Flashcards: Understanding Easements in Land Law — 22 cards

Easement — definition?

A proprietary right to limited land use.

Dominant Tenement — role?

Benefiting land over which easement is exercised.

Servient Tenement — role?

Burdened land that bears the easement.

Positive Easement — function?

Allows doing something on servient land.

Negative Easement — function?

Restricts certain activities on servient land.

Creation of easements — methods?

Express, implied, long user, statutory.

Re Ellenborough Park — criteria?

Benefit to land, separate ownership, capable of grant, connected to use.

Easement in Gross — definition?

Easement held by a person, not attached to land.

Surcharge Argument — concern?

Potential for excessive burdens on servient land.

Clogs on Title — concern?

Easements in gross may complicate land titles.

Dominant land — benefit?

Gains rights that enhance its use or value.

Servient land — burden?

Bears the easement’s restrictions or use.

Separate Occupation — necessity?

Required for easements to exist.

Accommodating the Land — purpose?

Easement must benefit the land, not just owner.

Implied grant — basis?

Necessity, common intention, Wheeldon v Burrows.

Easement of Necessity — when?

Landlocked or unusable without access.

Legal easement — creation?

By deed, full proprietary right.

Equitable easement — creation?

In equity, often informal, less enforceable.

Registration — importance?

Ensures easements are binding and enforceable.

Overriding interest — effect?

Binds purchaser even if unregistered.

Extinction — how?

Release, abandonment, common ownership.

Abandonment — meaning?

Intent to permanently relinquish easement.