Whether you own a commercial or personal property in Florida, you need to know about easements. A property with an easement can affect your rights.
An easement is the right to enter another person’s land, even though you don’t have an ownership interest in that property.
Identifying a Property With An Easement
There is no one size fits all easement. Rather, two broad categories exist; easement in gross and easement in appurtenant.
The first type benefits an entity or person rather than a piece of land. Should the land that’s subject to an easement be sold, the easement transfers with that land. But when an entity or person who benefits from the easement changes, the easement cannot be passed on to someone else.
The easement appurtenant benefits one piece of land to the disadvantage of another piece of land. The property with an easement is referred to as a servient estate. The other piece of land that benefits from the easement is the dominant estate. In this case, the easements are attached to the land and automatically pass from ownership to ownership.
Know Your Rights
If you purchase a property with an easement, you must adhere to its rules.
For example, if you buy a beachfront house, and the only access to the public beach is for your neighbors to walk through your yard, you’re legally obliged to let them use it. That’s because they have the right to access a public beach. In another example, if a utility company possesses an easement to access a pipe under your property, you have to allow them to.
It is up to you to check for an easement before you erect anything on your property. It’s not the type of information that’ll automatically appear on your building permit. Similarly, if you apply for a building permit, the easement may not appear in public records.
Other than that, you have the right to use your property however you see fit, provided you don’t prevent the easement from being accessed accordingly.
An Easement on Someone Else’s Property
If you purchase your dream house in the perfect neighborhood but you find the driveway is too narrow, for example, an easement may allow you to use a few feet of the neighboring property, if even to just get in and out of the car.
You need to ensure that the terms of the property with an easement guarantee it’ll remain with the property after you’ve bought it. It always helps to be open with your neighbor about the easement’s rules and they must let you use that space.
Challenging an Easement
You certainly have the right to challenge an easement, but it does involve going to court. It can be a daunting process in the middle of purchasing a property. Things can be a lot smoother if the easement holder agrees to dismiss the easement. There are even those easements that have expiration dates, which should be detailed in the deed.
A common easement dispute involves boundary lines when one person wants to make improvements. When a property owner adds a fence or wall or makes some sort of modification that infringes on the neighboring land, the owner may be requested to remove the improvement or even pay the landowner for the property with an easement.
There are other instances where you can challenge an easement, but it’s complex. Let’s say there’s an easement that’s not been used for some time, such as a garage on the property line. This is something you could challenge, but you’ll want an experienced attorney on your side.
If you need to challenge an easement or want to know where you stand, book a consultation at Principal Law Firm today.
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