Illinois Statutes Chapter 765. Property § 5/7a. Lands abutting road, street, highway or alley

§ 7a. (a) Except as provided in subsection (b), any instrument, including a will, which conveys, transfers, encumbers, leases or releases, or by which an agreement is made to convey, transfer, encumber, lease or release, or by virtue of which there is conveyed, transferred, encumbered, leased or released, any real property, whether described by a metes and bounds description or otherwise, which abuts upon any road, street, highway or alley, or upon any abandoned or vacated road, street, highway or alley shall be deemed and construed to include any right, title or interest in that part of such road, street, highway or alley which the abutting owner who makes any such instrument shall presently have or, which such owner, his heirs, successors and assigns subsequently acquires in such road, street, highway or alley unless such instrument by its terms expressly excludes, in the description of the property, such road, street, highway or alley. The right, title or interest acquired under such instrument in such road, street, highway or alley, by virtue of the provisions of this Act, shall be deemed and construed to be for the same uses and purposes set forth in such instrument with respect to the real property specifically described in the instrument. However, no covenants or agreements made by the maker of any such instrument with respect to any real property specifically described shall apply to or be enforceable with respect to any right, title or interest which is acquired solely by virtue of the provisions of this Act.

(b) With regard to any public utility, as defined in Section 3-105 of the Public Utilities Act, engaged in public water or public sanitary sewer service that comes under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Commerce Commission, any instrument, including a will, which conveys, transfers, encumbers, leases or releases, or by which an agreement is made to convey, transfer, encumber, lease or release, or by virtue of which there is conveyed, transferred, encumbered, leased or released, any real property, whether described by a metes and bounds description or otherwise, which abuts upon any road, street, highway or alley, or upon any abandoned or vacated road, street, highway or alley shall be deemed and construed to include any right, title or interest in that part of such road, street, highway or alley which the abutting owner who makes any such instrument shall presently have or, which such owner, his heirs, successors and assigns subsequently acquires in such road, street, highway or alley unless such instrument by its terms expressly excludes, in the description of the property, such road, street, highway or alley. The right, title or interest acquired under such instrument in such road, street, highway or alley, by virtue of the provisions of this Act, shall be deemed and construed to be for the same uses and purposes set forth in such instrument with respect to the real property specifically described in the instrument. However, no covenants or agreements made by the maker of any such instrument with respect to any real property specifically described shall apply to or be enforceable with respect to any right, title, or interest which is acquired solely by virtue to the provisions of this Act. “Conveyance” expressly excludes a road, street, highway, or alley if the legal description of the property uses the boundary of the road, street, highway, or alley closest to the property being conveyed as a boundary of the property being conveyed or expressly states that the road, street, highway, or alley is excepted from the property being conveyed. A conveyance does not expressly exclude a road, street, highway, or alley if the conveyance is described as being “subject to” the road, street, highway, or alley. The rights accruing in the abutting property owner under this Act shall be subject to all existing uses and easements located within the right-of-way; the rights shall also be subject to such future uses and easements as may be permitted to be located within the right- of-way under the provisions of the Illinois Highway Code or any successor statute thereto. This provision of this amendatory Act of the 93rd General Assembly is intended to clarify, by codification, existing law and is not intended to change the law.