Blog · September 30, 2026
What Is an Easement by Necessity?
An easement by necessity is a right of access that the law may imply when a parcel is split and one piece is left without any legal way to a public road. It is a legal conclusion from a severance and a necessity. It is not a shortcut you declare because the public road would be more convenient.
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The classic elements
The usual story is a common owner, a split of the land, and a piece that has no access except over the remaining land of the grantor. The law implies an easement so the granted land is not useless, often locating it where access existed at the time of the split or where it is reasonable. If the land fronts a public road, necessity fails even when that frontage is steep, narrow, or expensive to build. Inconvenience is not necessity. If a recorded easement already provides access, necessity also fails, even when the recorded route is the long way around. If the lockup happened without a split from a common owner, the doctrine may not apply and a different claim, such as prescription, would have its own hard elements. None of these elements is satisfied by a GIS parcel that looks landlocked on the screen.
You do not stake it yourself
An implied easement has no plat dimension until a court, or a deed that settles the claim, gives it one. Driving a new track across the grantor’s woods and calling it necessity is a trespass with a theory attached. Do not do that. Do not move a fence. Do not cross the neighbor’s land to prove the route. A surveyor can research the severance and map the historic access. A lawyer can say whether the doctrine fits. A phone GPS track of your preferred driveway is not a survey and not a judgment. County tax maps often fail to draw recorded easements, so a parcel can look landlocked and have a paper route, or look connected by a farmer’s lane that is only a license. Platbookmapper links to the tax map. It does not adjudicate necessity.
How to read a deed in light of the idea
When you read a deed of an interior parcel, hunt for a granted easement, a plat road, and frontage on a dedicated street before you use the word necessity. Also read the parent deed to see what was kept. A reserve strip or a spite strip may show the grantor intended no access, which in some states defeats implication. The intention evidence is in the documents. Your job as a reader is to collect the split, the dates, and any express access, and to stop before self-help. If a recorded judgment or a later deed locates the easement by metes and bounds, then it can be surveyed like any other strip. Until that writing exists, there is nothing honest to measure with a wheel.
What to do next
- Find the deed that split the parent tract and left the interior piece.
- Search for any existing recorded access before you call the lot landlocked.
- Do not open a new route across someone else’s land.
- Treat a court order or a new grant as the document that finally locates the strip.
The mix-up to avoid
Using necessity for a shorter driveway when a legal route already exists. The doctrine cures a lack of access. It does not upgrade a bad commute.
Questions people ask
Does a paper street count as access?
It may, if the lot has a real legal right to use it, and it may not, if the street was never dedicated or accepted and no private easement exists. Read the plat and the vacation history. The mere drawing of a road name is not enough.
Can I buy the lot and sue later for necessity?
You can buy a lawsuit. You should not buy the lot expecting a court to award the route you like. The elements can fail. Price the access as a title problem, and get advice before you close, not after you have cleared a path.
Find the county map
Start at Platbookmapper, search the county, and open the local GIS link. Write down the parcel number before you compare the screen to a paper plat.
Not a survey. County GIS and tax parcel maps are assessment and planning layers. They are not a substitute for a recorded plat, deed, or licensed survey.