Property Law, Easements and Adverse Possession
Property Law, Easements and Adverse Possession tests the legal rules that decide who owns or may use land, and how a surveyor's evidence supports or undermines a claim.
Core rules
- A deed conveys what its language and the chain of title show; area is often the least reliable call. A recorded plat incorporated by reference becomes part of the description.
- Easements may be appurtenant or in gross, express or implied. An easement by necessity generally requires common ownership followed by strict necessity at severance. A prescriptive easement requires use that is open, notorious, adverse, and continuous for the statutory period.
- In New Hampshire, adverse possession is governed by RSA 508:2 and generally requires 20 years of actual, open, notorious, continuous, and hostile possession. Hostile means without the owner's permission, not ill will.
- Successive users can tack periods only when there is privity-typically a transfer of the possessory interest.
Worked example
A landowner and predecessors used a gravel driveway across a neighbor's parcel for 22 years, grading it, parking on it, and never asking permission. The use was visible and continuous. If the claimant can show tacking through deeds or estate transfers, the 20-year period is satisfied and a prescriptive easement may be established. If the neighbor gave permission at any point, the use is not adverse and the claim fails for that period.
Traps
Confusing adverse possession (fee title) with prescription (easement); treating a tax map or tax bill as title; assuming an easement's scope can be expanded by maintenance; and ignoring that permission, co-tenancy, or a pending lawsuit can interrupt the period. Boundary by acquiescence is not a substitute for a recorded description.