Salt Lake County Tax Sales: Why Recorded Easements Can Survive Your Tax Deed

The Scenario

Hypothetical: You acquire a parcel at a Salt Lake County tax sale for $45,000. The tax deed records cleanly. You plan to develop the lot into a small commercial building. Six months later, a surveyor flags a 20-foot utility easement running diagonally across your buildable area—an easement that was recorded in 1987 and never appeared on the county's tax sale notice. Rocky Mountain Power confirms the easement is active and enforceable. Your site plan is now unbuildable without a costly redesign or easement relocation negotiation.

This is not a title defect that arose from the tax sale. This is an interest that survived it—because Utah law does not extinguish recorded easements through tax deed conveyance the way it extinguishes most monetary liens.

How Utah Tax Sales Work

Utah operates a hybrid tax sale system. Salt Lake County, like most Utah counties, conducts annual tax sales for properties with delinquent property taxes. Under Utah Code § 59-2-1351.1, the county treasurer may sell tax-defaulted properties at public auction after the statutory redemption period expires.

The critical statute governing what a tax deed conveys—and what it eliminates—is Utah Code § 59-2-1351.1(5), which states that a tax deed executed by the county conveys the property "free of all encumbrances" except:

1. Recorded easements
2. Recorded restrictions and covenants
3. Federal tax liens with proper notice
4. Any interest held by the United States or the State of Utah

The statute is explicit: recorded easements are carved out from the "free and clear" conveyance. This is not an ambiguity or a gap—it is deliberate legislative policy. Utah treats easements as interests in real property that run with the land, not as encumbrances that attach to a particular owner's title.

Why Easements Survive: The Legal Logic

Easements under Utah law are either appurtenant (benefiting an adjacent parcel) or in gross (benefiting a specific entity, like a utility company). Both types, once properly recorded, create property interests that bind successive owners.

When a county conducts a tax sale, it is enforcing the government's superior lien for unpaid taxes. The tax lien has statutory priority over mortgages, judgment liens, and most other monetary encumbrances. But easements are not liens—they are not debts secured by the property. They are use rights that exist independent of ownership.

The Utah Supreme Court addressed this distinction in Plateau Mining Co. v. Utah Division of State Lands, 802 P.2d 720 (Utah 1990), affirming that property interests created by recorded instruments—including easements—are not automatically extinguished by government sales unless the statute specifically provides for their termination. Utah's tax sale statute does the opposite: it explicitly preserves them.

What Salt Lake County Tax Sale Notices Actually Show

Salt Lake County publishes tax sale lists through the County Treasurer's office. These lists identify the parcel, the delinquent taxes owed, and the minimum bid. They do not include:

• A title commitment or title search
• Any list of recorded easements
• Any survey or encroachment analysis
• Any verification of access

The county's standard tax deed form recites that the conveyance is "free of all encumbrances except as provided by law." That statutory carve-out for easements is baked into every tax deed issued—but the deed itself will not list the specific easements that survive.

Buyers at Salt Lake County tax sales receive exactly what the statute provides: a deed that extinguishes most monetary liens but leaves recorded easements intact. The county has no obligation to identify those easements, and the purchase is explicitly "as-is."

Common Easement Types That Survive in Salt Lake County

The Salt Lake County Recorder's office maintains easement records going back decades. The most common easement types that survive tax sales include:

Utility Easements: Rocky Mountain Power, Dominion Energy, and various telecommunications providers hold recorded easements across thousands of Salt Lake County parcels. These are often blanket easements recorded against entire subdivisions, making them easy to miss when searching a specific parcel.

Access Easements: Landlocked or semi-landlocked parcels frequently have recorded ingress/egress easements benefiting adjacent properties. These easements burden the servient estate (your tax sale parcel) and benefit the dominant estate (the neighbor who needs access).

Irrigation and Water Easements: Utah's water law history means many parcels carry recorded easements for irrigation ditches, canals, or water conveyance. The Salt Lake County Recorder's grantor-grantee index may show these under historic entity names that no longer exist, making them harder to locate.

Conservation Easements: Some parcels, particularly in the foothills or near protected areas, carry conservation easements held by land trusts or government agencies. These restrict development and survive tax sales under both the general easement preservation rule and federal law protecting certain conservation interests.

Why Standard Tax Sale Due Diligence Misses Easements

Investors who perform basic due diligence before a tax sale typically check:

• The tax sale list and minimum bid
• The assessed value on the County Assessor's website
• Whether the property is occupied
• Whether there are obvious physical issues

What they often skip:

A full recorded document search: The Salt Lake County Recorder's online portal allows searching by parcel number, but locating all recorded easements requires examining the chain of title, subdivision plats, and any blanket easements recorded against the original larger parcel before subdivision.

Plat review: Many easements are shown graphically on subdivision plats rather than in standalone recorded documents. If you search only for "easement" as a document type, you may miss easements depicted on the plat that created your parcel.

Survey review: Recorded surveys may show easements that are referenced in other documents but not independently indexed. Salt Lake County's recorder indexing is good but not perfect—older easements may be indexed under grantor names that do not appear in a parcel-specific search.

The Redemption Period Complication

Utah provides a redemption period before tax sales become final. Under Utah Code § 59-2-1343, the original owner may redeem the property by paying all delinquent taxes, penalties, interest, and costs. The redemption period runs until the property is actually sold at tax sale.

During this period, easement holders have no special rights—their easements will survive regardless of whether redemption occurs. But investors should understand that the redemption period does not give easement holders any incentive to appear or object. Their interests are already protected by statute.

This means you cannot assume that "no objections" at a tax sale indicates clean title to use rights. Easement holders have no reason to participate because the sale does not threaten their interests.

What TitlePin Can Help You Check

Before bidding at a Salt Lake County tax sale, investors should verify several public-record signals that TitlePin can help surface:

Recorded Document Index: TitlePin can help you search the Salt Lake County Recorder's grantor-grantee index for documents naming the parcel, prior owners, or the original subdivision. This includes standalone easement grants, utility agreements, and access easement recordings.

Subdivision Plat References: If your target parcel was created by subdivision, TitlePin can help you locate the recorded plat and identify any easements depicted graphically or referenced in plat notes.

Chain of Title Gaps: Easements are sometimes granted by prior owners whose names do not appear in a simple parcel search. TitlePin can help trace the ownership chain to identify all grantors who may have conveyed easement rights.

Cross-Parcel Easements: Access easements often appear in the records of the benefited parcel (the dominant estate) rather than the burdened parcel (your target). TitlePin can help identify adjacent parcels and check their recorded documents for easements that may burden your target.

Note that TitlePin provides access to public record data—confirming the current enforceability and exact scope of any easement requires reviewing the recorded instrument itself and potentially consulting Utah real estate counsel.

Practical Steps Before Bidding

For any Salt Lake County tax sale parcel you are seriously considering:

1. Pull the subdivision plat from the Salt Lake County Recorder. Examine it for easement dedications, utility reservations, and private road easements.

2. Search the grantor-grantee index for all prior owners in the chain of title, not just the delinquent taxpayer. Easements granted 30 years ago by a prior owner are still binding.

3. Contact major utilities (Rocky Mountain Power, Dominion Energy, CenturyLink/Lumen) to ask whether they hold recorded easements on the parcel. Most utilities will confirm easement existence but may charge for detailed location information.

4. Order a survey if the parcel value justifies it. A current survey will show recorded easements of record and may identify unrecorded prescriptive easements that could ripen into legal encumbrances.

5. Budget for title insurance: Most title insurers will issue policies on tax sale properties after a specified holding period (often one to three years). The insurer's examination will identify easements, but this happens after your purchase—not before.

Key Takeaways

• Utah Code § 59-2-1351.1 explicitly preserves recorded easements through tax deed conveyance—they are not extinguished by the tax sale
• Salt Lake County tax sale notices do not list surviving easements; the county has no obligation to identify them
• Utility, access, irrigation, and conservation easements are common in Salt Lake County and frequently survive tax sales
• Easement holders have no incentive to appear at tax sales because their interests are already protected by statute
• Pre-bid due diligence must include plat review, full chain of title search, and potentially direct utility inquiries—standard tax sale research is insufficient

Sources

• Utah Code § 59-2-1351.1 (Tax sale procedures and deed conveyance): https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title59/Chapter2/59-2-S1351.1.html
• Utah Code § 59-2-1343 (Redemption of property): https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title59/Chapter2/59-2-S1343.html
• Salt Lake County Treasurer (Tax Sale Information): https://slco.org/treasurer/
• Salt Lake County Recorder (Document Search): https://slco.org/recorder/
• Plateau Mining Co. v. Utah Division of State Lands, 802 P.2d 720 (Utah 1990)