Easements, Deed Restrictions, and Covenants: What Luxury Buyers Should Check Before Closing in Philadelphia and South Jersey

Most buyers at the upper end of the market are buying with a plan: a pool in the back, a garage addition, an office over the carriage house, a fence for the dogs, a generator, a guest suite for family. Those plans usually survive contact with reality. Occasionally they collide with a document recorded in 1954 that nobody thought to read. Easements, deed restrictions, and restrictive covenants are the least glamorous part of a real estate transaction and among the most consequential, because they travel with the land and bind whoever owns it next.

The three things people mix up

Easements

An easement gives someone else the right to use part of your property for a specific purpose. Common examples: a utility company’s right to run and maintain lines across a rear strip, a neighbor’s right to cross your driveway to reach their garage, a municipality’s access to a storm sewer, or a shared alley behind a row of city homes. You still own the land. You simply cannot block the use.

Deed restrictions

A deed restriction is a limitation written into the chain of title that restricts what can be done with the property: minimum setbacks, a prohibition on subdividing, a requirement that only a single-family dwelling be built, limits on commercial use. These often originate with the original developer of a subdivision and can be many decades old.

Covenants

Covenants are typically the rulebook attached to a planned community, condominium, or homeowners association: architectural review, exterior colors, fence styles, parking, short-term rental limits, landscaping standards. They usually come with a governing body empowered to enforce them and to levy assessments.

What these look like in our region

Different property types tend to carry different burdens:

• Center City and rowhouse Philadelphia: party wall agreements, shared alleys and rear egress easements, roof and gutter access rights, sidewalk and vault agreements, and occasionally a facade easement held by a preservation organization on a historically significant building.
• Main Line and Bucks and Chester county estates: conservation easements limiting subdivision or development, agricultural preservation restrictions, shared private-lane maintenance agreements, and driveway or well access easements benefiting a neighbor.
• South Jersey suburbs: association covenants in newer developments, drainage and detention basin easements, utility rights-of-way, and Pinelands-area restrictions in the eastern portions of Burlington, Camden, and Atlantic counties.
• Shore properties: dune and beach access easements, bulkhead and riparian considerations, and municipal restrictions tied to coastal management.

A conservation or facade easement is not automatically bad news. Some carry meaningful tax consequences and some protect exactly the setting you are paying for. But they must be read, not assumed.

Where these show up in a transaction

Four documents do most of the work:

1. The title commitment. Schedule B lists the exceptions to coverage — the recorded easements, restrictions, and agreements the title insurer will not insure against. This is the single most important document buyers skip.
2. The survey. A current survey plots the easements on the actual land. A title exception reading “20-foot utility easement” means little until you see that it crosses exactly where you wanted the pool.
3. The deed and prior deeds in the chain. Restrictions are frequently carried forward by reference to an older recorded instrument, which means someone has to go find that instrument.
4. Association documents. The declaration, bylaws, rules, budget, reserve study, and recent meeting minutes. Minutes are underrated — they reveal pending assessments and disputes that the rules alone will not.

How this plays out in practice

A few patterns come up repeatedly at the high end:

• A buyer plans a detached garage and discovers a drainage easement across the only part of the lot with the right grade.
• A buyer of a historic property learns that a facade easement requires third-party approval for window replacement.
• A shore buyer intends to rent the home several weeks a year and finds the association prohibits rentals shorter than a defined term.
• A buyer of an estate parcel assumes a lot can eventually be subdivided and sold, then finds a recorded restriction against it.
• Two neighbors share a private lane with no written maintenance agreement, and repaving becomes a negotiation instead of a formula.

None of these are deal-killers on their own. All of them are far cheaper to discover before closing than after.

A practical due-diligence sequence

1. Say out loud what you intend to do with the property. Pool, addition, fence, accessory dwelling, business use, rentals, subdivision. Write it down. That list is the checklist everything else gets tested against.
2. Order a survey on anything with acreage, an unusual lot shape, a shared driveway, or expansion plans. Do not rely on an old survey handed over by the seller.
3. Read Schedule B of the title commitment and request copies of every recorded document it references. Then actually read them.
4. Ask the municipality about zoning, setbacks, impervious coverage limits, historic district review, and permit history. Local rules can restrict you even where private documents do not.
5. Have a real estate attorney review anything unusual. In New Jersey, attorney review is a structured part of the process. In Pennsylvania, attorney involvement is optional but well worth it on complex or high-value properties.
6. Confirm your timeline. Make sure your inspection and title review periods are long enough to complete this work rather than merely to begin it.

Frequently asked questions

Can an easement or deed restriction be removed?

Sometimes, but never assume it. Removal may require agreement from whoever holds the benefit, a recorded release, or in some circumstances a court action. Old subdivision-wide restrictions can be especially difficult to unwind because many parties may hold enforcement rights. Treat removal as a possibility to investigate with counsel, not as a plan.

Does title insurance protect me from these?

Generally no. Recorded easements and restrictions are typically listed as exceptions, which means they are excluded from coverage. Title insurance protects against defects that were missed, not against the restrictions the policy expressly discloses. That is exactly why reading Schedule B matters.

Do restrictions affect the value of a property?

It depends entirely on what they restrict and who is buying. A conservation easement that guarantees an open view may add value for one buyer while eliminating another who wanted development potential. A rental prohibition matters enormously to an investor and not at all to a full-time resident. The right question is not whether restrictions exist, but whether they conflict with your plans and with the plans of the next likely buyer.

Let’s review the documents together

If you are considering a property in Philadelphia, on the Main Line, in Bucks or Chester county, or in South Jersey, and you want help getting through the title commitment, survey, and association documents before your contingency period runs out, I can help. Contact James Kennedy at 215-267-8479 or jameskennedy@unlockedteam.com to talk through a specific property or your search overall.