Easements Flashcards
Easement
An easement is a proprietary right to use land which belongs to somebody else.
The use is more limited than an exclusive right to occupy or use.
The person who receives the benefit of the easement is the grantee and their land, which is
benefitted by the easement, is the dominant tenement.
The person who grants the easement land is the grantor and their land, which is burdened by
the easement, is the servient tenement.
Legal easements
An easement is capable of being a legal interest in land if the duration of the right is equivalent to
one of the two legal estates.
LPA 1925, s 1(2)(a):
an easement […] for an estate equivalent to an estate in fee simple absolute in possession or a
term of years absolute.
Example: easements that are capable of being legal in nature
* A right of way granted when part of freehold land is sold will be granted forever.
* A right of drainage granted in a five-year lease will be granted for the term of that lease.
Equitable easements
If an easement is not granted for the duration equivalent to a freehold or leasehold estate, it can
only be equitable.
LPA 1925, s 1(3):
All other estates, interests, and charges in or over land take effect as equitable interests
Example: Easements that are only capable of being equitable in nature
A right to park which is granted ‘until the alternative parking facility is completed’ can only be
equitable as it is not granted forever or for a set period of time. A right of storage ‘while the building works are being completed’ can only be equitable as the time
it will take for the building works to be completed is uncertain.
Quasi-easements
Where landowners use, for example, paths on their own land, they are not enjoying easements.
They are using the paths as owners of the land.
However, the use of the paths could become easements if ever the land was divided.
This nebulous or potential easement is called a quasi-easement.
Public rights
Public rights can be similar in scope to easements. The best example is a right of way.
However, instead of being exercised by an individual or particular body, the right by its nature is
exercised by the general public.
Licences
A licence can authorise somebody to use land in the same way as an easement does. A licence is
not, however, a proprietary right in land: it merely confers a personal right which cannot be
enforced against a third party.
Profits a prendre
An easement does not confer on the holder the right to take anything, such as produce, animals,
fish, or minerals, from the land.
A profit a prendre confers such a right. The rules governing profits are very similar to the rules
governing easements, however they are beyond the scope of this course.
Restrictive covenants
An easement confers a right over the servient land. As a consequence, the servient owner cannot
do anything on the servient land which would interfere with the right. For example, the route of a
right of way cannot be built upon.
By contrast, the primary function of a restrictive covenant is to restrict what is be done on the
servient land and is a promise to not do something on the burdened land eg build without
consent.
Grants and reservations
A grant exists where a landowner sells or leases part of their land and gives to the buyer/tenant
an easement over the land which they have retained.
A reservation exists where a landowner sells or leases part of their land to a buyer/tenant, and
retains a right over the land sold or leased .
A reservation is strictly construed against the person reserving it, because they are in a position to
reserve exactly what is required and are assumed to have done so. Any attempt by the
seller/landlord to extend the right will fail. To interpret the right more widely would be to ‘derogate
from the grant’ that the seller/landlord has made to the buyer/tenant, in that the buyer/tenant
has a lesser use of the land than originally envisaged.
Express creation
Most easements, whether grants or reservations, are created expressly. They commonly arise
when land is sold or leased and are set out in writing in the transfer deed or lease.
Easements can also be expressly created as part of a separate deal, independent of a transfer or
lease.
Implied creation
Easements need not necessarily be expressly created. An easement may be deemed to have been
created impliedly by one of several recognised methods.
If an easement is impliedly created, it is effectively written into the document from which it was
originally omitted.
Prescription
Easements may also arise by prescription or ‘long use’.
Generally, an easement is claimed by prescription where it has been exercised over land for a
long time (at least 20 years), yet no express grant or reservation can be traced.
Easements acquired by prescription are legal easements.
If the right has the characteristics of an easement and has been exercised openly for the requisite
length of time, the servient owner is deemed to have tolerated the creation of the easement.
There are three types of prescription:
(a) Prescription at Common Law
(b) Prescription under the doctrine of Lost Modern Grant
(c) The Prescription Act 1832
For all types, the basic criteria is:
* Continuous user: ‘reasonably regular use’ by a freeholder or successive freehold owners
against a freeholder.
* As a right: the right must have been used without force, without secrecy and without
permission. Exercised ‘nec vi; nec clam; nec precario’.
Assessment focus point
You need to know that prescription will succeed under the Prescription Act 1832 if the user can
prove uninterrupted enjoyment for the 20-year period. [No use for one year or more =
interruption]
Is a right an easement or just a licence?
As an easement is a very powerful right in land, there are strict tests which must be met before a
right can be recognised as an easement rather than simply a personal right.
First, the right must be capable in principle of being an easement.
It must satisfy the tests laid down in re Ellenborough Park [1956] Ch 131.
Second, the right must not be prevented from being an easement by the presence of one of the
‘disqualifying factors’: additional compulsory expenditure by the servient owner; use which
amounts to exclusive possession; or permission.
Third, the right must have been acquired as an easement. This can be done in one of three ways:
* By complying with the statutory formalities for an express grant or reservation;
* By one of the recognised methods of implied acquisition; or
* By prescription, which is long use.
The capability rules: re Ellenborough Park
- There must be a dominant and servient tenement
- The right must accommodate the dominant tenement
- There must be diversity of ownership
- The right must ‘lie in grant’
There must be a dominant and servient tenement
There must be two identifiable pieces of land: one which benefits from the exercise of the right
(the dominant tenement/land), and one which is burdened by its exercise (the servient
tenement/land) (London & Blenheim Estates Ltd v Ladbroke Retail Parks Ltd [1992]).
This means that an easement cannot exist ‘in gross’ Hawkins v Rutter [1892] 1 QB 668. It cannot
be exercised by the holder independently of the land: that would be a licence or personal right. An
easement cannot exist unless there is a dominant tenement which benefits.
The right must accommodate the dominant tenement
The right must have some direct beneficial impact on the dominant tenement. Lord Oliver’s test
from a covenants case P&A Swift Investments Ltd v Combined English Stores Group plc [1989] is
helpful here. Useful questions to ask are:
* Does the right benefit any owner of the land?
* Does it cease to be of use once the dominant owner has parted with the land?
* Does the right make the dominant land a better or more convenient property?
* Does the right add value or amenity to the dominant land?
It is sometimes difficult to see whether a right benefits land itself, or simply benefits a business run
from that land.
In Hill v Tupper (1863) 2 H&C 121 the right claimed as an easement was a right to put boats on a
canal which adjoined the claimant’s land. The right did not accommodate the dominant tenement
as it did not benefit the land itself: it simply benefitted the business which the claimant happened
to carry out on the land.
However, in Moody v Steggles (1879) 12 ChD 261 the court held that a right to hang a sign on an
adjoining building which pointed down a side-street to the claimant’s pub was an easement. In
this case, the court found that the sign benefitted a long-established business which had become
the normal use of that land.
Therefore, the question to ask is whether the business is a necessary incident to the use of the
land, or is a completely unconnected business. If there is a nexus between the land and the
business run from the land, a right that benefits the business will also benefit the land.
For a right to accommodate the dominant tenement the dominant and servient land must be
sufficiently proximate to each other. Normally the dominant and servient land will be adjoining
but this need not be the case. In Pugh v Savage [1970] 2 QB 373 there was a right of way over
one field to get to another. There was a third field in the middle. The right of way was still held to
benefit the dominant tenement even though the dominant and servient tenements were not
adjoining. They were close enough for the dominant land to derive a benefit from the right.
There must be no common ownership of the two tenements
The dominant and servient land must be owned by different people. It is not possible for an owner
to claim an easement over their own land: Roe v Siddons (1888) 22 QBD 224. Benefits enjoyed
58 Land Law
over one’s own land are called quasi-easements and are capable of becoming easements if the
land is ever partitioned.
‘Ownership’ could be ownership of a freehold or a leasehold estate. A landowner may own a
freehold and sell part of that freehold to a buyer. Alternatively a landowner may own a freehold
and lease part of that land to a tenant. In each case there is diversity of ownership.
Conversely, if the dominant and servient land ever came back into common ownership, any
easements enjoyed by the would be extinguished.
The right must lie in grant
The right must be capable of forming the subject-matter of a deed.
In other words, the right must be:
* Granted by a capable grantor to a capable grantee
The person who grants the right must have the power to do so. They must be over 18 and own
the legal estate. The grantee must also be capable. For example, it would not be possible to
grant an easement to a group eg ‘the residents of village’ as the body of people can change.
* Capable of reasonably exact description
The nature and extent of the right must be clear enough for the court to know exactly what is
to be enforced, by reference to a plan for example. Rights that are too vague will not be
enforced. For example, a right to ‘a scenic view’ was rejected in William Aldreds Case [1610] 9
Co Rep 57b.
* Judicially recognised
The right should be within the general nature of rights traditionally recognised as easements.
See examples below.
Even if a right has not previously been recognised as an easement, it can still be capable of being
one as the list of easements is not exhaustive: Dyce v Lady James Hay (1852). The law develops
gradually by analogy with previous cases. For example, parking rights developed from easements
of storage to easements in their own right, in recognition of their increasing importance.
However, a new type of easement must not be negative in nature. In Phipps v Pears [1965] a claim
for a new easement, a right to protection from the weather, was rejected. The court said that
recognising new negative easements would unduly restrict the servient owner’s use and desirable
3: Easements 59
development of their land. The appropriate way to restrict development on sale of land would be
to impose a covenant on the buyer not a negative easement.
Disqualifying factors
The exercise of the right must not amount to exclusivepossession of the servient tenement.
* The exercise of the right by the dominant owner must not involve additional, unavoidable
expenditure by the servient owner.
* The exercise of the right must not depend on permission being given by the servient owner.
No exclusive possession
In terms of precedent, the ouster principle (also known as the ‘reasonable use test’) is binding law.
This was acknowledged in Kettel v Blomfold Ltd [2012] EWCH 2901.
In that case, the court applied the Batchelor test but in a ‘Moncrieff way’. The claimant claimed a
parking easement. It was held that the servient owner had not been deprived of reasonable use
(the ‘ouster’ test) because he could still do anything he liked on the parking area except interfere
with the parking (the ‘possession and control’ test).
The test seems to be changing slightly to favour the person claiming the easement, as the
possession and control test makes it harder to defeat an easement on the basis of exclusive
possession.
Assessment focus point
Rights to store and rights to park typically raise issues with exclusive possession given the
nature of these rights. Providing the servient landowner retains control of the space and is
(theoretically) able to do anything with it (eg paint it) except interfere with the right (ie the
parking/storage), then the right will probably not be disqualified in the circumstances.
No additional expenditure
If the exercise of a right by the dominant owner requires the servient tenement owner to spend
extra money, the right is disqualified from being an easement, as a positive obligation is
inconsistent with the concept of an easement.
On a related point, a servient tenement owner is not obliged to carry out repairs or maintenance
to enable the dominant owner to enjoy an easement. Instead, they must allow the dominant
owner onto the servient land to carry out any repairs at the dominant owner’s expense (Jones v
Pritchard [1908] 1 Ch 630).
In Regis Property Co Ltd v Redman [1956] QB 612 a right to supply of hot water was held not to
be an easement as supplying hot water to the claimant meant that the servient owner was forced
to spend money.
In Rance v Elvin (1985) 50 P&CR 9 the court upheld an easement for a water supply even though
the meter was on the servient land and the servient owner was solely responsible for the payment
of bills. The court said the servient owner was obliged to allow the water through the pipes, and
the dominant owner was liable under a quasi-contractual obligation to pay its share of the bill.
No permission
Express permission will almost inevitably be given when a right is first used. However, after the
initial grant, the dominant owner must exercise the benefit as of right.
Enjoying the benefit as of right is the essence of an easement. If the dominant owner asks for
permission every time the right is exercised, it cannot be an easement.
Green v Ashco Horticultural Ltd [1966] 1 WLR 889
Facts: The claimant claimed a right to park a van on the defendant’s land was an easement. The
claimant had always moved his van if asked to do so by the servient owner.
Held: The defendant was only exercising the right to park in so far as the servient owner
permitted. In moving the van on request, the defendant was actually acknowledging that he did
not park on the land as of right but by permission. There was no easement to park on the facts
Express creation
Most easements, whether grants or reservations, are created expressly.
They commonly arise when land is sold or leased and are set out in writing in the transfer deed or
lease. Easements can also be expressly created as part of a separate deal, independent of a
transfer or lease.
62 Land Law
Easements are very powerful proprietary rights. The fact that they exist necessarily affects the
value and amenity of both the dominant and servient land. There is, therefore, like most interests
in land, a high degree of formality that must be met to validly create the right (assuming it is of
course capable of being an easement and is not disqualified on the facts).
Easements are capable of being legal interests in land providing they fall within the definition in
LPA 1925, s 1(2), meaning they are created for a term equivalent to a freehold or leasehold estate.
In effect, this means:
* An easement granted or reserved potentially forever can be legal;
* An easement granted or reserved for a set period can be legal; but
* An easement for a period which is not ‘forever’ or a set time (ie for an uncertain period) can
only be equitable.
Express legal easements: formalities
All expressly granted legal interests must be created by deed (LPA 1925, s 52).
To be a deed, a document must comply with the formalities in LP(MP)A 1989, s 1.
3: Easements 63
Figure 3.8: Requirements of a deed
Where the servient land is registered, the easement must be substantively registered at the Land
Registry to be legal (LRA 2002, s 27(2)(d)).
Once this is done, the benefit of the easement is noted on the Property Register of the dominant
land’s title and the burden is noted in the Charges Register of the servient land’s title.
If any formalities or registration requirements are not met, the easement may be recognised as an
equitable easement.