Easements

In Rhode Island, real estate owners often face easement disputes. An easement is a legal right or privilege that one person has to use the land of another for a specific purpose. It could involve elements like parking lots, walkways, driveways, or a dominant tenement. Disputes frequently arise over encroachments, boundary lines, property access, and restrictions. The experienced easement attorneys at Bilodeau Capalbo can handle such disputes and protect your rights.

Easement Types:

Easements Appurtenant: This is a right acquired by the owner of one parcel of land to use an adjacent parcel for a special purpose.

Easements in Gross: This type of easement is not connected with another parcel of land. It's a personal right given to a company, person, or corporation (such as a utility company).

There are several ways easements can be created:

Express Grant or Reservation: This occurs when an easement is granted to another over a property. The grant should be in writing, clearly describing the nature of the easement, and the means of ingress (entrance) and egress (exit).

Implied Grant or Reservation: An implied easement is when an easement is needed for the use of land, but the owner forgets to create one. A few conditions must be met for this to occur: common ownership of the two parcels, the easement must be reasonably necessary, and the prior use was continuous, apparent, and obvious.

Prescription: Easements by prescription are acquired by lapse of time. Rhode Island law requires a period of ten (10) years in which a person has used the easement openly, notoriously, and continuously.

Condemnation: Condemnation is the taking of private property by the government for public use, with compensation provided to the owner under eminent domain.

Necessity: An easement by necessity occurs when a part of land is conveyed that is surrounded by the remaining property, leaving the new parcel landlocked. This creates an implied grant.

Dedication: Dedication is when an owner transfers complete ownership of streets to a city or town as a gift.

The creation, interpretation, and enforcement of easements can be complex and confusing. Bilodeau Capalbo is equipped to represent both commercial and residential real estate clients in various areas including construction law, partition actions, quiet title actions, adverse possession cases, real estate transactions, and more. Let Bilodeau Capalbo help resolve your easement disputes in Rhode Island.

Bilodeau Capalbo, LLC’s Rhode Island Easement Attorneys represent clients in Woonsocket, Burrillville, Chepachet, Smithfield, Scituate, Coventry, West Greenwich, Exeter, North Kingstown, East Greenwich, Warwick, Cranston, Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, East Providence, Warren, Bristol, Barrington, Little Compton, Tiverton, Middletown, Portsmouth, Newport, South Kingstown, Charlestown, Hopkinton, Ashaway, Richmond, Narragansett, New Shoreham, West Warwick, Cumberland, Foster, Glocester, Johnston, Lincoln, North Providence and Westerly