Revision: Land
[EASEMENTS]
•The right to enjoy or use (positive); or the right (indirectly) to restrict the use or enjoyment of land
belonging to someone else (negative)
•Legal capacity: s1(2) LPA 1925
Rights analogous to easements
1. Quasi-easements: exercised by landowner over his own land: could become easements in certain
circumstances
2. Natural rights: e.g. right to support of land in its natural state (but cannot have natural right of
support to a building erected on the land)
3. Public rights: can be exercised by general members of the public – e.g. public right of way
oCustomary rights: e.g. right to hold a fare – created individually by statute
4. Licenses: cannot exist as an interest in land: confers a mere personal right. Some licenses may be
accompanied by estoppel binding on a 3rd party by notice, which may look very similar to an
equitable easement (Ives Investment Ltd v High)
5. Restrictive Covenants: similar to negative easements
6. Profits a prendre: similar to an easement but involving the right to enter someone’s land and take
something from the soil
Rights capable of becoming an easement: The Re Ellenborough Park Criteria
•There must be a dominant and servient tenement
•The right must accommodate the dominant tenement
•There must be diversity of ownership between the dominant and servient tenement
•The right must lie in grant
A dominant and servient tenement must exist:
•There must be two identifiable pieces of land: one which has the benefit and one which carries the
burden London & Blenheim Estates Ltd v Ladbroke Retail Parks Ltd
•An easement cannot exist in gross: cannot be exercised by the holder independently of land that he
may own: Hawkins v Rutter: this may amount to a license (a mere personal right which need not
be attached to a dominant piece of land)
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