easement

easement A right, such as a right of way, right of water, or right of support, that one owner of one piece of land (the dominant tenement) may have over the land of another (the servient tenement). The right must benefit the dominant tenement and the two pieces of land must be reasonably near each other. The right must not involve expenditure by the owner of the servient tenement and must be analogous to those rights accepted in the past as easements. An easement may be granted by deed or it may be acquired by prescription (lapse of time, during which it is exercised without challenge); it may also be acquired of necessity (for example, if A sells B a piece of land that B cannot reach without crossing A's land) or when ‘continuous and apparent’ rights have been enjoyed with the part of the land sold before it was divided. Existing easements over the land of third parties pass with a conveyance of the dominant tenement.