Private & Public Restrictions on Real Estate

Private restrictions are enacted by a private individual or business that put limitations on the owner’s rights. The most common forms of private restrictions are easements, adverse possession, encroachments, and liens. In public restrictions there are four basic powers of government over real property, taxation, escheat, eminent domain, and police power.


Easements are rights to use the property of another for particular purposes. There are two main types of easements: easement in appurtenant, and easement in gross. An easement in appurtenant is when two properties are in a dispute or agreement. One of the properties ”gives up” a right, and the other property benefits from the agreement. Easements in gross are when there is only one property or estate, the other party often being a utility or electric company. 

Power of eminent domain is the right of the government to take private property for public use upon the payment of just compensation. The two requirements are it must be for a valid public use and property owner must be compensated fairly.

One recent article describes the mounting legal battles in Texas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, from the “Keystone Pipeline”. The issue, as the article describes, is that to construct the massive cross-country pipeline, Keystone will pass-through over 2,150 pieces of private land. Each of which requires a custom agreement allowing special land-rights to TransCanada, the company building Keystone. The company met with each property owner, offering a cash bid for the right to build their pipeline. This method has been a great success, leaving Transcanada “all but 19 of the 1,200 easements it sought in Oklahoma and Texas.” The company is trying to seize the rest of the easements by using eminent domain laws. This article tells the story of the people who are refusing to grant the easements.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-08/ranchers-tell-keystone-not-under-my-backyard