Drafting reciprocal easement agreements manually requires hours of careful attention to detail, ensuring all access, parking, and utility provisions are properly structured and reciprocal. Attorneys must coordinate multiple easement types, maintenance obligations, and use restrictions while ensuring the agreement runs with the land and protects both parties' interests. The complexity of integrated developments and the need for precise legal descriptions make this a time-intensive process prone to omissions.
Drafting comprehensive reciprocal easement agreements for commercial developments typically requires 8+ hours of attorney time, involving complex provisions for access, parking allocation, utility sharing, and maintenance obligations. Manual drafting risks inconsistencies, missing critical provisions, and delays that can hold up closings and development timelines.
CaseMark automates REA creation by analyzing your property documents, site plans, and development terms to generate complete, recordable agreements with all necessary easement grants, cost-sharing provisions, and covenants running with the land. Get professionally drafted reciprocal easement agreements in 15 minutes with comprehensive provisions tailored to your specific commercial development.
This workflow is applicable across multiple practice areas and use cases
REAs are critical in M&A transactions involving shopping centers, mixed-use developments, or commercial properties with shared facilities where easement rights must transfer to acquirers.
M&A attorneys must review, negotiate, and sometimes draft REAs when acquiring commercial properties with integrated developments, ensuring easement rights properly convey and don't create post-closing liabilities.
Asset purchase agreements for commercial real estate require REAs to document shared access, parking, and utility rights between properties being divided or sold separately.
When purchasing commercial real estate assets, particularly in subdivided developments or adjacent properties, attorneys need to draft REAs to preserve essential property rights and access.
Lenders require properly drafted REAs as loan conditions for commercial developments to ensure collateral properties maintain essential access and utility rights that preserve property value.
Finance attorneys must review and ensure REAs are properly structured before closing commercial real estate loans, as easement defects can impair collateral value and loan security.
Corporate counsel managing company-owned real estate portfolios need REAs for corporate campuses, retail locations, or facilities sharing infrastructure with adjacent properties.
In-house corporate attorneys frequently handle real estate matters for their companies, including drafting easement agreements for corporate facilities, distribution centers, and retail developments.
A reciprocal easement agreement (REA) is a legal document that creates mutual easement rights between adjacent property owners developing an integrated commercial project. It grants each party rights to use portions of the other's property for access, parking, utilities, and other purposes while establishing maintenance obligations, use restrictions, and operational covenants. REAs are essential for shopping centers, mixed-use developments, and other projects where coordinated access and shared facilities benefit both properties.
Manually drafting a comprehensive REA typically requires 8-12 hours of attorney time, including reviewing property documents, analyzing site plans, drafting easement provisions, creating cost-sharing mechanisms, and preparing exhibits. Complex developments with multiple parcels or special requirements may take even longer. CaseMark reduces this to approximately 15 minutes by automating the drafting process while maintaining professional quality and comprehensive coverage.
At minimum, you need legal descriptions for both parcels and a site plan showing property boundaries, improvements, and easement areas. Optional but helpful documents include surveys, utility plans, development agreements, zoning documentation, and title reports. CaseMark analyzes these documents to extract critical information and generate tailored provisions for access routes, parking allocation, utility infrastructure, and maintenance obligations specific to your development.
Yes, but modifications require written agreement from all parties who hold ownership interests in the affected properties, and amendments must be recorded to be effective against third parties. REAs typically include provisions specifying that no oral modifications are valid and establishing procedures for requesting and approving amendments. Because REAs create covenants running with the land, they bind future owners, making it important to get the terms right initially rather than relying on future amendments.
Properly drafted REAs create perpetual easements and covenants that run with the land, meaning they automatically transfer to new owners and survive foreclosure. The agreement should include provisions requiring reference to the REA in all future deeds and requiring lender recognition agreements. This ensures that easement rights remain enforceable regardless of ownership changes, protecting the integrated nature of the development and the value of both properties.