What is an easement?

An easement is a limited right to use someone else’s land for a specific purpose, like a shared driveway.

Where the word "Easement" comes from

The term grew out of Anglo-Norman law, where easement described the comfort or benefit one piece of land enjoyed from another. It became a settled category of property right in English common law and was carried into American real estate practice, where it still governs access, utilities, and shared driveways.

Why Easement matters

Easements run with the land, so they bind future owners even after the property is sold. A buyer takes the title subject to whatever easements are recorded, which is why they appear in every title report and affect how the land can be used, built on, and resold.

Common confusion about Easement

An easement is a right to use, not ownership. The property owner keeps the title and the right to use the land in every way that does not interfere with the easement. The two rights coexist on the same parcel, and neither party can simply cancel the arrangement unilaterally.

A real-world example of Easement

Your neighbor's driveway crosses the corner of your lot because an access easement was recorded decades ago. Even after you buy the home, the neighbor keeps the legal right to drive across that strip, and you cannot fence it off or demand rent for its use.

A worked example of Easement

A city utility holds an easement to run water lines beneath your backyard. You still own the yard and can plant grass, but you cannot build a deck or pool over the buried main, and the utility may enter to repair it. The easement is recorded on your deed and stays attached when you sell the property to a new owner, who inherits both the benefit to the utility and the limitation on your building plans. If the utility later needs a larger easement, it must negotiate for it rather than expand the recorded one, which shows how precisely these rights are drawn.

How Easement works in practice

Read the title report before buying so you know exactly what others may do on your land. An access or utility easement can limit where you build, fence, or landscape, and may lower the usable portion of your yard. Most are harmless, but a poorly placed one should factor into both your offer and your resale expectations, because you generally cannot remove a recorded easement unilaterally. If you are the one who needs an easement, have it drafted by a lawyer and recorded, because an unrecorded oral arrangement is difficult to enforce against a later buyer.

DefineLaw editors — plain-English definitions for general reference; not a substitute for advice from a licensed attorney.