Types of easements
What is an easement in gross?
An easement in gross belongs to a person or a company rather than to a neighboring parcel, which is the category most utility, pipeline, railroad and billboard easements fall into.
Every easement burdens land, but only some of them benefit land. When there is no benefited parcel. When the right belongs to the electric company itself, the easement is in gross.
Commercial easements in gross are freely transferable and are treated as business assets. That is why a corridor granted to a small rural cooperative in the 1960s can be held today by a national utility, without you ever being told.
Personal easements in gross are the opposite: a right granted to a named individual, such as permission to fish a pond, generally cannot be transferred and ends when that person dies. Courts prefer to read ambiguous grants as appurtenant rather than in gross, precisely because rights tied to land are easier to trace.
What this looks like in practice
The reason this category matters to a homeowner is transferability and reach. An in-gross holder is usually an organization with legal staff, standard forms, and a defined process for crossing permits, slower than a neighbor, but also more predictable and less emotional.
The second reason is exclusivity. Pipeline and transmission grants are more likely than neighborhood easements to be written as exclusive, and an exclusive corridor can bar even the landowner from using the surface. That single word changes what your yard is.
What to do next
- 1Check whether the grant identifies any benefited parcel; if not, it is in gross.
- 2Look for assignment language and for the word "exclusive".
- 3Identify the current holder before planning work near the corridor.
- 4Request a written crossing or encroachment permit well ahead of any construction schedule.
What to look for
- Whether any benefited parcel is identified anywhere in the grant.
- An express right to assign, which signals a commercial easement in gross.
- Whether the easement is exclusive, which can bar even your own use of the corridor.
- Payment terms, since cell, billboard and fiber agreements often carry recurring rent.
Questions people ask next
Can an easement in gross be inherited?
A commercial one passes with the business that holds it. A purely personal one generally ends with the individual, which is why personal recreational rights rarely survive a generation.
Is a plat utility easement in gross?
Often it functions that way, though a plat dedication can also operate as a public dedication to the municipality. The plat language and state law decide which.
Does an in-gross easement bind me if it predates my purchase?
Yes, if it was recorded. You take title subject to it whether or not anyone drew your attention to it at closing.
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.
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