Encumbrances, Liens, and Easements
This domain tests nonpossessory rights and money claims that burden title: easements, encroachments, restrictions, and liens. The exam often asks whether a burden runs with land and who gets paid first.
Easements
An easement appurtenant benefits a dominant parcel and passes automatically with it; an easement in gross benefits a person or entity and is not tied to a parcel. Affirmative easements allow use; negative easements restrict use. Easements arise by express grant or reservation, implication, necessity, prescription, or estoppel. They terminate by merger, release, abandonment (nonuse alone usually insufficient), prescription, or condemnation.
Liens and priority
A lien is specific (one parcel) or general (all property). Voluntary liens include mortgages; involuntary liens include tax and mechanic's liens. Priority is usually set by recording statute, but property-tax liens often prime, and a mechanic's lien may relate back to the visible start of work. A mortgage recorded before a contractor begins work generally primes that lien; if work began first, the mechanic's lien may prime despite later recording.
Worked example
Owner records a mortgage on March 1. Contractor began visible work February 1 and records a mechanic's lien April 1. In a relation-back jurisdiction, the mechanic's lien dates to February 1, so it may rank ahead of the March mortgage for work done. The reasoning is statutory priority, not simply recording date.
Traps
An easement appurtenant does not need to be mentioned in each deed; an easement in gross usually does not transfer with the land. Encroachment is a physical intrusion, not an easement. General liens attach all property, and 'first recorded' is not universal where tax or mechanic's liens have special rules.