Can someone take ownership of my land in Arkansas, not just a right to cross it?

A prescriptive easement only creates a right of use after 7 years. You keep title. Ownership claims run through Arkansas's separate adverse possession rules, which require possession of the strip itself rather than a shared use of it.

What has to be proven for an easement claim in Arkansas?

Arkansas courts apply a seven-year period that runs from when the owner knew, or the circumstances show the owner should have known, that the use was adverse. Use that begins with the owner's permission does not ripen until the owner is on notice that the user claims a right; the seven-year time limit on suits to recover land (Ark. Code Ann. § 18-61-101) is a related statute, and adverse possession of title separately requires color of title and tax payment (§ 18-11-106).

Where are easements recorded in Arkansas?

Easements are recorded at the county level. For the Arkansas counties we cover that means Pulaski County Circuit/County Clerk, Real Estate Division. 1 of those counties publish a free public parcel viewer you can check before you order title work.

Does a Arkansas title commitment list every easement on the property?

Schedule B lists the recorded exceptions the title company found, which covers most utility, access and drainage easements. It will not show a prescriptive easement created by 7 years of use with nothing on paper, and it rarely tells you where on the lot the easement actually sits. That takes the recorded instrument plus a survey.

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Arkansas prescriptive easement law

Q: How long does it take to create a prescriptive easement in Arkansas?

7 years of open, notorious, continuous and adverse use is the period generally applied in Arkansas, commonly cited to Gazaway v. Pugh, 69 Ark. App. 297, 12 S.W.3d 662 (2000) (case law; no statute sets the period). The clock only runs while the use is visible and without the owner's permission; written permission restarts it.

Q: What does it cost to record an easement in Arkansas?

Arkansas records with the Circuit Clerk (county recorder). Recording fees are set statewide by statute at Ark. Code Ann. § 21-6-306; confirm the current first-page and additional-page amounts against that section.

Gazaway v. Pugh, 69 Ark. App. 297, 12 S.W.3d 662 (2000) (case law; no statute sets the period)

Prescriptive period

7 years

What actually decides a claim here

Arkansas courts apply a seven-year period that runs from when the owner knew, or the circumstances show the owner should have known, that the use was adverse.
Use that begins with the owner's permission does not ripen until the owner is on notice that the user claims a right; the seven-year time limit on suits to recover land (Ark. Code Ann. § 18-61-101) is a related statute, and adverse possession of title separately requires color of title and tax payment (§ 18-11-106).

The rule that matters most

Arkansas measures its prescriptive period from the moment the owner has actual or presumed knowledge that use turned adverse, not simply from when the use first began, so a road can be used far longer than seven years before the clock even starts.

Arkansas applies a seven-year period for prescriptive easements, borrowed from the state's general statute of limitations for real property actions. What distinguishes Arkansas is its focus on notice: usage of a passway, whether by permission or otherwise, ripens into an easement only after it continues openly for seven years following the point at which the landowner has actual knowledge the use is adverse, or after facts and circumstances would put a reasonable landowner on notice of that adversity. A road can therefore be traveled for decades under an ambiguous, permissive-seeming arrangement before an owner's objection, gate, or dispute starts the seven-year countdown running toward a prescriptive right.

What a claimant must prove in Arkansas

The claimant must prove adverse use under a claim of right for the statutory period by a preponderance of the evidence. Whether use is adverse or permissive is a question of fact for the chancellor, and Arkansas appellate courts defer to that finding unless it is clearly erroneous.

Use adverse to the true owner

The claimant must show the use was inconsistent with the owner's title rather than a favor extended by a friendly or related landowner.

Under a claim of right for seven years after notice

The seven-year period runs from when the owner actually knew, or the circumstances would lead a reasonable owner to know, that the use was no longer merely tolerated.

Open, continuous use

The passway or use must remain visible and unbroken in the manner ordinary for its type throughout the running of the period.

No effective interruption

An owner's objection, blocked gate, or successful legal action within the period can prevent the seven years from accumulating toward a prescriptive right.

What can break the claim

Long use that began as an accommodation between neighbors or relatives does not start the clock until the use becomes clearly adverse and the owner is on notice of it.
Tacking use by successive owners to reach the seven-year period requires proof that each predecessor's adverse use connects without gaps, which can be difficult to document for informal rural roads.
A prior necessity proceeding that found other access exists can undercut a later prescriptive claim over the same road.
Because the outcome turns on a chancellor's factual finding about adversity, weak or inconsistent witness testimony about how the road was used can be decisive on appeal.

Worked homeowner example

A gravel drive used after a fence dispute

Facts: A homeowner's tenants have used a neighbor's gravel drive since 2010 without objection. In 2016, the neighbor argued with the tenants about blocking the drive with a truck, and the tenants continued using it anyway for the following eight years.

How the rule applies: Under Arkansas's notice-based rule, the pre-2016 years may not count toward prescription if the earlier use looked permissive. The 2016 dispute is significant because it can mark the point the landowner had actual knowledge the use was adverse, and the eight years that followed could be enough to establish the seven-year period running from that point.

Practical next step: Pin down the exact date and content of the 2016 dispute through witnesses or written records, and count the adverse-use period from that point forward rather than from when the driveway use first began.

A published Arkansas example

Neyland v. Hunter (282 Ark. 323, 668 S.W.2d 530 (1984))

Church trustees claimed a prescriptive right to a road crossing a landowner's property, but the adverse use before the case was filed had not continued for a full seven years measured from any relevant statute or notice point.

Outcome: The Arkansas Supreme Court reversed the finding of a prescriptive easement, holding that neither the individual claimants nor the public had adversely used the road for the required seven-year period before suit was filed, and clarified how Arkansas's prescription statutes for roads interact with common law prescriptive easements.

Why it matters: Arkansas claimants must carefully calculate when the seven-year period actually began to run, rather than assuming that any long history of travel automatically qualifies.

Read the published decision

The Arkansas law in its own words

Arkansas does not spell the prescriptive-easement period out in a single statute. The 7-year clock comes from decided cases reading No statute sets Arkansas's prescriptive-easement period; courts apply seven years (Gazaway v. Pugh, 69 Ark. App. 297, 12 S.W.3d 662 (2000)). Related statutes: Ark. Code Ann. § 18-61-101 (seven-year limit on actions to recover land) and § 18-11-106 (adverse possession of title with color of title and tax payment), which means the elements a judge will hold you to are found in the opinions rather than in the code book.

We link No statute sets Arkansas's prescriptive-easement period; courts apply seven years (Gazaway v. Pugh, 69 Ark. App. 297, 12 S.W.3d 662 (2000)). Related statutes: Ark. Code Ann. § 18-61-101 (seven-year limit on actions to recover land) and § 18-11-106 (adverse possession of title with color of title and tax payment) rather than quoting it, because we could not confirm a clean verbatim sentence from a free official source. Read it at the link below before you rely on the wording.

Open No statute sets Arkansas's prescriptive-easement period; courts apply seven years (Gazaway v. Pugh, 69 Ark. App. 297, 12 S.W.3d 662 (2000)). Related statutes: Ark. Code Ann. § 18-61-101 (seven-year limit on actions to recover land) and § 18-11-106 (adverse possession of title with color of title and tax payment)

Recording an easement in Arkansas

Arkansas records at the Circuit Clerk (county recorder). Recording fees are set statewide by statute at Ark. Code Ann. § 21-6-306; confirm the current first-page and additional-page amounts against that section. See the fee authority.

Arkansas easements are recorded with the circuit clerk acting as recorder in the county where the land lies, since most Arkansas counties have combined the circuit clerk and recorder offices. The instrument should include a full legal description and be checked against the county recorder's current formatting and fee requirements before filing, since a prescriptive right recognized by a court still benefits from a recorded judgment or memorandum to appear in the chain of title.

Primary sources for this guide

Gazaway v. Pugh, 69 Ark. App. 297, 12 S.W.3d 662 (2000) - Arkansas prescriptive easement: seven years after the owner is on notice the use is adverse
Ark. Code Ann. § 18-61-101 - Related statute: Arkansas seven-year limit on actions to recover real property
Ark. Code Ann. § 14-15-402 - Arkansas circuit clerk as recorder

Need the document itself? Follow the step-by-step records walkthrough to pull the recorded easement on your parcel from free county, state, and federal sources.

How Arkansas compares with the rest of the country

Arkansas runs a shorter clock than most of the country: 7 years against a 15-year national median, so a neighbor's driveway, path or fence line can harden into a legal right here faster than it would in most states. No other state uses a 7-year period. It is unique to Arkansas. Nationally the periods run from 5 to 30 years, and 3 states are quicker than Arkansas.

Easements you actually see on Arkansas title work

Across the Arkansas counties we publish guides for, these are the exceptions that show up most often in Schedule B: Access easements serving unplatted rural tracts, Drainage easements along tributaries of the Arkansas River, Entergy Arkansas distribution and transmission easements, Pipeline easements crossing the outer county. The recorded instrument controls the width and location. A plat note or a county parcel viewer is only a starting point.

County-by-county recording rules in Arkansas

Easements are recorded county by county, and the filing rules are set by the office that takes the document. Not by the state. Open a county to see who records there, how that office structures its fees, what makes a document get rejected, and where the free official index and parcel viewer live.

Look up Arkansas county records to jump straight to a county page with its recording rules, typical strip widths in feet, and the steps for disputing an easement.

Browse free Arkansas easement records and parcel GIS sources

Arkansas easement questions

Read the official Arkansas code Estimate the value impact Check a property in Arkansas

Common questions from homeowners

Related terms

prescriptive easement

easement by necessity

right of way

encroachment

General educational reference only. Prescription periods and their exceptions change, and several states set the period by case law rather than by statute. Read the linked official code and consult a licensed attorney in that state before relying on any of it.