you from building
The practical question on acreage is always the same: can I build what I came here to build. An easement answers it before the town does.
Inside a drainage or canal maintenance easement, plan on no permanent structures, and often no fences, no sheds, and no paving. A utility easement usually blocks a pool, an addition, or an outbuilding in its footprint. Anything you do want to place in a water district right of way, a fence, a dock, landscaping, a gazebo, a shed, generally requires a permit from that district first, and some encroachments simply will not be approved.
None of this makes a parcel a bad buy. Plenty of Davie acreage carries easements along a rear canal or a side line and still leaves a wide, clean building envelope. The point is to know the envelope before you close, not after you have paid an architect to design a barn that lands on top of a drainage easement. Every situation is different, and the only way to know for sure is to read the survey and the recorded easements on that specific parcel.
This is exactly the kind of read that separates a specialist from a generalist on Davie acreage. You can find the listing yourself. What you cannot pull up online is where every easement sits and what it does to your plans.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a drainage easement on a Davie acreage lot mean I cannot build a barn?
Not across the whole parcel, only inside the easement. A drainage or canal maintenance easement usually bars permanent structures, and often fences and paving, within its recorded boundary. Your barn has to sit outside that strip and outside any required setback. Confirm the exact width and location against a current survey before you design anything.
Do easements transfer when I buy the property?
Yes. A recorded easement runs with the land and survives every sale, so you take the property subject to it whether or not the seller mentions it. That is why you read Schedule B-II of the title commitment and match it to the survey during your inspection period, rather than trusting that a prior owner cleared anything.
How do I find easements on a Davie property before closing?
Order a boundary or ALTA survey, read Schedule B-II of the title commitment, and pull the recorded plat and official records through the Broward County Property Appraiser and Broward County official records. The survey shows where each easement sits, and the title commitment and plat show what it is and who holds it.
Can I put a fence or shed in a canal easement in western Davie?
Usually not without a permit, and sometimes not at all. Land next to a canal embankment is kept clear so the water district can maintain it, and fences, sheds, docks, and landscaping in that right of way generally need a district permit first. Confirm which drainage district governs the parcel and ask that office before you plan anything near the canal.
What if my Davie acreage is only reachable by a private drive?
You want the access easement recorded and clear before you close. Florida Statute 704.01 recognizes a statutory way of necessity for landlocked land used for a home or agriculture, but relying on the statute means relying on a process rather than a clean recorded right. Have the title company confirm your access is documented, not assumed.
Talk to a Davie Real Estate Expert
Buying acreage in Davie is a different diligence problem than buying inside a gated community, and the easements are where the surprises hide. If you are looking at a parcel in the 33330 acreage corridor or anywhere in western Davie, the best next step is a direct conversation about what that specific survey and title commitment are telling you. Schedule a strategy call and walk through it before you write the offer.
Anthony Spitaleri
Living in Davie Florida
954-235-5783
Davie, Florida
livingindavieflorida.com
Written by Anthony Spitaleri, Broker Associate with Coldwell Banker and a Davie native. More about Anthony
