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ARTICLE · 06 APRIL 2022

Hydro One Loses Prescriptive Easement Claim Over Private Access Road

Gardiner Roberts LLP
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Easements that are intended to provide utility companies with access to maintain and service the utilities they provide are common features of many properties in Ontario.

CanadaReal Estate and Construction
James R.G. Cook
James R.G. Cook
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Easements that are intended to provide utility companies with access to maintain and service the utilities they provide are common features of many properties in Ontario. If the easement is not registered on title, however, the use of the easement lands must be established under the same legal requirements for an easement, and rights may be gained or lost in the same manner.

In Hydro One Networks Inc. v. Amos Allen Shiner, 2022 ONSC 1893 (CanLII), Hydro One Networks sought a declaration that it held a permanent easement over the portion of a road on the respondent's property in Cloyne, Ontario. Hydro One sought the right to use the road without permission in order to access an easement in favour of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, as well as ancillary orders that would permit access and prevent the respondent from preventing access to the road.

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