Easement
An easement is a privilege to use another person's land in a particular manner and for a particular purpose, and it is not ownership of that land. The land an easement burdens is the servient estate; the land an appurtenant easement benefits is the dominant estate.
A privilege to use the ground, not a share of it
Virginia's courts describe an easement by setting it against ownership. The holder does not own the strip the easement crosses. The holder has a use of it, and the use has limits.
privilege to use the land of another in a particular manner and for a particular purpose
Supreme Court of Virginia, as quoted by the Court of Appeals of Virginia
Both halves of that phrase do work. A particular manner is how the land may be used: walking, driving, running a line. A particular purpose is what that use is for. Title to the ground stays with the owner of the land underneath, who still owns it and can still sell it. What the holder has is a right that sits on top of that ownership.
A grant or reservation is written into a deed or other instrument, while an implied or prescriptive easement can exist with no easement document at all, which is why the difference between a deeded and an implied easement matters to anyone reading a title. How each kind is created, read, moved and enforced, in full, is laid out in easements explained.
For a buyer the distinction is practical. The acreage on the deed stays the same, but an easement can decide where a house, a fence or a pond may go, and who else has a lawful reason to be on the ground.
Dominant and servient, appurtenant and in gross
An easement involves the land it burdens and whoever it benefits, and four words name the parts.
Virginia's easement relocation statute, Va. Code 55.1-304, supplies the definitions. The servient estate is the one that carries the burden:
"Servient estate" means an estate or interest in real property that is burdened by an easement.
Va. Code 55.1-304, definitions
| Word | What it names | Where the meaning comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Servient estate | The land an easement burdens | Va. Code 55.1-304 |
| Dominant estate | The land an appurtenant easement benefits | Va. Code 55.1-304 |
| Appurtenant easement | An easement tied to the dominant estate, held by that parcel's owner, and running with that tract | Va. Code 55.1-304; the Supreme Court of Virginia, as quoted by the Court of Appeals |
| Easement in gross | An easement held by its grantee or a successor rather than by the owner of a benefited parcel | Va. Code 55.1-304 |
An example of the appurtenant kind is a way across one parcel that serves the parcel behind it. The Court of Appeals quotes the Supreme Court of Virginia that easements are appurtenant to, and run with, the dominant tract when they benefit the owner in using it. Sell the benefited parcel and the benefit goes with it.
The word gets paired with others, and the pairing changes the subject. A private way across a neighbor's land is often called a right of way, and whether the two phrases mean the same thing on a given deed is its own question, answered in easement vs right of way. A conservation easement is a different instrument again, one the Code defines separately and treats separately, for instance by keeping it out of the court relocation route in Va. Code 55.1-304.
Carried by the deed, and named on a Carroll County plat
In a sale, an easement can appear in two places: the deed that conveys the land, and a plat when the land is divided.
The deed carries it by default. The Code of Virginia reads every deed conveying land to include the appurtenances belonging to that land unless the deed makes an exception. An easement that benefits the land is one of them, so a seller does not need to restate it for it to pass, and any exception is written into the deed itself.
The plat names the people behind it. Carroll County's posted 2014 subdivision ordinance requires a preliminary plat to show the names and addresses of the owner of record, the subdivider, the person who prepared the plat and the holders of any easements affecting the property. The ordinance posted online is dated April 14, 2014; confirm the current requirement with Carroll County Land Use and Planning.
Is there an easement recorded against the land you plan to sell?
Send the address and the deed book reference if you have one, and Lowell will look at how the easement shapes the parcel and name who reads the instrument next. No cost, no obligation.
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Questions about this term
Does the land under an easement still belong to the landowner?
Yes. An easement is a right to use land, not a share in owning it, so title stays with the owner of the burdened parcel. Under a rule the Supreme Court of Virginia has repeatedly stated, that owner may go on using the land in ways that do not unreasonably interfere with what the easement grants. Whether a particular use goes too far turns on the easement's terms and the facts, and a court decides it.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- City of Norfolk v. Pretty Lake 5757 LLC (memorandum opinion quoting the Supreme Court of Virginia on easements) Court of Appeals of Virginia
- Nelson v. Davis (2001): how easements may be created Supreme Court of Virginia
- Va. Code 55.1-304: relocation or modification of easements, with definitions of dominant estate, servient estate and easement holder Code of Virginia
- Title 55.1, Chapter 3, Article 1: what a deed conveying land is construed to include Code of Virginia
- Subdivision Ordinance, April 14, 2014 (preliminary plat contents) Carroll County, Virginia
- Thibault Enterprises, LLC v. Yost (April 9, 2026): the landowner's retained right to use land an easement crosses Supreme Court of Virginia