G.L. c. 187, §§ 2, 5; G.L. c. 184, § 23; G.L. c. 185, § 53
Easements in Massachusetts — how they are created, how far they reach, and how they end
A claim in Massachusetts trial courts · Last verified August 26, 2026
An easement is a right to use land somebody else owns — a driveway, a path, a pipe, a right to draw water, a right to keep a wall where it stands.
Most Massachusetts easement litigation is about one of three questions, and this page is organised around them. Does it exist? How far does it go? Has it ended?
The answer to the last one surprises people most: a Massachusetts easement is not lost by non-use alone.
How easements are created
Express grant or reservation. A deed creates the easement, or the grantor reserves one when conveying the land. This is the cleanest form and the one title examinations find.
Implication from prior use. Where a single parcel is divided and, before the division, part of it was used to serve another part in a way that was apparent, continuous and reasonably necessary to the enjoyment of the part conveyed, the easement passes by implication even though nobody wrote it down.
Necessity. Where a conveyance leaves a parcel landlocked, an easement by necessity arises over the grantor's remaining land. It requires unity of title followed by severance, and it lasts only as long as the necessity does. Note the statutory bar for registered land below.
Estoppel, where a grantor's representations about access induced the purchase.
Prescription. G.L. c. 187, § 2 supplies the period: "No person shall acquire by adverse use or enjoyment a right or privilege of way or other easement from, in, upon or over the land of another, unless such use or enjoyment is continued uninterruptedly for twenty years."
Prescriptive easements — the twenty years
The elements mirror adverse possession with one difference:
- Actual use;
- Open and notorious — visible enough that a reasonably attentive owner would notice;
- Adverse — without the owner's permission;
- Continuous and uninterrupted for twenty years.
Exclusivity is not required. That is the distinction. A person claiming a right of way need not have excluded anyone; using the path alongside the owner is entirely consistent with the easement being claimed.
Permission defeats it, and this is the owner's best tool. A written licence granted at any point during the twenty years restarts the clock. An owner who discovers a neighbour using a driveway should consider a short letter granting permission — it is cheaper and more effective than a fence.
Registered land is immune. G.L. c. 185, § 53 provides that no title to registered land, "or easement or other right therein, in derogation of the title of the registered owner, shall be acquired by prescription or adverse possession. Nor shall a right of way by necessity be implied under a conveyance of registered land."
That sentence disposes of two claims at once, and it is the first thing to check. Whether a parcel is registered or recorded is a fact about the parcel, and it decides the case before the elements are reached.
Scope — the fight after existence
Establishing an easement rarely ends the dispute. The next question is what may be done with it, and Massachusetts answers it by reference to the grant, the use that created it, and what the parties reasonably contemplated.
An express easement is construed by its words, read in the circumstances at the time of the grant. A grant "for all purposes" is broad; a grant "for foot passage" is not.
A prescriptive easement is limited by the use that created it. Twenty years of walking does not produce a right to drive, and twenty years of a single-family driveway does not produce a right to serve a subdivision.
Reasonable evolution is permitted. The general principle is that the use may change with normal development — a cart path may become a car driveway — provided the change does not materially increase the burden on the servient estate.
Overburdening is the recurring claim, and it usually arises from development: an easement serving one house is used to serve twenty, or a residential right of way is used for commercial traffic. The remedy is an injunction limiting the use rather than extinguishing the easement.
Maintenance and repair. The holder of an easement has the right, and generally the obligation, to maintain it — and may enter to do so. The servient owner may not obstruct it, and may use the land in any way that does not unreasonably interfere.
How easements end — and non-use is not enough
Non-use alone does not extinguish an easement. This is the point most often misunderstood, and it is why title examinations turn up nineteenth-century rights of way that nobody has walked in a century.
Abandonment requires non-use plus acts showing an intention to give up the right permanently — building over the way, an express disclaimer, conduct inconsistent with any future use.
Release, by a written instrument from the easement holder.
Merger. Where the dominant and servient estates come into common ownership, the easement is extinguished — and it does not revive automatically when the parcels are separated again.
Expiration, where the grant was for a term or for a purpose that has ended. An easement by necessity ends when the necessity does.
Prescription in reverse. The servient owner may extinguish an easement by obstructing it openly, adversely and continuously for twenty years.
The thirty-year rule. G.L. c. 184, § 23 provides that conditions and restrictions unlimited as to time are limited to thirty years after the deed creating them — a provision aimed at restrictions rather than easements proper, and one that should be checked whenever an old instrument is doing the work.
How long you have to file
There is no limitations period on an action to establish or enforce an easement. The right does not expire because it was not litigated.
Twenty years is the operative number throughout — to create a prescriptive easement, and to extinguish one by adverse obstruction.
Three years for a damages claim arising from interference, under G.L. c. 260, § 2A — though a continuing obstruction gives a fresh claim as it continues.
What has to happen before you file
A title examination and a survey. These cases are decided on instruments and on the ground, and neither the deed nor the boundary can be argued from memory.
What the claim pays
A declaration that the easement exists, or does not, with its scope defined — recorded, so that it resolves the title rather than only the dispute.
An injunction, which is the usual remedy: an order to remove an obstruction, to stop an overburdening use, or to permit access.
Damages for interference — the loss of use, the cost of alternative access, or the diminution in value.
Twelve percent interest.
No multiplier and no attorney's fees, absent a contract or another statute. Where trees were cut in the course of the dispute, G.L. c. 242 § 7 trebles those damages.
Which court
The Land Court, which is the specialist forum and has exclusive jurisdiction over matters affecting registered title, and concurrent jurisdiction over easements and boundaries generally.
The Superior Court, concurrently, for easements over recorded land — and where damages are the principal object.
The District Court for a small damages claim, though the declaratory and injunctive relief that these cases need belongs in the Land Court or the Superior Court.
Most practitioners bring easement cases in the Land Court, and the title examination resources are the reason.
Common defenses
- Permission, which defeats prescription entirely.
- Registered land, under c. 185 § 53 — a complete bar to prescription and to implied necessity.
- The use was not continuous for twenty years, or was interrupted.
- No unity of title, defeating an easement by necessity or implication.
- The scope claimed exceeds the grant or the historical use.
- Abandonment, release or merger.
- The easement was extinguished by adverse obstruction.
What people get wrong
Non-use does not end an easement. Abandonment requires intent shown by conduct, and old rights of way survive on titles for generations.
Registered land cannot be burdened by prescription — and a right of way by necessity cannot be implied under a conveyance of registered land either.
Exclusivity is not an element of a prescriptive easement, unlike adverse possession.
Permission is the owner's answer, and it is cheap.
Twenty years of walking is not a right to drive. A prescriptive easement is measured by the use that created it.
Merger is permanent. Buying the neighbouring parcel extinguishes the easement, and selling it again does not bring it back — a trap in assemblage and subdivision.
Where it came from
Easements exist because land is not self-sufficient. A parcel needs access, water, drainage and services, and those things frequently have to cross somebody else's ground. The common law developed the easement as a property interest rather than a contract precisely so that it would survive the sale of both parcels and bind people who never agreed to anything.
That durability is the source of most of the doctrine's peculiarities. Because an easement runs with the land, it has to be discoverable from the record or from the ground — which is why the requirements for prescription are about visibility rather than fairness, and why implied easements require that the prior use was apparent. A purchaser has to be able to find out what they are buying.
It is also why non-use does not extinguish. If an easement lapsed whenever it went unused, no title examiner could ever say whether one survived, and the interest would become unreliable in exactly the way property interests must not be. So Massachusetts requires an affirmative act — abandonment, release, merger, or twenty years of adverse obstruction — and tolerates the resulting clutter of ancient rights of way as the price of certainty.
The registration system is the alternative answer to the same problem. Land registered under c. 185 carries a certificate that is conclusive, and § 53 protects it absolutely from prescription and implied necessity — because a title the state guarantees cannot be eroded by what the neighbours have been doing.
Common questions
How long does it take to get a prescriptive easement in Massachusetts?
Twenty years of uninterrupted, open, notorious and adverse use, under G.L. c. 187 § 2. Exclusivity is not required.
Can my neighbour get a right of way across my land?
Yes, by twenty years of use without your permission — unless your land is registered under G.L. c. 185, which is immune from prescription.
How do I stop it?
Give written permission. A licence granted at any point during the twenty years defeats the adverse element and restarts the clock.
Does an easement disappear if nobody uses it?
No. Non-use alone does not extinguish an easement. It takes abandonment shown by conduct, a written release, merger of the two parcels, or twenty years of adverse obstruction.
Can the neighbour use the driveway for a new development?
Not if it materially increases the burden. A prescriptive easement is limited by the use that created it, and an express easement by the terms of the grant.
Which court?
The Land Court, usually — it has exclusive jurisdiction over registered land and the title resources these cases need. The Superior Court has concurrent jurisdiction over recorded land.