Someone else's legal right to use a part of your property for a specific purpose — like a utility company's right to access lines, or a neighbor's right to use a shared driveway.
An easement is a legal right granted to someone else to use a portion of your property for a specific purpose. You still own the land, but someone else has a defined right to access or use part of it.
The most common types: utility easements (the power, gas, water, or telecom company has the right to access lines), access easements (a neighbor has the legal right to use part of your land to reach a road or shared resource), conservation easements (you've agreed to limit development to preserve natural land), and prescriptive easements (created by long-term use even without formal agreement, like a path neighbors have used for decades).
Easements transfer with the property when sold. Title insurance covers undisclosed easements, but you should review the title commitment carefully for any that affect your use of the land.
Example
Your title report shows a 10-foot utility easement along the back of your property where electric lines run. You own that strip, but the electric company has the legal right to access it for maintenance — you can't build a permanent structure there.
Also known as
right of way, utility easement, access easement