What is the purpose of an easement in property?

An easement serves the essential purpose of granting a non-owner the right to use a portion of another person's property for a specific purpose. This legal arrangement allows individuals or entities to access or utilize someone else's land without transferring ownership. Common examples of easements include rights of way for utilities, pathways for pedestrians, or access routes to landlocked properties.

Easements can facilitate important functions, such as allowing utility companies to install and maintain infrastructure like power lines or water pipelines across private property. The nature of easements underscores the balance between private property rights and the needs of the community or other property owners. This legal right does not give ownership but allows for the defined use of the property, which is central to the concept of easements.

Other choices may reflect broader property management or ownership concepts but do not encapsulate the fundamental role of an easement in property law. For instance, while maintaining property might be a goal in some contexts, it is not the primary purpose of an easement. Similarly, defining property boundaries is more related to boundary disputes and surveys than to easement rights. Protecting property from being sold also does not align with the intrinsic intent behind establishing easements.