Businesses face many easement restrictions such as parking lots, walkways, or dominant tenement. Many disputes occur over encroachments, boundary lines, when rights of adjoining owners’ building [A] illegally intrudes the property [B] of another, and property access, and restrictions. Stone & Sallus easement attorneys handle easement disputes. Hire our legal team to protect your rights. We represent landlords, tenants, owners, developers, corporations, and other entities. Call or chat with us in a consultation. We are ready to advocate for your easement rights.
What is an Easement?
When one person is given the right or privilege to use another’s land. Easements are divided into two classes:
1. Easements Appurtenant – An appurtenant easement is when the right acquired by the owner of one parcel of land to use an adjacent parcel of land for a special purpose.
2. Easements in Gross– This is when the easement is not in connection with another parcel of land. It is a personal right given to a company, person, or corporation (such as a utility company).
Types of Easements
· Express Grant or Reservation– Is when a grantor grants easement to another over property he retains. This grant should be in writing, clearly describing the nature of the easement, and the means of ingress(entrance to a property which does not trespass over the property rights of others) and egress (means of leaving property without trespassing the property rights of other surrounding owners).
· Implied Grant or Reservation– Implied grant is when a parcel of land is sold but the owner forgets to create an easement when it is obvious that one is needed for use of the land. For this to occur a few conditions must apply:
- Was once a common ownership of the two parcels.
- Easement must be reasonably necessary.
- Prior use was continuous, apparent, and obvious.
· Prescription – Easements by prescription are implied acquisitions of land by lapse of time, California law requires a period of five years in which a person has used the easement openly, notoriously, and continuously.
· Condemnation- Condemnation is the taking of private property by the government, for public use with compensation going to the owner under eminent domain.
· Necessity- Necessity happens when a grantor conveys a part of his land that is surrounded by his remaining property, leaving the grantees parcel of property landlocked, making it use by necessity creating an implied grant.
· Dedication- This is when an owner transfers complete ownership of the streets to a community as a gift.
The creation, interpretation, and implication of easements can be complex and confusing. We represent both commercial real estate and residential real estate clients, including areas such as construction law, partition actions, quiet title, adverse possession, real estate transactions, etc. Hire Stone & Sallus litigators to resolve easement disputes in Los Angeles.
