Chapter 12 Interactive key cases
The right to park a car in a commercial parking space between 8.30am and 6.00pm Monday to Friday was held not to be an easement as it amounted to exclusive possession. The servient owner would only want to use the parking space during business hours and to recognise the right as an easement would have prevented him from doing so.
The exercise of an easement must not exclude the servient owner from having reasonable use of the servient land for himself. The nature of the land in question shall be taken into account when making this assessment.
A right to store vehicles on a narrow strip of land was held not to be an easement. The exercise of that right would have amounted to effectively claiming the whole of the beneficial use of that strip, to the exclusion of the servient owner.
The exercise of an easement must not exclude the servient owner from having reasonable use of the servient land for himself. The extent to which the physical space is being used is taken into account when making this assessment.
The right to park on a forecourt that could accommodate four cars was held to be an easement. There was no exclusive possession as there would always be three other parking spaces for the servient owner to use.
The exercise of an easement must not exclude the servient owner from having reasonable use of the servient land for himself. The extent to which the physical space is being used shall be taken into account when making this assessment.
A claim to an exclusive right to put boats on a canal was rejected as an easement. The exercise of the right was deemed to confer a mere commercial advantage on the claimant, rather than an advantage on the dominant land.
For a right to be capable of being an easement it must accommodate a dominant tenement, rather than confer a mere personal advantage on the current owner.
The right to put an advertisement on a neighbour’s property advertising a pub was held to be an easement. The right would accommodate the land in connection with its normal use as a pub and thus benefit any future occupier of that land, irrespective of who they are.
A right which confers a commercial benefit may not be precluded from being an easement where the commercial activity and the land upon which it is carried out have become interlinked, so that any benefit to the business also benefits the land.
A claim of an easement to have a house protected from the weather by another house was rejected as an easement. To allow otherwise would have precluded the owner of the other house from demolishing it.
Negative easements, restricting what a servient owner can do over his own land, can no longer be created.
A right for residential property owners to use a park adjacent to their houses for recreational use was deemed to be an easement. The right accommodated the land since use of the park was akin to use of a garden; such use being connected to normal enjoyment of a house.
Four requirements must be met for a right to be capable of being an easement. On the issue of accommodating the dominant land, the right should be connected to normal use of the dominant land and thus benefit any occupier of that land.
Regency Villas Title Ltd and others v Diamond Resorts (Europe) Ltd and another [2018] UKSC 57 – Facts
Timeshare villa owners successfully claimed rights to use sporting and leisure facilities (including golf course, tennis and squash courts, croquet lawn, and outdoor swimming pool) as easements.
Regency Villas Title Ltd and others v Diamond Resorts (Europe) Ltd and another [2018] UKSC 57 – Principle
The essence of an easement is to give the dominant land a benefit or a utility. Physical exercise is now regarded by most as an essential or at least desirable part of daily life. The benefit to a dominant land to use such facilities is therefore obvious.
The claim of a right to hot water as an easement was rejected.
The exercise of an easement should not involve the servient owner spending any money.
Two plots of land, in common ownership, with one enjoying a quasi easement of light over another. The quasi servient plot was sold to B and a year later the quasi dominant plot was sold to W. When B erected hoardings blocking light to W’s land, W was held not to have an easement of light.
Quasi easements may elevate to full easements when the quasi dominant land is transferred to another and three conditions are met.
An easement to fix a ventilation system to the landlord’s property was impliedly acquired by the tenant when granted a lease over the landlord’s cellar, specifically for use as a restaurant. Without such an easement, the tenant could not comply with health and safety regulations and thus could not use the cellar in the way the lease intended.
Where an easement is essential for the dominant land to be used in accordance with the purpose mutually intended by the parties, that easement may be impliedly acquired by common intention.
A tenant’s revocable licence to store coal in a coal shed converted, upon the granting of a new lease, into a legal easement to store.