Easements

An easement is a section of land on your property that someone else has the legal right to access or use, even if they are not the owner. Approximately one in 10 properties in South Australia have an easement.

What is an easement?

Easements often include shared driveways, rights to park a vehicle, or the right for utility providers like SA Water, or councils, to have pipes, drains, and cables on private land, and include the right to repair or replace these services.
Most of the time, your easement will contain water or wastewater. However, some easements may be reserved for future pipework or contain pipes that are no longer in use.

How we use easements

Where possible, we’ll always have our water and sewer mains located underground on roads and public land. However, in some cases, such as when land is sloped, placing them on private property means we can provide a better service to our customers. When this happens, we’ll always try to place these services close to the boundaries to reduce the impact on the property owner.
Easements may exist for various purposes, such as:

• sewerage
• water supply
• electricity supply
• right of way
• cathodic protection
• a combination of the above

How to identify an easement

Easements are not marked by fences or signs like property boundaries.

When buying property, it is legally required that you receive a 'Register Search' and 'Form 1' with which includes details of any easements on the property. The SA Land Titles Office keeps an electronic copy of all land in the state and this includes easement details.

Guidance for easements on your property

Understand what you can do on easements, and how to request removal of any unused ones.