California Partition Law Blog
In California, easements are legal rights that allow one party to use another party’s property for a specific purpose, without transferring ownership of that property. Easements are be created through express or implied agreements, long-standing use, or necessity. They are commonly used to grant access to driveways, utility lines, or for other specific purposes like drainage. The easement’s use and scope heavily rely on whether the easement is an easement in gross or an easement appurtenant. Understanding easements, how they are created, and the differences between easements in gross and easements in appurtenant is crucial for property owners to ensure their rights and obligations are clearly defined and upheld.
What is an Easement?
Easements are nonpossessory rights to use or enjoy someone else’s land. This means that easements grant the holder a limited privilege to perform certain acts on someone else’s land without possessing it. (Batta v. Hunt (2024) 106 Cal.App.5th 295, 304-5.) The easement obligates the person who possesses the land not to interfere with its authorized uses. (Main Street Plaza v. Cartwright & Main, LLC (2024) 194 Cal.App.4th 1044, 1053-54.)