Easements

An easement is a right which a person has over land owned by someone else. Easements are normally attached to the land rather than to a person and can be considered to last in perpetuity.

Examples of easements include:

• Rights of way.
• Right to light.
• The right for underground services to pass beneath the land of a neighbouring property.
• Right of support.
• The right to draw water.

An easement can be created by:

• Express grant, for example, it may be set out in a conveyance deed or a transfer deed.
• Necessity, for example, if there is only one means of access between a site and a public highway.
• By prescription, i.e. the act is repeated for a period of at least twenty years.

Easements can be extinguished in several ways:

• Agreement between the parties in the form of a deed.
• By implied release, for example it has not been used for a long period of time.
• Where the character of the dominant land has changed.
• By limitation of time, if a limitation was agreed.
• By a change in law.

Easements differ from wayleaves, which are temporary agreements typically used by utilities companies to allow them to install and maintain equipment on privately-owned land in return for payment to the landowner and occupier.

[edit] Find out more

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• Building survey.
• Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.
• Deed of easement.
• Due diligence.
• Encumbrances.
• Land register.
• Party wall act.
• Property rights.
• Restrictive covenants.
• Right to light.
• Right of support.
• Rights of way.
• Right to a view.
• Tree rights.
• Trespass.
• Wayleave.

[edit] External references

• Land registry: Practice Guide 62 – Easements
• Restrictive Coventants: Rights of way.
• Boundary problems: Easements.

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