Questions about Easements? Get Legal Advice

Questioner

Ir/Madam, Can you help me? I am in the process of buying a terraced house with a 'fire lane' next to the house. My purchase contract does not include an easement. The house used to belong to the housing association (as my neighbours' house still does). The houses were built in 1977 and the situation has not changed since then. If this fire lane is removed, all neighbours can still reach their garden via paths to which this fire lane is also connected. Am I responsible for this path and can I include the part of the fire lane in my garden? I have spent many evenings searching on the internet but I cannot find a good answer. Thank you very much in advance for your response. Yours sincerely,

Lawyer

It could still be an easement if your neighbors have been using the path for a long time to reach the back gardens. But you state that there are more paths? How should I imagine that? An easement can arise through prescription. (20 years), but if no one benefits from the easement anymore, it can also be lifted. In addition, you can always state that there are user agreements between your owner and the users of the path. An agreement can always be terminated.

Lawyer

I don't think so. If you become the owner of the terraced house with the land of the fire lane, then you can do with it what you want in principle. And therefore also close it off, if you prefer. There is namely no right to a back entrance or a fire lane or something like that, which you have to respect. It is a different story if something has ever been agreed for this land. That could be an easement, as Mrs Ferweda already notes: the right to come and go over your neighbour's property (yours, as the owner) to your own property/house/garden. Such an easement does not just come into existence, for that the parties have to go to the notary, to have it recorded. Maybe that is the case in your situation, then the seller has to inform you of that and I would also investigate carefully whether you want to buy a house with an easement. A second way to create an easement is prescription. Mrs Ferweda has already discussed this. Prescription is a difficult matter and almost impossible to prove, as is evident from case law. If one of your future neighbours wants to walk over such a fire lane under the guise that an easement has arisen through prescription, he must demonstrate that the fire lane was constructed specifically for that purpose. The law requires that there must be something concrete that points to the existence of such an easement. And that is almost never the case. So first talk to the seller and ask thoroughly what has been arranged on and around the land with the house that you want to buy. If nothing has been arranged, see if there are people walking through the fire lane who might want to appeal to prescription. If so, contact a lawyer who specializes in this matter, like me, or someone else.