Characteristics

Nature of the Real Right

An easement or servitude is a real right over an immovable owned by another, constituted either for the benefit of another immovable or, in recognized instances, for the benefit of a community or person distinct from the owner of the encumbered property.

In its ordinary predial form, the easement creates a juridical relation between two estates: the dominant estate, which receives the benefit, and the servient estate, which bears the burden.

The right is real because it directly affects the thing and follows the property in the hands of successors, subject to the rules on registration, notice, and proof applicable to the particular kind of easement.

The right is limited because it does not transfer ownership, possession as owner, or the full economic enjoyment of the servient estate; it only grants the particular use, restraint, or advantage contemplated by law, title, prescription, or apparent sign.

The right is an encumbrance because it diminishes the free exercise of ownership over the servient estate without destroying the owner's title or general powers over the property.

The right is a jus in re aliena: no person can have an easement over his own property in favor of the same ownership interest, because the burden and benefit must be legally distinct.

Predial Character

A predial easement is attached to land, not merely to the personal convenience of an owner, so its existence is measured by the objective benefit to the dominant estate and the corresponding burden on the servient estate.

The dominant and servient estates must belong to different owners, since unity of ownership absorbs the limited real right into the larger right of ownership and removes the need for a servitude.

The benefit must be connected with the use, utility, access, ventilation, drainage, support, view, or other lawful enjoyment of the dominant estate, because a purely personal privilege is not treated as a predial servitude unless the law allows a personal easement.

The servient estate must be an immovable because an easement burdens property in a manner that is stable, registrable, and connected with the physical or legal situation of land or another immovable.

The dominant estate need not receive a benefit equal in value to the burden imposed, but the benefit must be real and legally appreciable, not imaginary, arbitrary, or contrary to the nature of the property.

Burden on Ownership

An easement is a limitation on ownership, so it is not presumed from mere neighborly tolerance, temporary accommodation, or permissive use.

The owner of the servient estate retains all rights of ownership that are compatible with the easement, including possession, use, fruits, disposition, and exclusion of strangers.

The owner of the dominant estate may exercise only the powers necessary for the enjoyment of the easement and may not enlarge the burden beyond its title, legal basis, or mode of acquisition.

Because an easement derogates from ownership, doubts are resolved in favor of the least burdensome interpretation consistent with the established right.

The servient owner may not impair the easement, while the dominant owner may not alter the place, manner, intensity, or object of the easement in a way that increases the burden without legal or contractual basis.

The easement may require the servient owner to allow an act, refrain from an act, or, in exceptional positive easements, perform an act connected with the enjoyment of the servitude.

Inseparability

Easements are inseparable from the estate to which they actively or passively belong, so the benefit and the burden pass with the property even when ownership changes.

The dominant owner cannot sell, mortgage, lease, donate, or reserve the easement separately from the dominant estate, because the servitude has no independent existence apart from the property it benefits.

The servient owner cannot transfer the land free from the easement by private act when the easement validly exists and is binding on successors under the governing rules.

Inseparability explains why an easement benefits every lawful successor of the dominant estate and binds every lawful successor of the servient estate, unless extinguished by law, merger, release, redemption, or another recognized cause.

Inseparability also explains why the dominant owner's right to make necessary works for use and preservation of the easement is tied to the servitude and not to a separate personal authority over the servient estate.

Indivisibility

Easements are indivisible, so the division of either the dominant estate or the servient estate does not, by itself, divide, extinguish, or multiply the servitude.

If the servient estate is divided, each portion continues to bear the easement only to the extent required by the established right and by the physical location or nature of the burden.

If the dominant estate is divided, each resulting owner may use the easement, but no owner may make the burden heavier than it was before the division.

Indivisibility preserves the identity of the easement: the right remains one juridical servitude even when several owners later hold parts of the dominant or servient land.

Indivisibility does not mean unlimited use by all successors; it means continued use within the original measure, purpose, location, and burden of the easement.

Continuity, Apparency, and Mode of Use

The Civil Code classifies easements according to how they are used and how their existence is manifested, and these classifications affect proof, acquisition by prescription, and the legal expectations of purchasers and neighboring owners.

A continuous and apparent easement may be acquired by title or prescription because continuous enjoyment and visible signs can evidence an adverse and certain burden on the servient estate.

A discontinuous easement, whether apparent or nonapparent, is not ordinarily acquired by prescription because each use requires a human act and may be consistent with mere license or tolerance.

A continuous but nonapparent easement generally requires title because there is no outward sign that can charge the servient owner or third persons with knowledge of the burden.

Positive and Negative Character

A positive easement allows the dominant owner to do something on the servient estate or requires the servient owner to allow or perform something connected with the servitude.

A negative easement prohibits the servient owner from doing something that ownership would otherwise permit, such as building beyond an agreed height, obstructing light, or making a use inconsistent with the established restraint.

The distinction matters because the beginning of possession for prescription differs: positive easements are possessed through the exercise of the permitted act, while negative easements require a formal act that clearly forbids the servient owner from exercising the restrained power.

Negative easements are strictly construed because they suppress an incident of ownership without the visible or repeated acts usually associated with affirmative use.

Positive easements are also confined to their title or legal basis because an affirmative use of another's property can easily become more burdensome if expanded beyond its original scope.

Accessory and Dependent Character

A predial easement is accessory to the dominant estate because it exists to serve the estate and cannot be converted into an independent property right detached from that estate.

The accessory character means that the transfer of the dominant estate ordinarily carries the easement with it, even if the instrument of transfer does not separately describe every incident of the servitude.

The burden likewise passes with the servient estate when the easement is validly constituted and enforceable against the transferee under the rules governing real rights and registered property.

An easement may be perpetual, temporary, conditional, or subject to a resolutory event depending on its source, but its duration is always tied to the legal or conventional basis that created it.

The easement is extinguished when its legal foundation disappears, such as by merger of ownership, expiration of term, fulfillment of a resolutory condition, permanent impossibility of use, nonuser for the required period, renunciation, or redemption when allowed.

Strict Measure of Enjoyment

The extent of an easement is determined by its title, legal provision, prescription, apparent sign, or established manner of use, because the servient estate should bear only the burden that was validly imposed.

The dominant owner may make works necessary for the use and preservation of the easement, but the works must be at the dominant owner's expense unless the law, title, or agreement provides otherwise.

The dominant owner must choose the manner least prejudicial to the servient estate when several modes of enjoyment can satisfy the same lawful purpose.

The servient owner may change the place or manner of the easement only when the original arrangement has become very inconvenient or prevents useful improvements, and only if an equally convenient substitute is provided without injury to the dominant owner.

Neither owner may use the easement as a means of harassment, speculation, or unilateral expansion, because the relation is governed by the balance between the dominant estate's utility and the servient estate's residual ownership.

Nonpresumption and Proof

An easement must be established by competent proof because it burdens ownership and affects successors, purchasers, creditors, and occupants of the land.

Proof may come from law, written title, prescription where allowed, destination of the owner shown by an apparent sign, or another legally recognized source.

Permission, tolerance, family accommodation, informal access, or temporary convenience does not by itself create an easement, because these acts lack the adverse, juridical, and permanent character of a real servitude.

When an owner of two estates creates an apparent sign of servitude and later alienates one estate without removing the sign or excluding the easement in the transfer, the sign may operate as a juridical basis for the continuation of the easement.

In registered land, the real character of an easement must be reconciled with land registration principles, so annotation, actual knowledge, visible signs, and the nature of the burden may become relevant to enforceability against third persons.

Functional Consequences

The characteristics of easements produce a practical structure: the dominant estate gains a specific advantage, the servient estate bears a specific burden, and both estates remain separately owned.

The servitude survives transfers because it is real and inseparable, survives partitions because it is indivisible, and remains limited because it is a derogation from ownership.

The classification of the easement controls how it is proved, acquired, exercised, and extinguished, so the legal nature of the burden is as important as the fact of use.

The governing principle is proportionality between benefit and burden: the dominant owner receives the utility legally due, while the servient owner keeps every faculty of ownership not inconsistent with that utility.