Land Titles Act 1993 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 10 · Easements
99. Implied easements for right of way and other rights shown in subdivision plan
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Where the competent authority has approved the development and subdivision of any land comprised in an estate before or after 1 March 1994 and the subdivision plan has been submitted to the competent authority, there is implied, in respect of each lot of the estate which is used or intended to be used as a separate tenement, in favour of the registered proprietor of the lot and as appurtenant thereto, all the easements referred to in subsection (1A).
The easements which are implied under subsection (1) are all such easements of way and drainage, for party wall purposes and for the supply of water, gas, electricity, sewerage and telephone and other services to the lot on, over or under the lands appropriated or set apart for those purposes respectively on the subdivision plan submitted to the competent authority relating to the estate, as may be necessary for the reasonable enjoyment of the lot and of any building or part of a building at any time thereon.
All ancillary rights and obligations reasonably necessary to make the easements referred to in subsection (1A) effective are implied.
In respect of all the easements implied by this section, there is also implied a covenant binding all registered proprietors enjoying the benefit of such easements to contribute to the cost of maintenance or repair of the subject of the easements as if the easements and the covenant to contribute had been created by an instrument registered under this Act and so long as such easements subsist the covenant to contribute binds any successor in title enjoying the benefit of the easements except that in the case of the right to erect and maintain party walls, the implied covenant provided in this subsection binds only the registered proprietors of the lots on which party walls have been erected.
instrument
“instrument” includes a transfer, lease, mortgage, transmission application, charge and any other application, or any other document in writing relating to any disposition, devolution or acquisition of land or any claim to or vesting of interest in land;
Subsection (3) does not render any person liable to contribute to expenditure incurred at a time before the person became, or after the person ceased to be, a proprietor of the lot to which the liability is attached.
proprietor
“proprietor” means any person who appears from the land‑register to be the person entitled to an estate or interest in any land which has been brought under the provisions of this Act, and includes a mortgagee, chargee and lessee;
The easements implied by this section are enforceable without any memorial or notification on the folios, and accordingly section 97(5) and (6) does not apply thereto.
Unity of seisin of 2 or more lots does not destroy the easements implied by this section but on the cessation of such unity, they continue in full force and effect as if the seisin had never been united.
The easements implied by this section do not apply to the lots in an estate where subdivision approval was given by the competent authority prior to 1 March 1994 and satisfactory documentary evidence has been produced to the Registrar of the completion of the transfer of any lot in the estate to a purchaser with easements expressly created in an instrument which has been executed and delivered to the purchaser.
In this section —
“estate” means any land which has been subdivided into lots under the Planning Act 1998, and includes —
land
“land” means —(a)the surface of any defined parcel of the earth, so much of the subterranean space below and so much of the column of airspace above the surface whether or not held apart from the surface as is reasonably necessary for the proprietor’s use and enjoyment, and includes any estate or interest therein and all vegetation growing thereon and structures affixed thereto; or(b)any parcel of airspace or any subterranean space whether or not held apart from the surface of the earth and described with certainty by reference to a plan approved by the Chief Surveyor and filed with the Authority, and includes any estate or interest therein and all vegetation growing thereon and structures affixed thereto,and where the context so permits, the proprietorship of land includes natural rights to air, light, water and support and the right of access to any highway on which the land abuts;
land intended for use as easements to be made appurtenant to other lots within the same estate as shown in the subdivision plan submitted to the competent authority; and
undeveloped lots (if any) which are shown in the first subdivision plan submitted to the competent authority, each of which is capable of being subdivided as shown in one or more subsequent subdivision plans as and when submitted to or issued by the competent authority;
“lot” means a parcel of land forming part of an estate to which the Chief Surveyor has allotted a survey lot number and also described as a “plot” in a subdivision plan submitted to the competent authority.
Chief Surveyor
“Chief Surveyor” means the Chief Surveyor appointed under section 3 of the Boundaries and Survey Maps Act 1998;