A government agency or private service provider may acquire a tacit easement on private land because of the public service it provides. For example, a local authority may be responsible for the installation and maintenance of the sewage system in an urban area. The mere fact that it has this responsibility, which is usually enshrined in a local law or statute, may give the authority the right to enter private property under an implied easement to perform installation and maintenance. The location of the easement is generally not described in detail, but its general position is defined by the service route (i.e. the sewer lines in this example). Electricity and water pipes may also have implicit related easements, but drainage and rainwater systems are usually precisely defined in the position and recorded in title documents for private land. With so many different types of easements, it`s easy to find this confusing real estate theme. Below are some common questions that homebuyers often ask themselves about easements and property rights. Gross servitude is also used for things like easements. Utilities use these easements to access their lines and other equipment for repairs and maintenance.

If something goes wrong, your utility will need to access your cables or sewer system to make repairs. This type of easement does not give utilities the freedom to do what they want on your property. However, you may be able to install new devices as long as it`s for the benefit of the community. This is legal whether or not you agree with their decision to make changes. Easements can affect the property and limit your ability to do certain things on your property. This is because the only limit created by an easement is that the landowner cannot block or otherwise impede the use of the owner of the easement. Other methods of determining easements include prescribed use (the current and unfavorable use of someone else`s land), forfeiture, custom, public trust, and conviction. An easement can be implicit or explicit. An explicit servitude may be “granted” or “reserved” in an instrument or other legal instrument. Alternatively, it can be included in the agreement of an association of owners by reference to a plan of subdivision by “dedication” or in a restrictive agreement. In general, contract law teachings are at the heart of disputes over explicit easements, while disputes over tacit easements generally apply the principles of property law. Let`s say your neighbor starts parking in your driveway without your permission.

You don`t stop them, and they do year after year. As unfair as it may seem, by illegally accessing your property, they can get a right of access to it. This is because the court might consider your inability to stop them as an act of concession on your part. Unlike an explicit easement, an implied easement is neither written nor documented because it is obvious or implied that the property should be used for the enjoyment and use of the other party. Most types of easements are affirmative, meaning they allow someone else`s land to be used. Negative easements are less common, which are usually aimed at gaining a person`s access to light or views by limiting what can be done on a neighboring or neighboring property. A more personal example of a raw easement could be one that allows a friend to use your property for hunting, or a neighbor to use your pond for fishing. Luckily, you`ve come to the right place. This article provides basic information about easements, including the creation and transfer of easements. In this article, you can also learn more about the rights and remedies of easements and the legal issues to consider in easements. A prescriptive easement is similar, but different from unfavorable possession.

Both are legal doctrines that give a non-owner the right to access your property through open and notorious use. As a homeowner, you can allow someone else to use your property through a so-called easement. There are many definitions and types of easements that need to be understood if you own real estate and want to give another person access to your property, but you don`t want to add it to the deed or sell the property to them. When it`s time to buy your next home, don`t avoid properties that have easements. First, you will significantly reduce the number of potential homes available, and second, there are few properties with unwanted easements. If a house has a seriously restrictive or undesirable easement, you can bet that the price will ultimately reflect its lack of desirability. We often see an easement in situations where the dominant dwelling house uses part of the land or the common driveway of the Servient building to access its property. Another example would be if you own land on the beach and your neighbor can only access the public beach through part of your property. Another example would be an easement for power lines and other equipment of energy companies. Buying a house with an easement doesn`t have to be a bad thing. Many types of easements can be beneficial to both the owner and owner of the easement.

However, they can also cause problems and restrict certain property rights. To protect yourself and your investment, you should take the time to thoroughly research your potential property to find out what types of easements it might have. To learn more about property rights, learn about titles and how they protect homeowners when buying property. If you are considering buying a property with an easement, you will definitely need to take the time to do some research to find out the specific conditions of the easement. n. the right to use someone else`s property for specific purposes. The easement is itself real estate, but legal ownership of the underlying property remains with the original owner for all other purposes. Typical easements are for access to another property (often redundantly specified as “access and exit” because entry and exit are through the same path), for supply or sewer pipes both under and above the ground, use of spring water, access to repairs to a fence or slip zone, driving cattle forward and other uses. Easements can be created by a registered deed like any real estate interest, by continuous and open use by the non-owner against the rights of the landowner for a legal number of years, usually five (“prescriptive easement”), or to create justice (equity), including access to “internal property” (sometimes referred to as “servitude of necessity”). Easements can be specifically described by boundaries (“24 feet wide along the north line over a distance of 180 feet”), a bit vague (“along the path to the northern boundary”), or only for one purpose (“access to Jones property” or “access to source”), sometimes referred to as “floating easement”.

There is also a “negative servitude” such as a ban on building a structure that blocks a view. Title reports and title summaries typically describe all existing easements on a parcel of real estate. Problems with maintenance, sharing, door locks, damage to servitude and other conflicts clutter the justice system, mainly due to misunderstandings at the time of creation. If an owner makes a false statement about the existence of an easement when selling a property and does not include in the deed to the buyer an explicit easement on an adjacent property that the seller owns, a court may intervene and create an easement. Easements by estoppel generally refer to any commitment not made in writing, funds issued by the receiving party based on the encumbered party`s submissions, and other factors. If the court finds that the buyer acted reasonably and in good faith and relied on the seller`s promises, it may create an easement by estoppel. Unlike simple unfavorable possession, prescriptive easements generally do not require exclusivity. In states that do, such as Virginia, the exclusivity requirement has been interpreted as requiring the prescriptive user to use the easement in a manner different from that of the general public, i.e., “exclusive” use to that user, Callahan v.

Weiß, 238 Va. 10, 381 S.E.2d 1 (1989). Private easements may not be a problem, but depending on the conditions, they may limit what you can do with your property. Private easements must appear on the title. Easement agreements can be designed in such a way that certain uses of the property can be listed and there can be an end to the easement.