Servient Estate
Definition of "Servient estate"
As the term “servient” comes from the root word “serve” and to serve means to perform a duty or a service for another entity, its meaning is easy to define. The term servient estate refers to an estate or property that is subject to being used for the benefit of another property. These benefits can come in the form of easements, rights of way, or rights of access. These rights are granted by law and are passed through purchasing contracts.
How does a Servient Estate work?
Upon purchasing a property, the contract can specify that there is an easement across the lot. This means that another property owner has the legal right to use part of the property to access their property. In this case, the property that grants access is the servient estate, while the property being granted access is the dominant estate.
When an easement is specified and granted in a contract, it gives the easement owner a nonpossessory interest in another property. The easement owner is the owner of the dominant estate, while the one required to allow the easement is the owner of the servient estate. There are different types of easements, from those that would enable the use of someone else’s land to those that limit the servient estate owners from blocking access to view or sunlight. Important to note that the servient estate owner can use the land or property in any way they want as long as they don’t limit the dominant estate owner’s easement on that land.
When purchasing a property, it is essential to know if it is a servient estate. For this, one should check for easements because if there is a dominant estate with only one access to the beach, which is by the servient house, it can impact the property’s price. Usually, suppose there is an easement on the property that makes it a servient estate. In that case, the price should be lowered because it may limit the owner’s privacy and give the dominant estate owner nonpossessory interest in the servient estate.
Popular Real Estate Terms
Way to determine the capitalization rate of income property for valuation purposes by weighting the rate of interest and source of financing in percentage terms. ...
Latin term meaning something in exchange for something else. For example, a person rushes through an order for another in return for having first choice in selecting a parcel of ...
(1) Supporting the joists of a floor with small pieces of wood. (2) Providing temporary financing such as a short-term loan, to a real estate developer before long-term financing can be ...
Appraisal method that examines current and future economic conditions in a particular location to help in deriving property values ...
See Board of Equalization. ...
Insects that destroy the support wood in the structure of a building. Termite inspection should be periodically performed to detect their existence. If an infestation is confirmed, the ...
Relationship between individuals or entities whereby rights given to one are returned in kind to the other. An example is where one person has the right to use facilities of another with ...
3D Printed Homes are basically homes that were printed via 3D Printers. Though semantically the phrase is pretty obvious and straightforward, there’s a lot we need to contextualize ...
State laws limiting the interest rate that can be charged to individuals borrowing money in that state. These laws affect all lenders in a state regardless of what federal or state agency ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.