SENATE BILL REPORT
ESSB 5130
BYSenate Committee on Governmental Operations (originally sponsored by Senators McCaslin and Rasmussen)
Requiring recording of easements.
Senate Committee on Governmental Operations
Senate Hearing Date(s):January 23, 1989; February 16, 1989
Majority Report: That Substitute Senate Bill No. 5130 be substituted therefor, and the substitute bill do pass.
Signed by Senators McCaslin, Chairman; Thorsness, Vice Chairman; Sutherland.
Senate Staff:Sam Thompson (786-7754); Desley Brooks (786-7443)
March 8, 1989
AS PASSED SENATE, MARCH 7, 1989
BACKGROUND:
Easements required for the installation of utilities are not required to be recorded. Property owners may be unaware of the existence of a utility easement because they had no notice of it in the county auditor's records--where other records concerning real property are recorded.
SUMMARY:
Public and private entities that operate utilities must record their utility easements. Easements created by operation of law (including those established by adverse possession) are only required to be recorded if they have been established in a final court judgment. An entity that assumes the utility operations of another entity is not required to record previously recorded easements.
Case law concerning unrecorded utility easements is codified: they are void against a bona fide purchaser for value who later acquires the property. A bona fide purchaser for value is defined as a purchaser who, without notice of the utility easement prior to acquisition of title, has paid the vendor a valuable consideration.
Appropriation: none
Revenue: none
Fiscal Note: none requested
Senate Committee - Testified: Stan Finkelstein, Association of Washington Cities (con); Mike Dwyer, City of Tacoma Department of Public Utilities (con); Greg Hanon, Washington State Rural Electric Association (con); Joe Daniels, Washington State Association of Water and Wastewater Districts (con); Tom Mortimer, Washington PUD Association (con)