Specific persons or entities enjoy the benefit of private easement. For instance the owner of the land locked parcel may enjoy the right of pathway over the neighboring land leading to the public road.
On the other hand the public at large or a large group of persons enjoy the benefit of public easement. Public easements are conservation easements for ecological preservation and historic preservation easements, to indicate a few.
Appurtenant easement versus easement in gross:
Easement appurtenant runs with the land. Concerned land can be transferred only along with the easement in place, which cannot be detached from the parcel.
Particular persons or entities are only entitled to the benefits of an easement in gross. Earlier such easement was neither transferable nor heritable. For instance the right of pathway given to the earlier neighbor does not go to the next or new buyer of the said same adjoining land. Easement in gross can either be personal or commercial in nature. At present commercial easement in gross such as utility easements including easements for electrical line, gas line, communication line, telephone line etc. are transferable.
Prescriptive easements:
Prescriptive easements are implied easements that give the easement holder the right to use the property of another for the purpose the easement holder has been using the same for a minimum specified number of years, which varies from state to state. Prescriptive easements are implied since these are not expressly created but arise through continuous usage without consent for at least a specified period of years.
Express versus implied easements:
An express may be granted or reserved by inclusion in any written document or deed or subdivision/ partition plan. An express easement may also be a covenant in a house owners’ association agreement.
On the contrary an implied easement arises when reasonably necessary under the circumstances. Prescriptive easement, as above, is implied one.
Easement by necessity:
The most common example of an easement of necessity is a landlocked property enjoying the right of way through an adjoining plot to the public road.
