A private easement – usually between abutting owners, but not necessarily – is a fairly common method to allow others access rights to land. For example, an abutting owner may need to cross the corner of a neighbor’s property with a sewer line, or a portion of a driveway. The abutter would ask his neighbor for permission, but to make sure the right stays with the property and not just the owners, he would also exercise an easement. Such an easement, whether it is a sewer line or a driveway, might also be called a “deeded right-of way.” Usually the person requesting the easement also agrees to pay for all legal expenses, including the costs of filing the new deeds in town or county records.

 

Since easements stay with the affected land titles, they are almost always permanent. The important thing to remember about a private easement is that one title benefits while the other does not, even though a lack of benefit is not necessarily a detriment. The sewer line crossing a corner of a neighbor’s property, for example, should not in any way detract from property value.

 

A public easement is one that largely benefits society. When a farm or forest owner transfers the development rights to a qualified organization, the easement that encompasses those development rights have no value to the organization that agrees to accept them. Why? Because the organization also agrees to forever hold the development rights and to ensure that all future title-holders will abide by the easement conditions. In other words, the land will always be used for farming or forestry purposes, but more importantly the land will never be developed.