Project Types
Water, sewer, power and pipeline corridors, the easements they take, and what they leave you with.
Utility acquisitions in Florida are usually easements rather than outright purchases. The company takes the right to install and maintain its facilities across a defined strip, and you keep ownership of the ground subject to that right.
That distinction matters less than owners expect. An easement prohibiting structures, restricting planting and permitting access at any time can remove most of the practical value of the land it crosses.
The short answer
Read the easement, not just the figure. Width, permitted use inside the strip, who may enter and whether facilities can later be added are all terms, and they decide what it costs you.
What the company acquires and what you keep.
Read moreA strip acquired across a larger holding.
Read moreHarm to the land either side of the corridor.
Read moreThe parcel as it functions afterwards.
Read moreGroves and fields crossed by a corridor.
Read moreEntrances and internal routes.
Read moreA fixed width is one thing. A right to a corridor the company may later widen is another.
Restrictions on structures, paving, fencing, ponds and trees all narrow what the strip is worth to you.
A right of entry across the rest of your land, rather than along the corridor, spreads the burden well beyond the strip.
A non exclusive easement permitting continued use is materially less damaging than one that is not.
Certain utilities and similar entities hold condemnation authority for defined purposes. Under chapter 74 a private entity using the order of taking procedure must deposit double the estimate of value that a public body would deposit.
Generally yes. You retain the fee and the utility holds the rights described in the easement. What those rights permit is the whole question.
Through the same framework as any partial taking. The value of the interest acquired is one question, the effect on the rest of the property is a separate one.
A temporary construction easement should. A permanent easement does not, which is exactly why its terms deserve close reading before signature.
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