What Is an Easement on a Property?

An easement grants someone access to your property for practical purposes or for other reasons. For example, your neighbors may have access to a path on your property to get to the beach. While easements ideally are friendly, that's not always the case. You could purchase a property with an easement that gives someone access to your property. Read on to understand what an easement is and how it can affect you. 

Understanding Easements in Real Estate

An easement in real estate grants the easement holder access to property that belongs to another person or entity. It is a type of property encumbrance and a legally defined property right. 

An easement gives a person or business entity the right to access your property or a portion of your property for a specific purpose or at a particular time. For example, an easement could be given to neighbors who cannot access their property without a road that crosses your property. Or, an easement may be given to a utility company to access your property for a specific purpose. 

Easements can affect you as a property owner in several ways. An affirmative easement, which gives someone the right to cut through your property, prevents you from blocking the easement owner’s access to your property. For example, if a school abuts your property with an easement, you won't be able to block student access to the school through your property. 

Easements may restrict what you do in other ways. A negative easement could, for example, prevent you from developing the property or adding a second floor that blocks your neighbor’s views and access to light.

How Does an Easement Work?

An easement grants the easement holder, a person, business entity or government entity, the right to access your property as defined by the easement. For example, the local utility company could hold an easement to access power lines, cables or sewage access on your property.  

If you hold an easement, you have the legal right to access property you don’t legally own. For example, many beachfront or lakefront communities will have an easement in place for all property owners to access the water. If you have to cross someone else's property to access yours, you may have an easement. 

Types of Easements

Different types of easements define specific situations. If you are preparing to purchase a property with an easement, understanding the implications can help guide your decision on how disruptive easement access will be. 

1. Easement Appurtenant

An easement appurtenant is a type of easement that links two properties. In this case, the easement continues with the properties and isn't dependent on the owners. 

In an easement appurtenant, one property is called the servient tenement estate, while the other is called the dominant tenement estate. For this structure, the servient estate allows the easement. The dominant tenement estate is the one that benefits from the easement.

If you have to cross through your neighbor's property to access your home, in this type of arrangement, their property would be the servient tenement estate while yours would be the dominant tenement estate, as you benefit from the easement. 

2. Easement in Gross

An easement in gross allows an individual or entity the use of someone else's land or property. Generally, an easement in gross agreement is put in place to benefit the property owner as an individual and not the property. In this case, the easement holder cannot transfer the easement benefits to another party. The most common type of easement in gross is a utility easement. 

3. Easement by Prescription

Easement by prescription is potentially the most troublesome type of easement for property owners. An easement by prescription is granted after someone uses another's property for a certain amount of time without permission. To fall into the category of easement by prescription, the trespasser must use the property in a way that the owner should be aware of. 

Different states define different times required for someone to achieve a prescriptive easement. These times can range from a few years to 20 years or more. If your neighbor parks their car in your yard, and you don't ask them to move it, eventually, a court may grant them an easement by prescription. 

4. Utility Easement 

A utility easement gives utility companies access to the property to supply local utilities. The utility company may have the right to control a portion of another person's land located near utility structures or facilities. Utility easements may be in place around utility poles, transformers, overhead or underground electrical lines, sewer lines or water lines. 

5. Easements by Necessity

An easement by necessity aims to make more property usable. This type of easement is created by law because the easement is indispensable to the reasonable use of a neighboring property. The most common type of easement by necessity is a road that grants access to a property without public road access. In this case, it's necessary to have an easement connecting a parcel of land to a road to allow the residents of the parcel to access their property. 

6. Private Easements

A private easement grants access or use of the land to a certain person or people. While a public easement grants access to everyone. In many cases, you could create a private easement to prevent an easement by prescription in the future. In that case, for example, if you grant your neighbor the right to park on your property, you don't risk an easement by prescription, which would allow all future residents of the neighbor's property the right to park on your land. 

An affirmative easement allows someone to do something on the property, while a negative easement forbids it.

7. Public Easements

A public easement gives the public at large the right to use or access certain properties. This can include streets, highways, paths and even airspace owned by others. In a public easement, the person who owns the land is legally obliged to allow members of the public to access the defined easement area of land for the reasons stated in the easement.

For example, in a neighborhood near a beach, the developers may put in public easements on beach paths that give all residents the right to access the beach. A conservation easement is a type of public easement used to protect wildlife or other natural resources for conservation objectives.  

Should You Buy a Property with Easements?

In most cases, there's no reason to avoid properties with easements. However, it's important to understand the implications of the easement before purchasing a property with easements. While an easement is a type of encumbrance, it doesn't necessarily reduce the property value. 

At first glance, easements may sound problematic, but they’re practical in most situations. An easement may give you access to your property or give your neighbor access to your property. In some cases, like a utility easement, giving the utility company access benefits you. In other cases, an easement can make the neighborhood safer for children. 

A title search will turn up any easements so you can understand the implications for the property you're considering purchasing. This will help you understand the type of easement and the limitations it places on the use of the property. 

How to Know Whether There Is an Easement on Your Property

To determine whether there is an easement on your property, you should review your property's title and deed documents, consult with a real estate attorney and conduct a title search. If the title search shows encumbrances like easements or encroachments, a real estate attorney can help you understand the implications and whether there's a need to remove them and suggest whether you need a property survey to demarcate the easement area.  

Considering the Implications of an Easement

Understanding the implications of an easement and whether it will transfer on the sale of the property is important before any real estate transaction. An easement could benefit you, your neighbors or the whole community. In most cases, an easement won't affect your day-to-day use of the property and can in some cases increase property value. 

Frequently Asked Questions