Real Estate Easement Easily Explained and Defined

What is Easement in real estate?

Easement is a real estate that refer to situations when one party legally acquires rights to use the property of another party.

Easement rights can be privately or publicly held.Private easement grants land use rights to a certain group of people,while public easement grants those rights to the general public. 

   NOTE:Affirmative easement allows someone to do something on the property, while a negative easement forbids it.

      3 TYPES OF EASEMENT

      

I.) Easement by Appurtenant

II.) Easement by Presumption

III.) Easement by Gross

     I.) Easement Appurtenant

Appurtenant is a real estate term that refer to a fixed and permanent improvement to a property. Appurtenances transfer to a new owner when the property is sold.

It is subcategorised into an easement necessity.

   •Easement by Necessity:This can come into play when a homebuyer loses legal rights to access his/her property due to subdivision of land by the seller or change of ownership.

The former can legally gain easement by necessity to access the needed facilities like road,light or proper drainage.But he/she must establish and justify the following requirements first: 

      •The separation of utilities

      •The loss of access

      •The need for use

     

    II.)Easement by Prescription

This is when an outside party uses other people's property openly but without formal permission.

If you live in a neighborhood where people use to cross over your land going and from work and you don't restrict them,they might end up legally acquiring the right to continuously pass there.

The time required for acquisition of this easement rights vary in different countries while some can go up to 15 years and as low as 5 years.

   III.) Easement by Gross

Easement by Gross is the most common type of easement.It is granted to individuals or entities,giving them exclusive rights of using the property in a particular manner.

For example,a company like Kenya Power can hold easement by gross to access your house or land to maintain power lines or cables.

      Final Word

When buying a home you should make sure easement rights are included in the seller's disclosure and in the title deed for security purposes incase the property change hands.