Appurtenant easement
An easement that benefits a neighboring parcel rather than a person or company.
An appurtenant easement links two parcels: one is burdened (the servient estate) and one is benefited (the dominant estate). A shared driveway that lets the rear lot reach the street is the classic example.
Because the right belongs to the land and not to a person, it passes automatically to the next owner of the benefited parcel. Selling either property does not end it.
Why it matters when you buy
If your lot is the burdened one, a neighbor has a permanent right to cross it. And you cannot revoke that right by selling.
How it reads in a real document
“Together with a perpetual non-exclusive easement for ingress and egress over the westerly 20 feet of Lot 4 for the benefit of Lot 5.”
“For the benefit of Lot 5” makes this appurtenant: the right belongs to a parcel, not a person. Lot 4 is burdened forever, Lot 5 is benefited forever, and both pass automatically at every future sale.
The mistake people make
Buying the burdened lot and expecting to renegotiate the driveway with the new neighbor. There is nothing to renegotiate — the right is already theirs.
What to do next
- Determine whether the parcel you are buying is the benefited or the burdened one.
- Check whether the recorded route matches the drive actually in use; a mismatch is a future dispute.
- Read the document for maintenance and cost-sharing terms, which are commonly silent.
What it does to value
An appurtenant easement cuts both ways in a valuation. Owning the benefit can be worth a great deal, especially when it is the only legal access or the only route to water. Owning the burdened land is a deduction, sized by how much of the usable area the corridor consumes.
What is not true
It is not true that the benefit belongs to a person. It belongs to a parcel, and it transfers automatically when that parcel sells, whether or not the new deed mentions it.
Questions people ask
How do I know which parcel benefits?
The recorded instrument identifies a dominant estate -- the parcel that holds the right -- and a servient estate, the one that carries it. If the document names only a person or a company, you may be looking at an easement in gross instead, which behaves very differently on resale.
Can the benefited owner expand the use?
Only within the scope the grant describes. A right recorded for agricultural access does not automatically become a road for a twelve-lot subdivision, and courts regularly cut back uses that overburden the servient land beyond what the parties contemplated.
Do I have to maintain the easement area?
The instrument usually says, and if it does not, the common rule is that the party using the easement maintains it. Shared driveways are the frequent flashpoint, which is why a written maintenance agreement recorded alongside the easement is worth the effort.
Related terms
Where this comes up
Homeowner questions where “appurtenant easement” decides the answer:
- Can my neighbor use my driveway?
- Easement vs right-of-way: what is the difference?
- What is an easement on my property?
- Can I remove an easement from my property?
- Who maintains a shared driveway?
Time limits differ by state - see the prescriptive easement period where your property is.
Wondering what an encumbrance like this is worth? Estimate the effect on property value.
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.
Know your easements before you close
Upload your title commitment and get a plain-English easement audit in minutes.