Easement is the right to use another person’s land for a specific purpose. An easement may be created by agreement, implication, necessity, or prescription.
If one landowner grants a neighboring landowner a right of way across his or her property, the neighboring landowner has an easement by agreement. An easement by implication may occur when a landowner uses one part of the land to benefit another part. Suppose a landowner has two lots and uses one for a well to provide water to a house on the other. If the landowner sells only the lot with the house, a court may find an implied easement for the buyer to use the well.
An easement by necessity may be created when a landowner sells a portion of his or her land that has no access to roads. In such a case, the court may find an easement by necessity over the seller’s remaining land, enabling the buyer to use the land to reach the roads. An easement by prescription may arise from long and continued use of another person’s property. If the owner of a piece of land has walked across a neighboring property for as long as anyone can remember, the court may enforce the right of any owner of the land to walk across the property.
