What is an easement?

An easement is a legal right granted to a third party to use part of your land for a specific purpose. Unlike a covenant or overlay, an easement runs with the title — it stays on the property regardless of who owns it, and it cannot be negotiated away without the consent of the easement holder. Easements are among the most common and most misunderstood features on Australian property titles. Many buyers discover them only after exchange, when the conveyancer's title search reveals restrictions that affect building plans they had already formed.

Common easement types in Australia

Sewer easements are the most frequent. Local governments and water utilities hold rights to run sewer pipes under private land and to access those pipes for maintenance. Buildings cannot be constructed over a sewer easement. Depending on the easement width (typically 1.5 to 3 metres) and its position on the lot, this can significantly constrain where extensions or new structures can be placed.

Stormwater drainage easements work similarly — they cover pipes and channels used to convey stormwater across multiple properties. No permanent structures can be built over the easement, and maintenance access must be preserved.

Overland flow easements cover the natural path that floodwater or heavy rainfall runoff takes across a site. These are not always formally gazetted easements on the title, but council planning schemes in flood-prone areas often restrict building within the flow path regardless.

Electricity and telecommunications easements cover overhead powerlines and underground cables. Overhead powerline easements typically extend two metres either side of the line. Underground easements require council or utility approval for any ground disturbance within the zone.

Access easements grant a neighbouring property the right to cross your land, typically to reach a property that has no other road access. These are common in older subdivisions where lots were split before adequate road infrastructure was planned.

How easements affect lot coverage

The practical impact of an easement depends on its width, its position on the lot, and what you intend to build. A 3-metre sewer easement running diagonally across the rear third of a 400m2 lot can reduce the practical buildable area by 15 to 25 percent — a material impact on extension potential or a second dwelling.

Lot coverage percentage is the calculation that makes this concrete. You take the total lot area, subtract the easement area (and any mandatory setback from the easement), and express the remaining buildable area as a percentage of the total. A lot advertised as 600m2 with a 50m2 easement plus 3-metre setbacks may have an effective buildable footprint of 480m2.

PropertyLens performs this calculation automatically for any Australian address. It identifies the easement types from title data, estimates the lot coverage percentage impact, and flags whether the restriction is material to typical development scenarios (ground floor extension, second storey addition, secondary dwelling).

Why buyers miss easements

Real estate listings rarely disclose easements. The lot size is advertised, and the photo shows the back yard — neither communicates what you cannot build there. Open inspections do not include a title search. By the time a buyer engages a conveyancer and receives the full title picture, they are emotionally and financially committed to the purchase. The solution is to check title encumbrances before the inspection or at minimum before making an offer.

What to do if an easement is a problem

Easements can sometimes be extinguished, varied, or moved — but only with the consent of the easement holder. For council or utility sewer easements, this typically requires a formal application to the local government or water utility, engineering certification, and payment of relocation costs. Approval is not guaranteed and the process can take twelve months or more. For most buyers, the right response to a material easement is to factor it into the offer price and the development feasibility analysis.