Easement?

sophie131

Hi all,

Made an offer on a house, it's been accepted and we've instructed solicitors! Yay! It is our first home.

I was looking this morning at the online plans as it was built 4 years ago. At the bottom of the garden there is an arrow that says '6m clearance for easement to adjoining land for sewers'.

Can anyone help me understand what this means and if there is any impact due to this? From my googling I understand it is waste pipes but i'm no expert and I don't know if it means we'll never be able to do things like put a conservatory on?

Thanks!

lisa110rry

Sophie, an easement is a right of way over your land to gain access for a specific reason. For example, I have an easement over my neighbour's land to maintain one side of my garage, however, in practice my neighbour maintains that side, bless them. Nevertheless, an easement, even if not used and indeed incapable of being used, does not go away, it is still there. Getting rid of an easement is, in fact, a lengthy, complicated and expensive process. I'll get you a case law reference on that in a moment, if I can find it again!

A friend has an easement through a ginnel over his neighbour's garden to get to his back door. The neighbour put up a fence. I was involved in explaining easements to said neighbour and he had to put in a gate and give a key to my friend for access.

You can put in a conservatory so long as it doesn't get in the way of the easement. If it does you may need to be prepared to demolish it, I'm afraid.

Now, off to find that case law...

sophie131

So it sounds like the easement would only be used if access was needed for access to the pipes which i'm assuming would just be repair work - which doesn't sound like it would cause any particular problems.

I am presuming my solicitor will already be onto this but I will draw it to their attention I think! I guess the information about it would be in one of the searches they perform?

Can't tell that i'm a first time buyer, right?!

lisa110rry

Here's a good, easy to understand page about easements:

http://www.boundary-problems.co.uk/boundary-problems/easements.html

The important bit for you is:

An easement is very difficult to extinguish and should be thought of as existing forever. The land of the servient tenement is burdened with the easement. The owner of the dominant tenement should not forget that the owner of the servient tenement has a right to the peaceful enjoyment of his land and the legitimate development of his land, and the performance of the easement should not interfere with the servient owner's peace nor prevent him from exercising his right to develop his land (provided that the development caters for the easement).

And yes, it would seem "your" easement would be to repair or replace these pipes. Easements cannot be too broadly written, they must be for a specific purpose. In the case of my friend I recall he has the right to "pass and repass on foot or with a barrow" or something like that, in other words, not with a wagon or on horseback, which would be the old equivalent of by car.