Easements Explained: Types Every Land Buyer Should Know

An easement gives someone else a legal right to use part of your land for a specific purpose -- or gives you that right on someone else's. Almost every rural parcel has at least one. Here's what they are and the types you'll actually encounter.

What an easement actually is

An easement is a legal right to use a specific, limited part of someone else's land for a specific purpose -- it is not ownership, and it does not transfer title. The person or entity holding the easement (a neighbor, a utility company, a land trust) can use that strip of land for what the easement says, and nothing more; the underlying owner keeps title and can still use the land in any way that doesn't interfere with the easement.

Easements are almost always recorded against the deed at the county recorder's or register of deeds office, which means they "run with the land" -- they bind whoever owns the property later, not just the person who granted them. That's why a title search or survey turning up an old easement from decades ago is normal, not alarming, and why you inherit it as the buyer whether or not anyone mentions it during the sale.

Appurtenant easements vs. easements in gross

This distinction matters more than it sounds like it should. An appurtenant easement benefits a specific neighboring parcel (the "dominant estate") and burdens yours (the "servient estate") -- a shared driveway easement is the classic example, and it transfers automatically with both properties when either is sold. An easement in gross benefits a person or entity rather than a piece of land -- a utility company's right to run power lines across your property is typically an easement in gross, and it doesn't depend on the utility owning land nearby.

The four types you'll run into most

Utility easements -- give a utility company the right to install, access, and maintain power lines, gas pipelines, water/sewer lines, or telecom infrastructure across a defined strip. You typically can't build permanent structures, plant trees, or store anything inside that strip, though normal gardening is usually fine.
Access (ingress-egress) easements -- give a property owner the legal right to cross a neighboring parcel to reach a public road. This is the single most important easement type for rural land, because without one a parcel with no other road access is landlocked -- see our dedicated guide.
Conservation easements -- a voluntary, permanent agreement (usually with a land trust or government agency) that restricts development or certain land uses in exchange for tax benefits, while the landowner keeps title and most other rights. See our dedicated guide to conservation easements.
Prescriptive easements -- created not by a signed agreement but by someone using part of your land openly, continuously, and without permission for a set number of years. The required period varies dramatically by state: as short as 5 years in California, 10 years in New York and Rhode Island, and 20 years in Massachusetts and Wisconsin.

How easements get created

Most easements are created by express written grant -- a document signed and recorded by both parties, spelling out the location, width, and permitted use. Others arise without a signature: an easement by necessity can be imposed by a court when a landlocked parcel was once part of a larger tract under common ownership; an implied easement can arise from how the land was historically used before it was divided; and a prescriptive easement arises from years of open, uninterrupted use, as above. Each of these non-written paths depends on state-specific rules and usually requires a court proceeding to formally establish.

How to find out what easements affect a property

A title search (done by a title company or attorney as part of closing) should surface every easement recorded against the property's chain of title. A boundary or ALTA/NSPS land title survey then shows where those easements actually sit on the ground -- the 2026 ALTA/NSPS standards specifically require surveyors to identify and plot both on-site and appurtenant off-site easements. Neither the title search nor the survey alone is complete; you want both before you close, and you want a licensed surveyor and title professional or attorney reviewing them, not just yourself reading legal descriptions.

What an easement means for what you can build or do

An easement doesn't just sit on paper -- it can restrict where you build, what you plant, and how you use part of your own land, sometimes permanently. Before you close, get clear, in writing if possible, on exactly what each recorded easement allows and prohibits, and don't assume a wide-looking cleared strip on a survey is "extra yard" you can use freely.