An easement is the right to do something or the right to prevent others from doing something on an adjoining land or on the property of some other person. It includes the right to use the adjacent land or property of another for some special purpose.
Instances of easements in the form of right to do something on the land of another are right of way into the public road through adjacent private property, easement of access, driveway easement into the road, sidewalk easements for public on private parcel of land, airspace above buildings for aviation easement, utility easements for cable or communication line, sanitary sewer, drain, gas pipe, telephone line, electrical line etc.
Examples of restrictive easements in the shape of the right to prevent people from doing something on the land of others are the following, to mention a few: -
Easement of support prevents a neighboring landowner from denying vertical or horizontal support.
Solar easement prevents an adjoining landowner from blocking the sunlight.
View easement prevents an adjacent landowner from shutting out the view.
An easement will require two parcels of land called tenements. While the ‘dominant tenement’ enjoys the benefit of the easement, ‘servient tenement’ bears the burden of the easement.
Easement concept varies materially from state to state in the USA.
Easement rights may arise by long usage or necessity or consent.
