Real Estate · Property Access · Easements

Landlocked Property in Pennsylvania: Access Rights, Easement by Necessity, and What to Do When There Is No Road

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How a Property Becomes Landlocked in Pennsylvania

Most landlocked parcels in Pennsylvania were not always landlocked. The condition is almost always created by a prior conveyance that severed access without recording an easement to replace it.

The most common pattern in Western Pennsylvania: a large parcel is subdivided in the 1920s, 1940s, or 1950s. The original owner sells off the front lots fronting the road and retains the rear parcels. The plan of lots shows the rear parcel as a numbered lot with an access notation — “access via Lot 12” or “subject to right of way” — but no easement is ever recorded in the chain of title. Decades pass. The original owner dies. The rear parcel changes hands several times through estates and private sales. Nobody pulls the original plan of lots until a buyer applies for a mortgage or a permit and the title examiner flags the access problem. By then the front lot has been sold to a third party who owes nothing to anyone.

Easement by Necessity in Pennsylvania

Easement by necessity is the primary legal remedy for a landlocked parcel. Pennsylvania courts will imply an easement of access when three conditions are met: the dominant and servient parcels were once under common ownership, the parcels were severed by a conveyance, and access to a public road is strictly necessary — not merely convenient — as a result of that severance.

Strict necessity means the property has no other legal access to a public road. A property that can reach a road through another route, even an inconvenient or expensive one, may not qualify. Pennsylvania courts have applied the strict necessity standard consistently. The necessity must exist at the time of severance, not arise from later development or changed conditions.

Establishing easement by necessity requires tracing the chain of title back to the common ownership event, demonstrating that no other access exists, and identifying the specific location of the easement across the servient parcel. That location is either agreed upon by the parties or determined by the court. The court has discretion to locate the easement where it is least burdensome to the servient estate while still providing adequate access to the landlocked parcel.

The Pennsylvania Private Road Act

When easement by necessity cannot be established through the chain of title, Pennsylvania’s Private Road Act provides a statutory alternative. Under 36 P.S. Section 2731 et seq., a landowner whose property is without access to a public road may petition the Court of Common Pleas to open a private road across an adjoining parcel.

The Private Road Act proceeding is distinct from easement by necessity. It does not require common ownership in the chain of title. It applies when a parcel is genuinely landlocked and no private remedy is available. The court appoints a jury of view to examine the premises, determine whether a private road is necessary, identify the route, and assess damages to the owner of the land over which the road will pass. The petitioner pays those damages.

The process is slower and more expensive than a negotiated easement agreement. A Private Road Act proceeding in Allegheny County typically takes six to eighteen months from petition to final order. It is the remedy of last resort when the neighboring landowner refuses to grant access voluntarily and no implied easement can be established.

What Happens at Closing When Access Is Not Established

A mortgage lender will not close on a landlocked parcel. Title insurance underwriters require marketable title, and a parcel with no recorded access easement does not have marketable title. The title commitment will contain an exception for the access problem, the lender will object, and the closing will be delayed or terminated until the issue is resolved.

The options at that point depend on timing. If the problem surfaces before closing, the buyer can demand that the seller cure the title defect as a condition of closing, negotiate a price reduction that accounts for the cost of establishing access, or terminate the agreement of sale and recover the deposit. Pennsylvania’s standard agreement of sale requires marketable title. A landlocked parcel without recorded access does not have marketable title, and a buyer who terminates on that basis is entitled to the return of the deposit.

If the problem surfaces after closing — because the buyer waived the title contingency, accepted a quitclaim deed, or purchased at a tax sale — the options are more limited. The buyer owns the problem. The remedies are a quiet title action to establish the implied easement, a Private Road Act petition, or a claim against the title insurer if title insurance was purchased and the policy covers the access defect.

Prescriptive Easement as an Access Remedy

If a property has been accessed across a neighboring parcel openly, continuously, and without the neighbor’s permission for 21 years, a prescriptive easement may have been established under Pennsylvania law. The 21-year period mirrors the adverse possession statute. The use must be actual, open, notorious, continuous, and hostile — meaning without the permission of the landowner.

Prescriptive easement is a difficult remedy for a landlocked parcel because it requires proving historical use over two decades, which may be impossible if the parcel has been vacant or the prior owners are deceased. It is more useful as a defensive argument — when the owner of the servient parcel tries to block access that has been used for decades — than as an affirmative remedy for a buyer discovering the problem at closing.

Western Pennsylvania Title Issues: Old Subdivision Plans and Missing Easements

Allegheny County parcels subdivided before 1960 often have plan notations that are not recorded easements, requiring chain-of-title analysis to establish implied access rights. Pittsburgh hillside properties from the same era frequently contain ambiguous drainage, retaining wall, and slope access obligations that modern title searches do not uncover. Title searches in Allegheny County for rear-lot and interior parcels should always include a review of the original plan of lots and the deeds from the original common owner. An access problem buried in a 1940s subdivision is not visible from a standard thirty-year title search. It requires going back to the root of title.

Resolving a Landlocked Property Problem Before It Becomes Litigation

Most landlocked property disputes resolve without court proceedings when the parties understand their positions clearly. The owner of the servient parcel — the lot the access must cross — often does not know the history of the subdivision, does not want litigation, and will agree to a recorded easement agreement if approached correctly and compensated fairly.

A negotiated easement agreement, drafted and recorded before closing, resolves the title problem permanently and at far lower cost than a Private Road Act proceeding or quiet title action. The agreement specifies the location of the easement, the width, the permitted uses, maintenance obligations, and any compensation paid to the servient parcel owner. Once recorded at the Allegheny County Recorder of Deeds, it runs with the land and binds all future owners of both parcels. The same negotiation approach applies to boundary disputes when neighbors disagree about where the property line should be.

The alternative — proceeding to court — adds months and significant cost. A Private Road Act petition in Allegheny County involves filing fees, jury of view costs, survey costs, and the damages assessed to compensate the servient parcel owner. Those damages are paid by the petitioner. Negotiating before filing almost always produces a better outcome for both sides.

Lebovitz & Lebovitz, P.A. · Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, near the Parkway East. Real estate matters throughout Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania since 1933.

Stephen H. Lebovitz is a real estate attorney in Pittsburgh handling property access disputes, easement by necessity claims, Private Road Act proceedings, and title defect resolution throughout Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania.