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] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
- Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992.
- Building survey.
- Burdens.
- Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.
- Deed of easement.
- Dominant estate.
- Due diligence.
- Encumbrances.
- Land register.
- Property rights.
- Restrictive covenants.
- Right to light.
- Right of support.
- Rights of way.
- Rights over land.
- Right to a view.
- Right to access land.
- Servient estate.
- Tree rights.
- Trespass.
- Wayleave.
[edit] External references
Featured articles and news
Costs and insolvencies mount for SMEs, despite growth
Construction sector under insolvency and wage bill pressure in part linked to National Insurance, says report.
The place for vitrified clay pipes in modern infrastructure
Why vitrified clay pipes are reclaiming their role in built projects.
Research by construction PR consultancy LMC published.
Roles and responsibilities of domestic clients
ACA Safety in Construction guide for domestic clients.
Fire door compliance in UK commercial buildings
Architect and manufacturer gives their low down.
Plumbing and heating for sustainability in new properties
Technical Engineer runs through changes in regulations, innovations in materials, and product systems.
Awareness of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism
What CBAM is and what to do about it.
The new towns and strategic environmental assessments
12 locations of the New Towns Taskforce reduced to 7 within the new towns draft programme and open consultation.
Buildings that changed the future of architecture. Book review.
The Sustainability Pathfinder© Handbook
Built environment agency launches free Pathfinder© tool to help businesses progress sustainability strategies.
Government outcome to the late payment consultation, ECA reacts.
IHBC 2025 Gus Astley Student Award winners
Work on the role of hewing in UK historic conservation a win for Jack Parker of Oxford Brookes University.
Future Homes Building Standards and plug-in solar
Parts F and L amendments, the availability of solar panels and industry responses.
How later living housing can help solve the housing crisis
Unlocking homes, unlocking lives.
Preparing safety case reports for HRBs under the BSA
A new practical guide to preparing structural inputs for safety cases and safety case reports published by IStructE.
Male construction workers and prostate cancer
CIOB and Prostate Cancer UK encourage awareness of prostate cancer risks, and what to do about it.
Comments
To start a discussion about this article, click 'Add a comment' above and add your thoughts to this discussion page.