If you’re looking to buy a house, townhouse or courtyard apartment it’s important to understand what easements are and how they might affect the value or usability of the land you’re purchasing.

What is an easement?

The legal definition of an easement is ‘the right to cross or otherwise use a portion of someone else’s land’. Most commonly easements are in place to allow access to waterways, and pipes relating to common sewage lines.

Other reasons land may have an easement could be:

To give other properties access to essential services such as water or electricity
To allow service technicians the right to work on your property to maintain or repair services on the easement ie; local water authorities for a council water pipe, drainage or sewage mains.

allow neighbours road access to their property. This is called ‘right of carriageway’. Although the passage must not be blocked, it is not the responsibility of the owner of the property to maintain the carriageway.

Understanding easements and boundaries and their regulations is a critical part of buying a home or renovating. Although some regulations vary between states and councils, the basic reasons for easements remain the same.

Am I allowed to build over an easement?

You can use land affected by an easement for minor, temporary or easily removable uses without a permit, such as:

lawn, minor plantings or garden beds with borders up to 200mm high
minor pavers or paths up to 100mm thick
light-weight, temporary items such as a removable trampoline or BBQ
replacing an existing timber paling or picket fence (footings must continue to avoid public assets).

What restrictions apply to an easement?

You will need a permit for anything that might possibly interfere with service provision or access by service authorities, like building over or near an easement.

When is a permit required to build over an easement?

If you are the property owner with an easement or a Council drain on your property, and you are planning to build over or near that easement or drain, you will require consent before doing so. To receive consent, a ‘building over easement application’ is required to be filled out in order for the proposal to be assessed.

Dry, but necessary info and something that comes up more than you’d expect!

We hope it was helpful.

Prop culture

Easements… Who? What? Why?