An easement is a right one piece of land enjoys over neighbouring land — a right of way across a driveway, a drain running under a garden, a space to park. Because these rights attach to the land itself rather than to a particular person, they can bind whoever owns the burdened land next. For a solicitor, that durability is the whole point: easements shape what a buyer is really getting and what burdens they are taking on, so they surface constantly in conveyancing, development, and neighbour disputes.
This lesson builds your understanding step by step:
- Nature and Essential Characteristics — what an easement is, how it differs from a licence, and the four characteristics every easement must satisfy.
- Exclusive Possession and Positive Burdens — why an easement cannot swallow the servient land or force the owner to act, and who must repair.
- Creation: Express and Implied — creation by deed, and the implied routes of necessity, common intention, and quasi-easements.
- Creation: Section 62 and Prescription — how conveyances can upgrade permissions, and how long use creates rights.
- Legal/Equitable Status and Enforceability — why the legal or equitable label matters and how each binds a purchaser.
- Scope, Interference and Extinguishment — how far an easement reaches, when interference is actionable, and how easements end.