What kind of real estate ownership is an easement?

Answer 1

An easement is a right of one owner of land to make beneficial and lawful use of the land of another owner. Most easements are created by a deed or written agreement and some are created by operation of law. Most easements run with the land and pass to subsequent owners. Some are extinguished by the death of the owner or when that owner transfers the property to a new owner. An easement is a right in another person's property. It is not a fee interest. An easement is an appurtenance to the land it benefits. How long it lasts sometimes depends on the language that created it. If you have a right of way over Harry's land to reach your own and it's your only means of access then it will last forever as a benefit to your land. However, you can't sell that right to another neighboring landowner. Further, all you can do with the right of way is use it for access, you can't fence it in or park your cars on it or install a gate across the entrance unless those additional rights were granted in the original deed of easement.

Answer 2

No. An easement is a right that you own in or to the real property of another.

For example, a property owner (A) found their new garage encroached two feet onto their neighbor's land (B) for the lenght of the new garage. Fortunately, the two had a good relationship and the neighbor knew the error was truly inadvertent.

B could have insisted the garage be removed. Instead, B granted a two foot encroachment easement to A to last for the life of the structure. The easement would expire at some future date when the garage needs to be rebuilt. The grant of easement removed the title defect that had been created by the encroachment.

A now owns a 2 foot wide easement along the length of his garage. He does not own the land lying under that easement. B still owns the land.

On the other hand, if you have an easement across your property that was granted to a utility company, you own the land beneath the easement but your use of the land is subject to the easement rights granted to the company. You cannot plant, build on or block the right ow way and the utility company usually has the right to trim trees and remove brush within the easement area.