easement

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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.

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  1. O

    QLD Stormwater pipe, easement question

    Hi guys, We have a large pit in our yard that has been flooding during heavy rain. Tracked down the original plans for the house and there is a 225 pipe that runs along my fence line down to the stormwater pit in the street. The pipe is directing the roofwater from 5 properties behind my house...
  2. D

    Stormwater easement

    Cousin bought a block of land In order to build he needs to connect to council stormwater easement which is on a neighbour's land. Connect via an utility easement. Neighbour clearly stated that he won't allow this to happen. Cousin has the utility company permission but utility company say he...
  3. A

    NSW Right of carriageway easement

    Hello, I'm hoping to get some advise on my rights over an unregistered right of carriageway easement that I am the dominant title holder. 25 years ago I purchased a block on land that was subdivided from land that the carriageway in question is part of. The sellers (a partnership of 3 people)...
  4. B

    NSW Leaving gate open on easement

    Hello all, I have a neighbour who has an easement for several hundred metres at the front of my property, from the public road there is a gate and he has another gate from my property to his. He has recently been operating Airbnb on his property and regularly has traffic at all hours. Numerous...
  5. D

    TAS Right of Way

    We share a right of way with our back neighbours, where we have a positive easement. There is a small portion of this right of way that is currently dirt, that we would like to concrete. We have provided ample notification of our intent to concrete this portion (at no cost to our neighbors)...
  6. K

    VIC Access to easement in neighbouring property when owner refuses

    Just wanted to better understand the legal options for the following scenario. Require access to an easement that sits in a neighbouring property for a drainage and sewerage connection. The easement is in favour of the Water authority and local council and runs the boundary to our block. Have...
  7. P

    NSW Stormwater inundating my backyard from neighbours property - easement question

    I have a rear neighbour whose yard is higher than mine. His yard slopes down towards the back fence. The street is also higher, so his stormwater (and all 14 neighbours next to him, are "higher" than me) but lower than their front street, so their stormwaters connect to a pipe in their backyard...
  8. A

    TAS Unregistered electric cable underground

    Does anyone know of what you can do if you discover an unregistered electric cable running underground across your land supplying someone else with electricity? There is no easement, it is not registered. How to get rid of it without paying for relocation of it?
  9. S

    Rights as Dominant easement holder

    I have got myself in a pickle over a <1m strip of land along the fence of our property. The land is owned by the neighbour and we have a free and unrestricted right of way over the land as it is ‘on our side of the fence’. The neighbour had no services running through the land. We made an...
  10. V

    NSW Council road on private property, no easement

    Hi all, we live in a rural area and our neighbour went to market with their property, potential purchaser conducted land survey and discovered existence of road reserve across the sale property. This causes issues for seller however as a result of this (house and pool on the reserve), we...