Easements - how to get from Point A to Point B over someone else's land.

Easements are a property interest which gives a person the right to use, but not possess, the property of another. The term is often seen in legal descriptions and title insurance policies. It usually refers to roads, driveways or rights-of-way, but it also could refer to the right to use land for utility lines, sewer lines, ditches, or even for collection of solar energy (see NRS 111.370).

These property rights may be created by express agreement, by prescription (a condition generally similar to adverse possession), or by implication.

When created by express agreement, the property right is usually described in a deed which is recorded in the office of the local county recorder. However, it could also be described in a subdivision map or a parcel map which includes the affected and benefitted property.

Often, but not always, an express easement specifically burdens or crosses over one parcel of land, called the servient tenement, and it specifically benefits another described parcel of land, called the dominant tenement. This type of property right is said to “run with the land” in that it continues to burden or benefit the described parcels even after they are sold or transferred.

The second type is an easement by prescription. In order to establish this type it is necessary to prove "adverse, continuous, open, and peaceable use for a five-year period." Thus it may be possible to establish a right of way simply by continuously using it for more than 5 years without the permission of the owner. This type of right of way is often claimed for old, pioneer type roads which have been in existence for years and years.

Finally, an easement can be established by implication or by necessity. Under this type, if a landowner subdivides property in such a way that one parcel is "land locked," that is, that legal access to a public road cannot be established except by going over adjacent property owned by the same landowner, then it is implied that access to the inner lot is created by necessity over the outer lot. For example, if John Smith owned all of the land shown in the diagram above and he subdivided the land into lots A, B, C and D, lot A would acquire its right of way over lots C and D by necessity or implication. The law presumes that a landowner would not intentionally land lock his own parcel of land.

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