Easements are simple, right? But do you understand their scope?

Participants in property developments frequently grant and acquire easements over land. But do parties really understand their rights? In this article we examine the nature of rights under easements and makes suggestions to assist parties negotiating easements to create clearly defined rights, which achieve their purposes.

Introduction

Participants in property developments frequently grant and acquire easements over land. In essence, an easement is 'a right to make use of the subject matter of another's right of property'¹.

Some examples of easements are rights of way, rights to support and rights of drainage. This article provides a brief overview of rights under easements and suggests what parties negotiating easements can do to create clearly defined rights, which achieve their purposes.