Updated 13 July 2027
Short Answer – Easements (e.g. rights of way) are the right for a third party or neighbour to use land. E.g. your neighbours footpath across you garden, access through a farmers field, shared supply pipes, light or even hunting or fishing rights (more correctly ‘profits a pendre). The user CANNOT be the owner of the owner of the land. You don’t need anyone’s permission (in easements) to use your own land. Planning permission is different though, planning use is distinct from easement use. IF the land owner also acquires used land, the easement is cancelled by unity of ownership (even if the words are still left in the deeds).
Easements are essential for enjoying land properly, but they are frequently the cause of property disputes. E.g. Too much use, incorrect use, abandoned use, built over water pipes. To resolve a dispute, you must understand what an easement is.
Table of Contents
Deep Dive into Easements
A property has boundaries which are shown approximately on your title plan with a red line. Anything within your boundary is yours exclusively. Any 3rd Party who comes on to your land is a trespasser and liable to you unless they have permission. The same applies when you when you go onto other land. If you enter onto land you do not own you are known as a ‘Third Party’. Third parties are not trespassers provided they have permission to be the land. The permission can take many forms; easements, licences, agreements, covenants, contracts, rents and leases for example (there are many others!)
Rights of Way – the most common form of a third party right.
This means the other land owners have access rights over your land, or you have access over their land. For example you may need access over a farmers track to get to your house, or your back street behind your terrace may be shared with the other properties on the terrace. There are lots of different rights of way. Access, parking, services (gas, water, electric, drains, sewers etc).
Rights of way can be created and enforced in many ways also. They can be recorded legally on your deeds, equitably, implied by law under s.62, or just by doing something for 20 years or long use. Profits are like rights of way, but they means you can take things from the land (e.g. hunting, fishing – very unusual).
An easement is an agreement to share land, you cannot trespass on a right of way. If someone obstructs a right of way the benefitting land owner can claim for nuisance, claim and injunction or claim damages from the obstructor.
Covenants are not Easements
These are different to rights of way. A covenant is an agreement to do something or not to do something. Eg. Pay rent on a lease (a positive covenant), or you must not build or alter a house without asking permission from a neighbouring land owner or a builder or the council (a negative covenant separate to and in addition to planning requirements)
Most third party rights are recorded at HMLR since 2002. Unregistered legal rights are never registered at all. Historic equitable rights need to be enforced and registered correctly to work properly. Your neighbours rights over your property are usually noted on the charges register of the title to your house. Your rights over your neighbours property are noted on the proprietorship register of the title. You should check it immediately and instruct us about any issues of which you are aware. We also need to know about implied rights and generally anything you share with your neighbours in relation to the land. Please also check your property information form and the disclose-able overriding interests part too.
If you have any questions you should contact us immediately. If you feel this is very complicated, you are not wrong – ring for advice if in doubt!
Useful Links
Buying a Converted Property: Mortgage Risks, PCCs and Essential Legal Checks
Selling a House Without an EPC: Is It Money Laundering or Proceeds of Crime Under POCA?