In San Diego, there are many issues which involve real estate. Real estate can consist of a personal residence, commercial building, vacant lot and others. Some issues which commonly arise will be discussed in this article are the different types of easements.

Easements are very complicated and can be written easements, public easements, easements acquired by use of a property [prescriptive easements] and easements by necessity. Written easements are always in writing and normally recorded at the San Diego County Recorder’s Office. One of the most common easements are for public utilities such as San Diego Gas & Electric. This allows the utility company to come on your property either under or above ground to install pipes or wires or work on their equipment to upgrade or replace or repair. These easements should be on record at the San Diego County Recorder’s Office and you can go and check for your property if you would like. There may also be written easements for use by a private individual such as a road or driveway which is shared. It can be important to know whether there is an easement and where it is since you would not knowingly want to interfere with the easement which could subject you to damages.

Easements acquired by use of a property can occur when another uses someone else’s land for a period of five years without permission openly and continuously. This is normally done for a limited purpose. This can consist of a “shortcut” form one land to another or for a driveway from one land to another and, in many instances, there can be a mistake or misunderstanding of the legal boundary line so a neighbor who builds a fence on your land and it is left there for five years would acquire a prescriptive easement for that portion of land even though they do not own it. This is why it is very important to know where your land ends and another’s begins. A prescriptive easement, conversely, can be forfeited if it is not used for five years as this is considered legal abandonment.

Public easements are common, for example, at the beach. An owner of a property may have a sidewalk or walk way which gives access to the beach from the street but passes over the owner’s land. There are also other types of public easements but, in San Diego, the most common are at the beach.

Easements by necessity are in limited purposes where it is absolutely necessary {no other way} for one property owner to use their property unless they cross another property owner’s land. If your home is surrounded by other people’s home and there is no road or other means of access, then this easement by necessity would allow access over another’s property to your property. This is not a common factual scenario in San Diego County.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have regarding easements. It is also important to remember that easements do not terminate when a property sells and easements “run with the land” and not with the owner of the property.