Understanding Easements and Rights of Way on Your Land

Understanding Easements and Rights of Way

Easements are legal rights that allow someone to use another person's land for a specific purpose. Rights of way are the most common type, but easements can cover drainage, utilities, access, and more.

Types of Easements

**Rights of way**: The right to pass over someone's land, either on foot or with vehicles. Common in properties accessed via shared driveways or private roads.

**Rights of drainage**: The right to run pipes or drains under someone's land.

**Rights of light**: The right to receive natural light through defined windows. Obstructing this right (e.g., by building an extension) can lead to legal action.

**Rights to run services**: The right to lay and maintain cables, pipes, or wires across someone's land.

Where Easements Appear in the Register

Easements show up in different parts of the title register:

**Section A (Property Register)**: Easements that *benefit* the property (e.g., "the property has a right of way over the access road shown on the title plan")

**Section C (Charges Register)**: Easements that *burden* the property (e.g., "the neighbouring property has a right to drain across the land")

Easements and Property Value

Easements can affect property value in both directions:

A right of way benefiting a landlocked property significantly increases its value

A right of way burdening your land (e.g., a public footpath through your garden) can reduce value

Utility easements across a property can restrict where you can build

Easements and Building Work

Before planning an extension or other building work, check for easements. Building over a drain with a right of drainage, or blocking a right of way, can result in a court order to remove the structure.

How Easements Are Created

**Express grant**: Written into a deed or transfer document

**Implied grant**: Arising by necessity or from the circumstances of a sale

**Prescription**: Acquired through long use (typically 20 years of uninterrupted use)

Check Easements on Your Property

Search for your property and purchase the title register to see all recorded easements on Online Land Registry.