affirmative easement
Quick Summary
An affirmative easement is a legal right that allows one property owner to use another's land for a specific purpose. This right prevents the holder from being considered a trespasser or creating a nuisance on the neighbor's property.123
Easements can be created in several ways:
* Express Grant: A written deed explicitly grants the right.1
* Implication: Arises when a property is sold, and the buyer needs access or use of a visible part of the seller's land, such as a roadway or drainage. This can also occur when a seller reserves the right to use a portion of the sold land.1
* Prescription: Established through long, continuous, and uncontested use of another's property over a period defined by state law.12
Easements can be private, for specific individuals, or public, like highways. The property owner benefiting from the easement is the dominant tenement, while the owner whose land is used is the servient tenement.1
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