What's an easement? In a nutshell, it is the right to use someone else's property.

The most common types of easements are ones we can't easily escape: they are for power, water, perhaps phone lines. The utility companies have a right to go onto your land to get to the water pipes outside your home or to the power or telephone lines in your backyard. They have a right to go there and do not need your permission, generally speaking, if the need arises. (That said, they usually do give notice unless it's an emergency.)

Easments can be given by the landowner to the person or organization that wants to use it too. This can be done for charitable reasons or for payment and it can involve cash payment for the use of the land. For instance, the right to use a driveway from one parcel to access another might be a great convenience to the person who wants the easment (it might be a much shorter route home than another alternative).

As a charitable example, an easment might be granted by a property owner to the general public to have a shortcut to a park or trail. In this case, the landowner might close the access off once a year and also post a "right to pass by permission" type of notice so that this easement is as a temporary gift and not a permanent loss of rights of the landowner. (An interruption in the use of the easement.)

A "prescriptive easement" is one that happens by accident as far as the landowner is concerned. In this case, others openly and notoriously used the property owner's land without interruption (as a shortcut, a driveway, etc.) for a period of years without the owner objecting or preventing that use. Eventually, the right to use the land for those purposes can become permanent. To form a prescriptive easement, the use must be open, notorious, for a period of years, and uninterrupted.

To give a real-life example, there were two homes in Cambrian Park with fences and gates - we'll call them lots A and B.  The the fence for Lot A extended further toward the street than that of Lot B. And the gate for Lot A opened not onto its own front yard, but onto the front yard of Lot B. (The gate was at a 90 degree angle to where it should have been.)

If the homeowner of Lot B did not object, but allowed the folks in Lot A to go through their gate and onto the land of Lot B for a period of time, it would become a prescriptive easement.

What to do? The only thing to do to prevent the prescriptive easement being formed is to object and to request (insist upon) the gate being rebuilt. Hopefully that would not require legal action. But to allow someone to cross your property without objection for a period of years is to invite the formation of a prescriptive easement.

When buying or selling a home, easments will be listed on the preliminary title report. Normally these are simply the utility easements. Not every easement is recorded, though, so do not rely on the preliminary title report for assurance that there are no easements. Home or landowners must pay attention to the use of the land and be aware of any risk of the formation of prescriptive easements.  Homebuyers should check the land too and see if it appears that the property is being used by others.

Could anything be worse for a homeowner than a prescriptive easement?

Yes.

Adverse possession. We'll discuss that later this week.