Easements

An easement refers to a right attached to a portion of land enabling a person (s) or a company specific rights to use the land in a particular manner or to restrict its use despite that land being owned by someone else.

Pursuant to the Transfer of Land Act (WA) 1893, easements can be registered against freehold or Crown land. Easements can be express or implied easements. An example of an express easement would be an easement created by an agreement between the parties and an implied easement may come about by a particular course of conduct over time.

The types of easement that maybe registered are varied and can be as simple as right of carriage way to the right to take water from a well or bore to the right to install, maintain and operate oil, gas and other pipelines.

For an easement to be capable of registration there are a number of key elements that the easement must contain, which are:

  • There must be a dominant and servient tenement
  • The dominant and servient tenement must be in the form of separate ownerships, except in the case of subdivision easements created under Part IV A of the Transfer of Land Act (WA) 1893 the transfer of land act
  • The easement must benefit the dominant tenement and impose an obligation of the servient tenement
  • The easement created must be capable of being transferred with the land and created with that intent
  • The dominant and servient tenements must be adjacent.

Rowe Bristol Lawyers is experienced in advising and assisting clients with respect to easements, including:

  • Creation of express easements by deed
  • Creation of express easements by incorporation into a Transfer
  • Creation of Easement on Plans of Subdivisions under Part IVA of the Transfer of Land Act (WA) 1893
  • Disputes in relation to easements
  • Registration and removal of easements

If you require legal advice in relation to easements, please contact us to arrange a meeting so that we may consider your specific circumstances.

The above information is provided as general information only and should not be relied upon as legal advice. The accuracy of this information may have changed from the date when it was published