Easements in Prescriptive Right of Ways (New Sewer in Maintenance Alleys)

[drekeith1]

My question involves an easement in the state of: South Carolina

I am a design engineer. All attorneys I speak too seem to beat around the bush with this a little so I figured I would try this forum.
The situation is that have existing sewer lines located on private property in an old mill village. The mill installed their sewer lines may years ago (80+) but now a special purpose district SPD (our client) owns and maintains the lines as the lines were basically turned over to the SPD some time ago. The lines are in bad shape and need major repair and rehabilitation. The layout is like this:
Say in our situation you have a Lot, then an alleyway , then another Lot. Basically an alley splits the two Lots and for a city block you may have 30 lots on each side of an alleyway. Each lot has a Main sewer line running on it (many cases right up against the house, sometimes under them…Not good!) and the main runs parallel to the alley. Instead of repairing the line in place and on private property, we think it more logical to install new lines out in the alleys, where physically possible, and then reconnect the (privately owned) service laterals to the new line. This does a couple of things, gets the main lines off of the private property thus making the lines way more accessible for maintenance and emergency repairs and it also decreases the amount of line we have to maintain for the future in-half (We are getting rid of 2 old lines and putting in one new one) . The old lines would be abandoned in place and filled with concrete, no longer a problem for anybody.
Now the existing alleys consist of two types of R/W,s according to the County records. Some are "deeded" and some are "prescriptive". I think in the case where the R/W’s are deeded we are OK, fully in our right to install the lines by way of encroachment permit with the County, all we have to do is please the County. Currently, the alleys are used for servicing of trash trucks, some rear driveways and most if not all of them have public water mains running right down the middle of them that serve the houses. (FYI, The water entity is Not the same entity as our client so I don’t know about their rights of easements).
My question is. What measures do we need to take in order to make sure we covered when it comes time to install these lines. I am specifically worried about he prescriptive easements alleys. Weird thing is all of them show a right of way width. Most Prescriptive R/W I have seen for roads and such are something like ditch to ditch, etc.

[Newtons_Apple]

The reason a prescriptive easement is so specific (ie ditch to ditch), is because prescription is defined by the use. As I see it, that could be the largest hurdle for your client to overcome - was this alley used to carry a sewer line.

Are there court records on file with the county for the prescriptive easements? That would be the place to start. See what language was used to create the prescriptive easement, if any.

Either way, if prescription is the route your client wishes to take, then they will have to hire an attorney (or a team of them) and sue for prescription.

It sounds like your client is a public or quasi public utility. Any chance they can initiate comdemnation proceedings on the alley(s)?

[LandSurveyor]

I agree with the previous poster that the origin and record of the prescriptive easements need to be determined.

It's also important to understand that on engineering projects such as yours, the engineering and the right of way segments are two distinctly separate parts of the project, and the success of the right of way problem is critical to the success of the overall project. Regardless of what is discovered in the research of the alleyways, there will very likely be agreements that will need to be negotiated in order for the project to go forward harmoniously. If your design firm does not have a right of way department, it might be a good idea to look around for someone who does to advise you, someone with staff real estate attorneys, surveyors, and negotiators. Once the existing rights of way are sorted out, a good negotiator can make all of the difference and save a lot of time and money for your client.

As for the existing alleyways, whether platted or prescriptive, a condemnation proceeding (I assume your client has that right) will hinge on the valuation of the take by a certified appraiser. It will likely be found that an existing valid public right of way will have removed almost all of the remaining value of the take. I have seen an award of as little as one dollar.