A party may need to use someone else’s property for various reasons. For example, one parcel may block another from the public road, or a utility company may need to lay lines across private property to serve other customers. Parties can establish these usage rights through an easement. Easements give one party the right to use another party’s property in some way. However, easements often go unnoticed for years until a property sale, or parties may dispute the easement’s scope or current use. Understanding what rights an easement confers can help you if you face a real estate dispute.
What Is an Easement?
An easement is a property right that allows one party to use another party’s parcel for the purposes described in the easement. Easements have two parties: the servient estate and the dominant estate. The servient estate refers to the parcel burdened by the easement, such as a parcel on which another property owner can build a driveway to access a public road. The dominant estate refers to the party entitled to use the easement.
An easement can come in two forms. An “easement in gross” benefits an individual or a business entity rather than a parcel of real estate. For example, a utility company may obtain an easement in gross to run its lines across someone’s property. An “easement appurtenant” benefits a specific parcel of land and usually transfers between successive owners of that parcel.
Government and non-profits may also enter conservation easements with property owners that restrict development of parcels for environmental protection or wilderness preservation purposes.
How Easements Are Created
Parties may create an easement in several ways:
- Express easement: Parties can create an express easement by signing a written document in which the servient estate owner grants the easement to the dominant estate.
- Implied easement: An implied easement can arise from prior use of a divided property if that use existed prior to the properties’ division from a single parcel. Courts may require a party to show that the original owner of the unified parcel intended for the use to continue after the division and that the dominant estate still reasonably needs the easement.
- Easement by necessity: Oregon law allows a property owner of a landlocked parcel (a parcel not adjacent to a public road) to obtain an easement over others’ property to access a public road or utility services (e.g., public water, sewer, or gas lines)
- Prescriptive easement: A party may establish a prescriptive easement by using another party’s land in an open, obvious manner for a continuous period of at least ten years without the landowner’s permission.
What Rights Does an Easement Give?
An easement gives the dominant estate certain rights, including:
- The right to use the servient estate only for the stated purpose(s) in an express easement agreement or for the purposes established by an implied easement, prescriptive easement, or easement by necessity
- The right to make reasonable use, including frequency or severity of use in accordance with the easement agreement or historical use
- The right to maintain, repair, and improve the easement as needed to continue the approved use, with the dominant estate usually bearing maintenance and repair costs
Contact Our Firm Today to Learn More About How Easements Work in Oregon
Easements let parties grant usage rights to property without transferring the entire property to another person. If you have questions about easements, our firm can answer them. Contact Wayne A. Lamb Law today for an initial consultation with a real estate lawyer to learn more about easements in Oregon and the rights they can confer upon a property owner.