Easement
- An easement grants certain rights for specified purpose to someone other that the owner to the property. An easement may apply to the entire properly of a portion of it, may be in the form of an agreement, deed restriction or covenant. [source: Glossary of Conservation Terms, Ridge and Valley Conservancy, Inc., http://www.rvclandtrust.org]
- An interest in land owned by another person, consisting in the right to use or control the land, or an area above or below it, for a specific limited purpose (such as to cross it for access to a public road). The land benefiting from an easement is called the dominant estate and the land burdened by an easement is called the servient estate. Unlike a lease or license, an easement may last forever, but it does not give the holder the right to possess, take from, improve, or sell the land. The primary recognized easements are: (1) a right-of-way; (2) a right of entry for any purpose relating to the dominant estate; (3) a right to the support of land and buildings; (4) a right of light and air; (5) a right to water; (6) a right to do some act that would otherwise amount to a nuisance; and (7) a right to place or keep something on the servient estate. An easement creates a nonpossessory right to enter and use land in the possession of another and obligates the possessor not to interfere with the uses authorized by the easement. An easement is generally affirmative in that it creates the right to make use of the land of another. A negative easement, the obligation not to use land in one's possession in specified ways, is known as a restrictive covenant.
