Question
We recently bought our first house (new, in a Beazer development) and it has a nice-sized backyard, but no patio or screened porch.  Several times during closing we asked about putting in a stamped concrete patio and a screened-in porch and were told we just needed to fill in an architectural request form with the homeowners association, but it would all be fine.  When I went to file the form, they told me I needed to include the plat.  I've never seen the plat and had to go to the assessor's office to get a copy.  The assessor tells me that our entire backyard is a drainage easement and that we probably will be told we can't put anything back there -- no patio, no porch, no nothing.  Our yard slopes some at the very back, but otherwise is at house level and well above the field behind our house.. I just don't understand and now assume they'll say "no" to our request.  What are our options for a patio/porch in this situation?  A deck won't work because not only are they a pain to maintain, you'd step up to it from the house.. it needs to either be level with the house or below the house when you go out the back door.  We wouldn't have bought the house if we'd known the backyard was unusable.  I feel ripped off and tricked.

Answer
Erica:
First, if they sold you a house and did not indicate you had an easement in the yard you may have a viable law suit. That is something that should have been disclosed. So check your closing documents and property description.

Second, Depending on the easement type, most of the time you can put down concrete, pavers or stone over the easement. Like a patio. But rarely if ever can you put any kind of building or walls.

Third when there is an easement it means any time the want to or need to get to the pipes or utilities in that easement that can and they can rip up anything in the easement and not have to replace it except for sod.

In summary, you can probably still do most of what you want, like a patio and landscaping, and most of the time they rarely have to mess with these easements. In all my years and all my clients I have only known of one that had his back yard torn up about ten years after he bought it.
But back to my first point, you might have a potential case if this was not disclosed by the builder...but I am not a lawyer. Good Luck

Sean J Murphy, LA,ISA, LEED AP
Please check out my blogs and articles on landscape topics like this on my websites.
http://www.seanjmurphy.com
http://amenityarchitects.com