Easements, Covenants and Other Incorporeal Rights
What this domain tests
This domain tests easements, profits, restrictive and positive covenants, and how incorporeal rights bind successors.
Core rules
- An easement requires a dominant and servient tenement, accommodation of the dominant tenement, diversity of ownership, and capability of forming the subject matter of a grant.
- Easements may be created by express grant or reservation, implication, or prescription. Registration protects them against later purchasers.
- Profits à prendre confer a right to take something from another's land.
- Restrictive covenants can run with land in equity if they touch and concern the land, the parties intended the burden to run, and the purchaser has notice. Positive covenants generally do not run at law or in equity.
Worked example
A sells part of his land and expressly reserves a right of way over the sold part. The right is an easement by reservation. If the buyer later sells to a purchaser who has notice, the easement binds that purchaser; if it is not registered, priority rules may defeat it.
Traps
Calling a personal permission an easement. Assuming positive covenants always bind successors. Ignoring the need for diversity of ownership. Forgetting registration and notice.