California unwritten easements

[Howard Surveyor]

Not being licensed in California and needing information I hope and am sure you folks will help me out. My cousin bought a house in a subdivision in Pam Springs which was part of a large estate (Main House Lot). A predecessor did a BLA moving the lines around to make sure the small guest house was on a lot with the required setbacks and a third lot, which didn't meet the minimum size, could be purchased by any adjoiner. The purchaser of the guest house also acquired the smaller tract. All this appears to be approved by the City lst spring.
Here is the problem. The estate sat on a corner lot. After the BLA, the Main house sets on one street but is cut off from the other (former access) so the City approved a new driveway access to the street it fronts (no problem). Now it is discovered the underground utilities, including the sewer lateral ran under the original access and no easement was retained for the Main House Lot. The City has informed my cousin she needs to move the lateral (no sewer on her street access estimate $30k) and all the buried electric and phone lines (no overhead, all underground) AND also informed the owner of the guest house lot the utilities are encroaching and shall be removed at my cousin's expense "I apologize that we were not aware of this situation before the lot line adjustment was completed".
In our county and cities, the local authority must approve a BLA before it is approved. The surveyor must show all utilities either above or below ground, any existing easements, and building setbacks before and after the BLA. Doesn't Palm Springs require this since it was approved by the City Engineer? If they approved the BLA without any maps submitted shouldn't they be responsible? Does anybody know if Palm Springs has an innocent purchaser statute to protect some buyer from something like this happening? What are the statute for unrecorded easements? Thanks

[William Magee]

Most of your questions should be directed to a good real estate attorney, not surveyors. Your questions are in regards to rights and liabilities. These are not survey questions. All I can respond to is your question on the statute for unrecorded easements is found in Ca Civil Code 1007-1007 and Ca Code of Civil Procedure 321.
I am curious and it isn't clear from your post as to who is driving the issue. Is the adjoiner who is "encroached" upon the one who is complaining, or is he/she agreeable to granting an easement? Is the city demanding movement of the services or is the city responding to an inquiry as to remediation of the situation? I am guessing the former as the latter would be unusual for a city to step into what sounds more like a civil matter between the 2 adjoiners and possibly the original seller.
Hopefully this can be resolved without costly litigation or utility relocations.

[E_Page]

Since part of the BLA review process that the local agencies are supposed to do is to ensure that the resulting lots have the same level of services as the pre-BLA lots, there may be an implied easement. another possibility is that your cousin may be able to get the local court to recognize a prescriptive easement for the underground utilities. But as Mr. Magee said, have your cousin consult a knowledgeable attorney.