easement

Australia's #1 for Law
Join 150,000 Australians every month. Ask a question, respond to a question and better understand the law today!
FREE - Join Now
An easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B". It is similar to real covenants and equitable servitudes; in the United States, the Restatement (Third) of Property takes steps to merge these concepts as servitudes.Easements are helpful for providing pathways across two or more pieces of property, allowing individuals to access other properties or a resource, for example to fish in a privately owned pond or to have access to a public beach. An easement is considered as a property right in itself at common law and is still treated as a type of property in most jurisdictions.
The rights of an easement holder vary substantially among jurisdictions. Historically, the common law courts would enforce only four types of easement:

Right-of-way (easements of way)
Easements of support (pertaining to excavations)
Easements of "light and air"
Rights pertaining to artificial waterwaysModern courts recognize more varieties of easements, but these original categories still form the foundation of easement law.

View More On Wikipedia.org
Recent contents
  1. B

    QLD Easement location change/upkeep

    Hi All, Thanks for taking the time to provide advice. We’ve lived in our current property for about 3 years. It’s a battle axe rural block of 10 acres. Access to the property is by way of an easement over the property between us and the road. The access drive is of some length ?1/4km. We...
  2. C

    SA "Right of way" easement

    I am the dominant tenement benefiting from a right of way easement. However, this right of way easement has also been used for the provision of utilities and services for over 4 decades (without a express utility easement documented). The servient tenement has just recently asked me to take down...
  3. JOHNLEE

    NSW Seeking Advice on Stormwater Pipeline Easement Issue with Neighbor front driveway

    Hi everyone, I'm new here and looking for some advice or insights from anyone who has had similar experiences. Last October, we started building our house with Metricon. To comply with council requirements for stormwater management, we need to connect our OSD (On-Site Detention) tank to an...
  4. B

    TAS Locked gate on easement

    We are the dominant party of an easement which allows us right of carriageway down a driveway to a carport . In addition, we also have the right to travel through a farmgate to a paddock if we, visitors or service drivers need to turn around. This is on our title. For the second time in several...
  5. O

    QLD Access easement: repairs?

    We have recently bought a house with an easement driveway in order to access the rear part of our property. The house is in significant disrepair and requires urgent repairs. The burdened property owner almost immediately raised concerns about us having heavy machinery on the shared driveway...
  6. S

    VIC Implied easements under Section 12(2) of the Subdivision Act

    Why do easements such as drainage and sewerage need to be prescribed in the easement table of a plan of subdivision if implied easements under section 12(2) of the subdivision act is notated to apply to all the land in the plan?
  7. M

    NSW Neighbor storm water easement on my property

    My neighbor wants to build a house and asks me to agree to run a storm water drain pipe/s through my land. Can I stop him, by the law, from doing that?
  8. C

    QLD Enforced easement, road access, Queensland.

    My neighbour is trying to force a easement on my property. Both properties over 100 acres. His property is not land locked, he has been using access through my property since 2004 so not prespective. I have had the property for a year and informed him on my first day, first meeting I did not...
  9. S

    VIC Changing height of easement

    Hi, There is a Right of Passageway easement (I am the Servient tenement) over part of my land. The easement is sloping and have a series of steps. Am I able to excavate and change the elevation of the stairs to allow my use of the same area as a passageway to my lower level. It will impact...
  10. brian vanallen

    WA Gate across easement between properties

    We have a rural property with an easement. Our neighbour travels along the easement from the street, through our property, to gain access to their property. There is a fence between our properties, but there is no gate between our properties, at the point where our neighbour enters their...
Top Bottom