AB192 - Makes various changes relating to real property. (BDR 10-971)

- 83rd Session (2025) Assembly Bill No. 192–Assemblymember Backus CHAPTER.......... AN ACT relating to real property; enacting the Uniform Easement Relocation Act; enacting the Uniform Mortgage Modification Act; and providing other matters properly relating thereto. Legislative Counsel’s Digest: Sections 2-32 of this bill enact the Uniform Easement Relocation Act promulgated by the Uniform Law Commission in 2020. Sections 34-50 of this bill enact the Uniform Mortgage Modification Act promulgated by the Uniform Law Commission in 2024. Generally, the Uniform Easement Relocation Act allows the owner of real property burdened by certain types of easements to seek judicial approval to relocate an easement if the relocation does not materially impair the utility of the easement to the easement holder or the physical condition, use or value of the benefitted property. Sections 4-21 define certain terms for the purposes of the Act. Section 22 prohibits relocation under the Act of an easement: (1) where the holder is a publicly regulated or publicly owned utility or a public entity; (2) which has been set aside for certain conservation purposes; (3) which is associated with a public road; (4) which is a negative easement that imposes a duty not to engage in a specified use of the property; (5) if the proposed location encroaches on certain land or interferes with the use or enjoyment or certain other easements; or (6) which is created by a declaration of a common-interest community. Section 24: (1) requires a property owner who wishes to relocate an easement under the Act to file a civil action and serve a summons and complaint on the easement holder and certain other interested persons; and (2) sets forth the required contents of such a complaint. Sections 23 and 25 set forth: (1) the factors a court must consider before approving the relocation of an easement under the Act; and (2) the required contents of a court order approving such a relocation. If the court approves the relocation of an easement, section 27 requires all parties to the civil action to act in good faith to facilitate relocation. Section 26 requires the property owner seeking to relocate an easement to bear all reasonable expenses of the relocation. Before proceeding with the relocation of an easement which has been approved by a court, section 25 requires the property owner to record: (1) a certified copy of the court order approving the relocation in the land records of each jurisdiction where the property is located; and (2) if the easement was established by the recording of certain recorded maps, a certificate of amendment to any such map. Section 28 deems such an easement relocated upon recording of the certified court order and any certificate of amendment which is required. If the relocation requires the construction of an improvement as a condition for relocation, section 28 authorizes the easement holder to continue to use the existing easement according to the terms of the court order until the property owner sends certain required notice that the easement holder is able to enter, use and enjoy the easement in the new location. Specifically, once the relocation is substantially complete and the easement holder is able to enter, use and enjoy the easement in the new location, section 28 requires the property owner relocating the easement to: (1) execute an affidavit certifying that the easement has been relocated in accordance with the order; (2) record the affidavit in the land records of each jurisdiction in which the property is located; and (3) send a copy of the recorded affidavit by certified mail to the easement holder and all parties to the civil action. – 2 – - 83rd Session (2025) Sections 29 and 30 provide that: (1) the Act does not affect any other method of relocating an easement which is permitted under existing law; and (2) the right of a property owner to relocate an easement under the Act with court approval may not be waived, excluded or restricted by agreement even in circumstances where the instrument which created the easement contains certain restrictions. Section 29 also provides that a relocation under the Act does not constitute a new transfer or grant of an interest in property, and thus is not a breach or default of certain existing agreements. Generally, the Uniform Mortgage Modification Act establishes safe harbor provisions for several common categories of modifications which are not prejudicial to junior interest holders and which do not affect the priority of the mortgage. Modifications which are outside the scope of the Act remain governed by existing law applicable to those modifications. Sections 36-46 define certain terms for the purposes of the Act. Sections 47 and 48 establish the types of modifications to which the Act does and does not apply. Section 48 provides that, for a modification to which the Act applies: (1) the mortgage continues to secure the obligation as modified; (2) the priority of the mortgage is not affected by the modification; (3) the mortgage retains its priority even if the modification is not recorded in the land records of a jurisdiction in which the property is located; and (4) the modification is not a novation. Section 48 also establishes the categories of modifications to which the Act applies, which include: (1) an extension of the maturity date of the obligation; (2) a decrease in the interest rate; (3) certain changes in the methods of calculating interest which do not result in an increase as calculated on the date the modification becomes effective; (4) a capitalization of interest or other unpaid monetary obligations; (5) a forgiveness, forbearance or other reduction of a secured debt or other monetary obligation; (6) a modification of a requirement for maintaining certain escrow or reserve accounts; (7) a modification of a requirement for acquiring or maintaining insurance; (8) a modification of an existing condition to advance funds; (9) a modification of a financial covenant; and (10) a modification of the payment amount or schedule resulting from another modification to which the Act applies. Section 47 provides that the Act does not affect existing law governing the required content of a mortgage, statutes of limitation, recording, priority of certain liens, certain electronic transactions or the priority of certain future advances. Section 47 also excludes certain modifications from the Act. Sections 31 and 49 require a court to consider the uniformity of law among jurisdictions that enact the Uniform Easement Relocation Act or the Uniform Mortgage Modification Act in applying and construing the provisions of those Acts. Sections 32 and 50 clarify the relation of the Uniform Easement Relocation Act and the Uniform Mortgage Modification Act to the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act. (15 U.S.C. §§ 7001 et seq.) – 3 – - 83rd Session (2025) EXPLANATION – Matter in bolded italics is new; matter between brackets [omitted material] is material to be omitted. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: Section 1. Title 10 of NRS is hereby amended by adding thereto a new chapter to consist of the provisions set forth as sections 2 to 32, inclusive, of this act. Sec. 2. This chapter may be cited as the Uniform Easement Relocation Act. Sec. 3. As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires, the words and terms defined in sections 4 to 21, inclusive, of this act, have the meanings ascribed to them in those sections. Sec. 4. “Appurtenant easement” means an easement tied to or dependent on ownership or occupancy of real property. Sec. 5. “Conservation easement” has the meaning ascribed to the term “easement for conservation” in NRS 111.410. Sec. 6. “Dominant estate” means an estate or interest in real property benefitted by an appurtenant easement. Sec. 7. “Easement”: 1. Means a nonpossessory property interest that: (a) Provides a right to enter, use or enjoy real property owned by or in the possession of another; and (b) Imposes on the owner or possessor a duty not to interfere with the entry, use or enjoyment permitted by the instrument creating the easement or, in the case of an easement not established by express grant or reservation, the entry, use or enjoyment authorized by law or prescriptive rights. 2. Includes, without limitation, a right-of-way. Sec. 8. “Easement holder” means: 1. In the case of an appurtenant easement, the dominant estate owner; or 2. In the case of an easement in gross, public-utility easement, conservation easement or negative easement, the grantee of the easement or a successor. Sec. 9. “Easement in gross” means an easement not tied to or dependent on ownership or occupancy of real property. Sec. 10. “Lessee of record” means a person holding a lessee’s interest under a recorded lease or memorandum of lease. Sec. 11. “Negative easement” means a nonpossessory property interest whose primary purpose is to impose on a servient estate owner a duty not to engage in a specified use of the estate. – 4 – - 83rd Session (2025) Sec. 12. “Person” means an individual, estate, business or nonprofit entity, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality or other legal entity. Sec. 12.3. “Public entity” means: 1. The United States or an agency of the United States; 2. This State, a political subdivision of this State, an agency of this State or a municipal corporation of this State; 3. A general improvement district, as defined in NRS 318.020; or 4. A special assessment district formed in accordance with the provisions of chapter 271 of NRS. Sec. 12.7. “Public-entity easement” means a nonpossessory property interest in which the easement holder is a public entity. Sec. 13. “Public-utility easement”: 1. Means a nonpossessory property interest in which the easement holder is: (a) A publicly regulated or publicly owned utility under federal law or law of this State or a municipality; or (b) A video service provider, as defined in NRS 711.151. 2. Includes an easement benefiting an intrastate utility, an interstate utility or a utility cooperative. Sec. 14. “Real property” means an estate or interest in, over or under land, including structures, fixtures and other things that by custom, usage or law pass with a conveyance of land whether or not described or mentioned in the contract of sale or instrument of conveyance. The term includes the interest of a lessor and lessee. Sec. 15. “Record” means, when used as a noun, information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. Sec. 16. “Security instrument” means a mortgage, deed of trust, security deed, contract for deed, lease or other record that creates or provides for an interest in real property to secure payment or performance of an obligation, whether by acquisition or retention of a lien, a lessor’s interest under a lease or title to the real property. The term includes: 1. A security instrument that also creates or provides for a security interest in personal property; 2. A modification or amendment of a security instrument; and 3. A record creating a lien on real property to secure an obligation under a covenant running with the real property. – 5 – - 83rd Session (2025) Sec. 17. “Security-interest holder of record” means a person holding an interest in real property created by a recorded security instrument. Sec. 18. “Servient estate” means an estate or interest in real property that is burdened by an easement. Sec. 19. “Title evidence” means a title insurance policy, preliminary title report or binder, title insurance commitment, abstract of title, attorney’s opinion of title based on examination of public records or an abstract of title or any other means of reporting the state of title to real property which is customary in the locality. Sec. 20. (Deleted by amendment.) Sec. 21. “Utility cooperative” means a nonprofit entity whose purpose is to deliver a utility service, such as electricity, oil, natural gas, water, sanitary sewer, storm water or telecommunications, to its customers or members and includes an electric cooperative, rural electric cooperative, rural water district and rural water association. Sec. 22. 1. Except as otherwise provided in subsection 2, this chapter applies to an easement established by express grant or reservation or by prescription, implication, necessity, estoppel or other method. 2. This chapter may not be used to relocate: (a) A public-utility easement, public-entity easement, conservation easement, negative easement or easement associated with a public road; (b) An easement if the proposed location would encroach on an area of an estate burdened by a conservation easement or would interfere with the use or enjoyment of a public-utility easement, public-entity easement or an easement appurtenant to a conservation easement or a public road; or (c) An easement created by a declaration in accordance with the provisions of chapter 116 of NRS. 3. This chapter does not apply to relocation of an easement by consent. 4. As used in this section, “public road” has the meaning ascribed to it in NRS 405.191. Sec. 23. A servient estate owner may relocate an easement under this chapter only if the relocation does not materially: 1. Lessen the utility of the easement; 2. After the relocation, increase the burden on the easement holder in its reasonable use and enjoyment of the easement; – 6 – - 83rd Session (2025) 3. Impair an affirmative, easement-related purpose for which the easement was created; 4. During or after the relocation, impair the safety of the easement holder or another entitled to use and enjoy the easement; 5. During the relocation, disrupt the use and enjoyment of the easement by the easement holder or another entitled to use and enjoy the easement, unless the servient estate owner substantially mitigates the duration and nature of the disruption; 6. Impair the physical condition, use or value of the dominant estate or improvements on the dominant estate; or 7. Impair the value of the collateral of a security-interest holder of record in the servient estate or dominant estate, impair a real-property interest of a lessee of record in the dominant estate or impair a recorded real-property interest of any other person in the servient estate or domina [Text truncated for display. Full text available on LegiScan.]