(765 ILCS 5/7a) (from Ch. 30, par. 6a)
Sec. 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.
(Source: P.A. 93-357, eff. 1-1-04.)
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