RESOURCES

As part of conducting a title search on a property, a lawyer often comes across various registered instruments on the Parcel. Depending on the type of property, it is vital to pull the details on as many instruments as possible as different types of instruments could give legal rights to parties other than the registered owner on title.

Depending on who they are registered in favour of, Easements and Right-of-Ways are two such instruments which should be investigated in further detail.

The most common types of Easements are those registered in favour of a municipality or a utility company. These grant such entities the right of access to your property for instances that include but are not limited to installation / repairs to drainage; grading; and utility connections.

Note that Easements do have a limit on their validity period and should be requisitioned to be removed from the Parcel if an Easement has not been renewed within the validity period but still appears as active on the Parcel.

In comparison to an Easement, a Right-of-Way legally allows someone access through your property to get to another site. Common examples include shared driveways in freehold townhouses or semi-detached homes.

Note that the ownership for the part of the property affected by the Right-of-Way remains with the registered owner on title. As such, the parties benefitting from the Right-of-Way need the consent of the registered owner prior to making any changes to the area in question and the registered owner reserves the right to refuse any such requests.

Please feel free to contact one of our lawyers should you have questions about this topic!

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Taimoor Qureshi is an Associate Lawyer with Kormans LLP.  You can reach Taimoor at tqureshi@kormans.ca All blog entries are for your reading pleasure only and are not posted to provide legal advice. For your matter, we encourage you to consult with a lawyer to review and discuss your specific facts and circumstances. All blog entries are for your reading pleasure only and are not posted to provide legal advice. For your matter, we encourage you to consult with a lawyer to review and discuss your specific facts and circumstances. The information and comments herein are for the general information of the reader and are not intended as advice or opinion to be relied upon in relation to any particular circumstances. For particular application of the law to specific situations, the reader should seek professional advice. Kormans LLP cannot be responsible for the content of other sites. We expressly disclaim all liability with respect to actions taken or actions not taken based on content received from a third party website linked, directly or indirectly, to that of Kormans LLP.  The link to another site is not to be construed in any way as an endorsement of the host, the site or the information contained therein, nor is such link to be inferred as an association or affiliation with the host.