What does property servitude mean?

servitude, in Anglo-American property law, a device that ties rights and obligations to ownership or possession of land so that they run with the land to successive owners and occupiers.

What is a conventional servitude?

Natural servitudes arise from the natural situation of estates; legal servitudes are imposed by law; and voluntary or conventional servitudes are established by juridical act, prescription, or destination of the owner.

What does Predial servitude mean?

A predial servitude is a charge on a servient estate for the benefit of a dominant estate. The two estates must belong to different owners.

What are examples of servitude?

Servitude is the state of being completely submissive to and controlled by someone more powerful. When a person caters to every whim and need of another, this person is an example of someone who would be described as in servitude. Work imposed as punishment for crime.

Are servitudes real rights?

Requirements for a servitude Servitudes are subordinate real rights over a property (the burdened property) for the benefit of another property (the benefited property) which may be exercised by the owner of the benefited property, their tenants and invitees.

Can you build on a servitude?

Unlike a building line, you cannot apply for a relaxation, meaning that you cannot build over municipal servitudes, or any other praedial servitudes for that matter, without having it first written out of your Title Deed, which is a long and rather involved process.

Can you have a servitude over your own property?

Personal Servitudes A personal servitude is registered against immovable property in favour of a person or legal entity. The real right therefore attaches to a person, being the holder of the servitude, and not the land itself.

How does a servitude affect the value of the property?

If a servitude is held on a property, the owner of the property will be unable to exercise their entitlement to the property in the full capacity. The servitude implies that the property does not just serve the owner, but also another property or person. Because of this, the owner’s rights are somewhat diminished.

What must servitudes not be?

Looking at repugnancy with ownership, a servitude necessarily restricts what the burdened owner can do with their land. However, it must not be so onerous that it removes most or all rights of ownership.

Does my Neighbour have right of way through my garden?

Your tenant doesn’t have the right to grant a right of way, but if the neighbour has being using your garden for long enough (probably in excess of 10 years but it will depend on the facts) and has been doing it openly (eg your tenant and everyone around can see him using the garden) then he could argue that he has …

Who owns the rights to a servitude?

The three most common property servitudes are personal servitudes, praedial servitudes and public servitudes. A personal servitude is registered against immovable property in favour of a person or legal entity. The real right therefore attaches to a person, being the holder of the servitude, and not the land itself.

How do servitudes work?

A personal servitude entitles the holder of the real right to exercise some right in the property of another or to prohibit another from exercising a normal ownership right. This servitude is established in favour of a particular person and cannot be transferred to a third party.