Easements are complicated. The law of easements has its own unique language, and being privy to the terms will provide a foundation for understanding the how your building arrived onto the property.

The top 10 most commonly used easement terms are:

1. Easement: A legal interest or right which one party has over the land of another.
2. Affirmative Easement: An easement that allows the holder to perform certain actions on the land of another.
3. Negative Easement: An easement that allows the holder to prevent the owner from performing certain actions on his own land.
4. Easement Appurtenant: An easement that attaches benefits the property owner, rather than the individual.
5. Easement In Gross: An easement that benefits an individual, rather than the property.
6. Prescriptive Easement: An easement acquired through continuous and open use over a period of time.
7. Easement By Necessity: An easement that is necessary for access to the dominant estate after it has been created out of the servient estate.
8. Easement By Implication: An easement that is necessary for the reasonable enjoyment of the dominant estate after it has been created out of the servient estate.
9. Dominant Tenement: Land that is benefited by an easement.
10. Servient Tenement: Land that is burdened by an easement.

There are a certain ways by which easement rights arise. For a few examples, easements can be acquired: 1) by an express grant; 2) by prescription; 3) by necessity; 4) by implication; and 5) by condemnation.

1. An express grant refers to the granting of permission by the owner of the land where the easement would lie.
2. A prescriptive easement arises if someone uses a portion of another’s property without his or her permission for a statutory period of time.
3. An easement by necessity arises when a property is landlocked and the easement over the servient estate is necessary because the dominant estate is not accessible by other means.
4. An easement by implication is be necessary for access, but arises when an existing, open, and continuous use of one parcel is necessary for the reasonable enjoyment of the other parcel.
5. An easement by condemnation arises when it is taken by the government or an entity with condemnation authority that has exercised its right under eminent domain.

Most often an attorney will be asked to draft an easement into a deed or instrument that will be recorded in the applicable registry of deeds. The registry of deeds is the appropriate place for recording an interest in real property.

If you require assistance for an easement pertaining to healthcare real estate related issue, please contact MREA either for past reference or recommendations to counsel.