Glossary
Easement
A legal right to use part of a property for a specific purpose, such as utilities or access.
What it means
An easement grants someone the right to use a defined portion of a parcel for a limited purpose without owning that land.
Common easements cover utility lines, drainage, or shared driveways and access roads, and they stay attached to the land when it is sold.
For buyers, an easement can limit where you build or fence, so it is worth checking the survey and title before purchase.
An easement may benefit the property, burden the property, or do both. For example, a parcel might depend on an access easement across a neighbor's land while also allowing a utility company to maintain lines across one edge of the lot.
The recorded document matters more than a casual description. It should identify the benefited party, the burdened area, the allowed use, maintenance obligations, access rights, and whether the easement is permanent, temporary, exclusive, or shared.
Easements can affect buildability because structures, fences, pools, landscaping, wells, septic systems, or driveways may be restricted inside the easement area. A survey helps show whether the easement overlaps with the buyer's intended improvements.
Some easements are visible, such as a shared driveway or power line, while others only appear in the title report or recorded plat. Buyers should not assume that an empty strip of land is fully usable until title and survey review are complete.
When an easement is essential for access or utilities, buyers should confirm that it is legally recorded, wide enough for the intended use, and practical for emergency vehicles, construction access, maintenance, and future resale.
At its core, an easement is a legal right to use part of another owner's land for a specific purpose, while ownership of the underlying land remains with that owner. Common types include utility easements for power, water, sewer, gas, or communications lines; access or right-of-way easements for driveways and roads; drainage easements for stormwater flow; conservation easements that limit development to protect land or habitat; and prescriptive easements that may arise from long-term open use under local law.
Many easements run with the land, meaning the right or burden is tied to the parcel itself rather than only to the current owner. If the property is sold, future owners usually take title subject to properly recorded easements, so a buyer can inherit both the benefit of an access right and the burden of allowing someone else to use part of the property.
Title reports typically list recorded easements as exceptions or encumbrances, while a survey can show their location, width, and relationship to buildings, fences, driveways, utilities, and lot lines. Because easements can reserve space or rights for someone else, they may affect market value, privacy, expansion plans, setbacks, financing comfort, and whether a proposed home, pool, driveway, septic system, or redevelopment project is actually buildable.