Topic
Checking easements and rights of residence
A property can carry rights that belong to someone else. They sit in a register, not in the listing, and they pass to the buyer.
What can sit on a property
A neighbour's right to drive across your land. Someone's right to live in part of the house until they die. A utility's right to keep a cable or pipe running through it. Each one lowers the value, and none of them show up on a viewing.
Where they are recorded, and where they are not
Most sit in the land register or the country's ownership register. Some take effect even without being recorded, typically once they have been exercised openly for long enough. Those are the dangerous ones, because a clean register extract will not show them.
Registered encumbrances
They sit in the burdens section of the register. Read the extract and you see them. Skip it and you buy them along with the property.
Unrecorded use
A path the neighbour has used for thirty years can create a right even without ever being recorded. Watch for visible signs that someone else is using part of the property.
What a lifelong right of residence is worth
It reduces the value substantially, and in a way that can be calculated: by the holder's statistical life expectancy and the rental value of the part of the property affected. Buying at full price with a right of residence attached means paying for it twice.
Whether it can be removed
Only with the holder's consent, and that consent usually costs money. Do not count on sorting it out after the purchase: the negotiating position is worse afterwards than before.
The legal position in Germany
What encumbrances can exist
Registered encumbrances include an easement for a right of way or for utility lines (Grunddienstbarkeit), a usufruct (Nießbrauch) that gives someone else the right to use the property and draw its income, a right of residence (Wohnungsrecht), a real charge (Reallast) such as a duty to pay a pension or supply produce, and a limited personal easement (beschränkte persönliche Dienstbarkeit) granted to a specific person rather than to a neighbouring property.
Whether they bind the buyer
These rights attach to the land itself, not to the person who granted them: a sale changes nothing, and the buyer takes over every registered encumbrance exactly as it stands. The mirror image matters just as much: an easement that was agreed but never entered in the register does not exist against the buyer at all, because registration is not a formality but the very source of the right, and a buyer in good faith may rely on what the register shows. One narrow exception runs the other way: a right of way of necessity for a landlocked parcel arises by operation of law and binds every successive owner even though nothing about it appears in the register.
Basis: A registered easement under section 1018 of the Civil Code (BGB), a usufruct under section 1030, a right of residence under section 1093, a real charge under section 1105, and a limited personal easement under section 1090, all entered in section II of the land register; creation only by agreement and registration under section 873(1), protection of the buyer in good faith under section 892, and a right of way of necessity by operation of law under section 917.. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-19.
The legal position in Austria
What encumbrances can exist
Servitudes (Servitute) such as a right of way or a utility line right, alongside the usufruct of the whole property (Fruchtgenuss) and a right to use a dwelling (Wohnungsgebrauchsrecht).
Whether they bind the buyer
For land recorded in the Austrian land register, a servitude can only be acquired by registration itself: section 481(1) ABGB makes the register entry the very source of the right, not a formality, and once registered the encumbrance binds every later owner, whether they knew of it or not. Two exceptions stay invisible in the register excerpt. First, an honest possessor can acquire an unregistered in rem right after thirty years of open use (section 1470 ABGB); the former short tabular acquisitive prescription of sections 1467 and 1469 has been abolished. Second, in Tyrol the registration duty of section 481(1) expressly does not apply to rights of way and water conduit servitudes (RGBl. No. 77/1897), so over Tyrolean land such a right can exist with no register entry at all.
Basis: Servitude under section 472 ABGB, with usufruct and the right to use a dwelling under section 521; acquisition over registered land only by registration under section 481(1) ABGB (intabulation, section 431); titles under section 480 including prescription, and acquisitive prescription of unregistered in rem rights after thirty years under section 1470 (tabular acquisitive prescription under sections 1467 and 1469 abolished); Tyrolean exception for way and water conduit servitudes under RGBl. No. 77/1897.. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-19.
The legal position in Switzerland
What encumbrances can exist
Easements (Grunddienstbarkeiten) such as a right of way (Wegrecht) or a right to run utility lines, alongside the usufruct (Nutzniessung), a right of residence (Wohnrecht), and a land charge (Grundlast) under which the owner for the time being owes a performance secured exclusively by the land itself.
Whether they bind the buyer
Under article 731(1) ZGB a property easement can only be created by registration in the land register: the entry is the source of the right, not a formality, and under article 971(1) ZGB an in rem right exists only insofar as it appears in the register. A registered encumbrance binds every later owner, and a buyer who relies on the register in good faith is protected under article 973(1) ZGB. An accessory duty to perform positive acts binds the buyer only if it is evident from the entry itself (article 730(2) ZGB). Three exceptions remain, all largely invisible in the excerpt. First, statutory restrictions of ownership exist without any entry (article 680(1) ZGB), among them the right of way of necessity (Notweg) that neighbours must grant, against full compensation, to a parcel without adequate access to a public road (article 694 ZGB). Second, acquisitive prescription of an easement is possible only against land over which ownership itself can be prescribed (article 731(3) ZGB), which under article 662 ZGB means land not recorded in the register at all; on registered land there is no prescription of easements. Third, the cantons keep their customary path rights such as the Streckrecht, Tränkweg, Winterweg or Holzlass (article 695 ZGB), whose existence often shows only in actual use on the ground.
Basis: Property easement under article 730 ZGB, usufruct under article 745 with the registration duty under article 746(1), right of residence under article 776, land charge under article 782; creation only by registration under article 731(1) ZGB, in rem effect only when visible in the register under article 971(1), good faith reliance protected under article 973(1); statutory restrictions without registration under article 680(1), right of way of necessity under article 694, cantonal path rights under article 695; acquisitive prescription only over unregistered land under article 731(3) read with article 662 ZGB.. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-19.
The legal position in 30 further countries
This theme also has a legal basis on record for these countries, each with its statute and verification date. Expand your country.
Belgium
What encumbrances can exist
Easements (erfdienstbaarheden) such as a right of way, including the statutory right of way out for a landlocked parcel (wettelijke erfdienstbaarheid van uitweg, articles 3.135 and 3.136 of the Civil Code), plus usufruct (vruchtgebruik), long lease (erfpacht) and building right (opstal).
Whether they bind the buyer
An easement is a real right: it attaches to the servient land and passes to every buyer. Against third parties it works only once the deed creating it has been transcribed in the registers of the competent office of the Algemene Administratie van de Patrimoniumdocumentatie: without transcription the holder cannot invoke the deed against a third party in good faith who holds a competing right over the land, and the buyer of the servient parcel is exactly such a party, so a buyer in good faith takes free (article 3.30, section 1, 1° and section 2 of the Civil Code). Prescription does not break that rule. A visible easement can arise by acquisitive prescription after ten years of continuous, public, undisturbed and unambiguous use, thirty where the possessor began in bad faith (articles 3.118, 3.26 and 3.27 read with article 3.21), but the prescription must first be established by a judgment, an agreement or a unilateral declaration, and that act must be transcribed (article 3.26, second paragraph, read with article 3.30, section 1, 3°). Until then even decades of actual use do not bind a buyer in good faith holding a clean extract. Only a buyer who knew of the use is not in good faith and cannot shelter behind the register.
Basis: An easement under article 3.114 of the Civil Code (Book 3 Goods, law of 4 February 2020, in force since 1 September 2021); creation by juridical act under article 3.117; acquisitive prescription of visible easements under article 3.118 read with articles 3.26 and 3.27 (ten years, thirty in bad faith), possession qualities under article 3.21; the prescription established by judgment, agreement or unilateral declaration and transcribed under article 3.26, second paragraph, read with article 3.30, section 1, 3°; protection of the third party in good faith with a competing right against untranscribed deeds under article 3.30, section 2; the statutory right of way out under articles 3.135 and 3.136; extinction by thirty years of non-use under article 3.126; old Book II of the Civil Code (former articles 516 to 710bis) repealed by article 29, 1° of the law of 4 February 2020.. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-20.
Bulgaria
What encumbrances can exist
Encumbrances called servituti (servitudes), such as a right of way or a right to run utility lines, plus pravo na polzvane, a usufruct-style right of use, and pravo na stroezh: the right to build on someone else's land and become the exclusive owner of the resulting building, separately from the land itself.
Whether they bind the buyer
Any deed that creates or transfers a real right over a property must be recorded. An unrecorded right cannot be asserted against a third party who acquired from the same owner earlier and recorded their own right first: whoever records first wins, regardless of who actually acquired first.
Basis: A right of use under articles 56 to 62 of the Property Act (Zakon za sobstvenostta) and a right to build under article 63; under article 112 every deed creating or transferring a real right over a property must be recorded, and under article 113 an unrecorded deed cannot be asserted against a third party who acquired from the same owner earlier and recorded first.. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-18.
Denmark
What encumbrances can exist
Servitudes (servitutter) such as rights of way, utility line rights and building or use restrictions (rådighedsindskrænkninger), alongside rights of use (brugsrettigheder) and use rights acquired by prescription (hævd).
Whether they bind the buyer
A registered (tinglyst) servitude binds every buyer regardless of knowledge (section 1 of the Registration Act). On top of that Danish law knows hævd: under Danske Lov 5-5-1 and 5-5-2, whoever uses another's plot for twenty years undisturbed and unchallenged ('Ulast og Ukært til Tinge') acquires the right of use by long use alone, without any registration and without any document. Against such an unregistered hævd even good faith does not help the buyer by itself: he must assert his own registered right against the hævd within two years of his own registration, otherwise the hævd binds him too, and once the hævd is won every conflicting right in the property lapses (section 26). Short-term rights of use also bind everyone without registration (section 3). A clean extract from the tingbog therefore does not fully settle the matter.
Basis: Prescription (hævd) under Danske Lov 5-5-1 and 5-5-2 (Act No. 11000 of 15 April 1683, still in force); binding force of a registered servitude under section 1 of the Registration Act (Consolidation No. 285 of 31 January 2026), short-term rights of use without registration under section 3, the servitude document under section 10(5), the two-year assertion period against an unregistered hævd under section 26. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-19.
Estonia
What encumbrances can exist
reaalservituudid (real servitudes) under sections 172 to 185 of the Law of Property Act; alongside them the isiklik kasutusõigus (personal right of use) under sections 225 to 227, including the right to use a residential building under section 227, the kasutusvaldus (usufruct) under sections 201 and following, and the reaalkoormatis (real encumbrance) under sections 229 to 240 with periodic performances, owed in public law to the state or a municipality or in private law to a person or to the owner for the time being of another immovable.
Whether they bind the buyer
A real servitude entitles the owner for the time being of the dominant immovable and binds the owner for the time being of the servient one (section 172(1) of the Law of Property Act): a registered encumbrance passes with the land and binds every buyer regardless of knowledge. Estonia relies wholly on the register. Establishment takes a notarially authenticated real right contract (section 173(1)), real rights in an immovable are entered in the kinnistusraamat (section 62), what the register shows is presumed correct (section 56(1)), and a right receives its rank only upon entry (section 59(1)). An encumbrance that was merely agreed by contract and never entered therefore does not exist against the buyer, and the law expressly bars prescription of servitudes (section 173(5)). What stays invisible is only the statutory restrictions of ownership, which are valid without an entry (section 141(1)), such as the duty to tolerate utility networks under section 158(1) and the access right of a severed part of the land under section 156(2); a restriction created by transaction or court decision, including the way of necessity under section 156(1), affects third parties only once entered (section 141(3)). If an existing encumbrance is missing from the register because of a register error, the entitled person may demand its correction, but not against a third party who acquired a registered real right in good faith (section 65(1) and (3)).
Basis: Real servitude under section 172 of the Law of Property Act (Asjaõigusseadus), establishment by a notarially authenticated real right contract under section 173(1), no prescription under section 173(5), exercise under sections 178 to 185; entry in the kinnistusraamat, presumption of correctness and ranking under sections 62, 56(1) and 59(1); preliminary notation under section 63(1) clause 1 and (3); statutory restrictions valid without an entry under section 141(1) (access under section 156(2), utility networks under section 158(1)), restrictions by transaction or court decision against third parties only with an entry under section 141(3); the correction demand and its good-faith bar under section 65(1) and (3); register keeping and publicity under sections 2 and 74(1) of the Land Register Act (Kinnistusraamatuseadus), and the notary's certificate of the non-existence of an entry (tõend kande puudumise kohta). Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-19.
Finland
What encumbrances can exist
rasitteet (easements) under the catalogue of section 154 of the Real Property Formation Act: drawing and piping of household water, drainage, sewer and utility lines (telephone, electricity, gas, district heating), parking spaces, boat slips and bathing places, storage areas, fishing access, the extraction of stone, gravel, sand or peat, and the right of way (kulkuyhteys) in a planned area; alongside them, contractual use rights in another's land that can be entered as a kirjaus under the Code of Real Estate.
Whether they bind the buyer
A rasite in Finland comes into being only in the official cadastral procedure, the kiinteistötoimitus, and is recorded ex officio in the kiinteistörekisteri; the Land Register Act names the easement expressly as register content. So recorded, it binds every buyer regardless of his knowledge. The practical trap sits one level below: an encumbrance that was merely agreed by contract, never confirmed in a kiinteistötoimitus and never registered. For such rights the double-sale rule of the Code of Real Estate applies by analogy to the priority between a purchase and a special right (chapter 13, section 3, third paragraph): a buyer in good faith, one who neither knew nor ought to have known of the older unregistered encumbrance, and who applies for his lainhuuto (title registration) first, displaces the older right. The honest buyer with a registered title takes free; the buyer who knew does not. Finland knows no prescription of easements, unlike its neighbours Denmark (hævd) and Iceland (hefð): long actual use alone creates nothing.
Basis: rasite under the Real Property Formation Act (Kiinteistönmuodostamislaki 554/1995), chapter 14: catalogue of section 154, establishment by agreement in the kiinteistötoimitus under section 156, content and conditions under section 158, amendment and removal under sections 160 and 161; recording of the rasite in the kiinteistörekisteri under the Land Register Act (Kiinteistörekisterilaki 392/1985), section 7; displacement of the unregistered encumbrance by the honest acquirer under the Code of Real Estate (Maakaari 540/1995), chapter 13, section 3 (double sale, applied by analogy to the priority between purchase and special right under its third paragraph) in conjunction with chapter 14, section 7 (a kirjaus carries the legal effects of a lainhuuto). Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-19.
France
What encumbrances can exist
Easements (servitudes) such as a right of way (droit de passage), alongside the usufruct (usufruit, article 578 Code civil) and the right of use and habitation (droit d'usage et d'habitation, article 625); statutory easements such as the planting distances at boundaries (article 671) and the rule that roofs must drain onto the owner's own land (égout des toits, article 681) exist by force of law.
Whether they bind the buyer
An easement created by a deed must be published with the service de la publicité foncière, the land publicity service (article 28(1)(a) of decree no 55-22 of 4 January 1955); once published, it binds every later owner of the burdened land. If publication was skipped, a buyer who publishes his own acquisition can shake the easement off: unpublished rights cannot be set up against third parties who acquired competing rights from the same seller and published them (article 30 of the decree). Three paths lead past that protection, and all three stay invisible in the excerpt. First, continuous and apparent easements can be acquired by thirty years of possession (article 690 Code civil), for instance a canal, a drain or a window with a view; discontinuous or non-apparent easements, such as a mere right of way, can never arise by possession, not even by possession since time immemorial, and always require a title (article 691 Code civil). Second, the destination du père de famille counts as a title for continuous and apparent easements (article 692 Code civil): where one owner visibly laid out two parcels as if a burden ran between them, say with a paved track or a laid pipe, and later sells one of them, the burden thus made visible survives without any written title. Third, statutory easements arise without any title, among them the right of way of a landlocked parcel, which the owner whose land has no adequate access to a public road may claim from the neighbours against an indemnity proportionate to the damage caused (article 682 Code civil).
Basis: Easement under article 637 Code civil, statutory easements under articles 650 et seq., right of way of the landlocked parcel under article 682, contractual easements under article 686, acquisition by thirty years of possession only for continuous and apparent easements under article 690, title-only creation for discontinuous or non-apparent easements under article 691, destination du père de famille under article 692; usufruct under article 578, right of use and habitation under article 625; publication duty and unenforceability of unpublished rights against third parties under articles 28(1) and 30 of decree no 55-22 of 4 January 1955.. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-19.
Greece
What encumbrances can exist
pragmatikes douleies (predial servitudes) such as the douleia odou, the right of way, together with rights to drain or draw water, to graze or cut wood, to let a roof overhang or a balcony project, to support a building against the neighbouring one, to channel sewage, and prohibitions on building or on blocking light and view (article 1120 of the Astikos Kodikas, the Civil Code). Next to these the Code knows personal servitudes: the epikarpia, a usufruct over another's thing (article 1142), the oikisi, an exclusive right to live in another's building together with one's family (articles 1183 and 1184), and other limited personal servitudes created for a specific person (article 1188).
Whether they bind the buyer
A predial servitude is a real right over one immovable for the benefit of whoever owns another immovable (article 1118 of the Civil Code), so it clings to the land and not to the person of the seller. When it is created by legal transaction it comes into existence only with the metagrafi, the transcription at the transcription office of the district: for the transfer of real rights in immovables the law requires agreement, a notarial deed and transcription, and the same rules govern the creation of a servitude (article 1033 together with article 1121, second sentence). Next to this, the very same encumbrance can arise with no registration at all: Greek law expressly allows the prescription of servitudes. Whoever exercises the right for ten years in good faith and with a title, or for twenty years without these requirements, acquires it by operation of law (article 1121, first sentence, with articles 1041 and 1045). The prescriptive right is transcribed only afterwards, on the basis of a final judgment that recognises it (article 1192 no. 5); until then it appears in no extract and still binds the buyer, because it attaches to the land.
Basis: pragmatiki douleia under article 1118 of the Civil Code (A.N. 2784/1941, official demotic rendering under P.D. 456/1984, Government Gazette A 164), content and examples under articles 1119 and 1120, creation by legal transaction or by chrisiktisia under article 1121, prescription periods of ten and twenty years under articles 1041 and 1045, no presumed title without transcription under article 1043, creation by notarial deed and transcription under article 1033, later transcription of the prescriptive right only on a final recognising judgment under article 1192 no. 5, protection through the douliki agogi under article 1132, extinction by waiver with transcription under article 1134, epikarpia and oikisi as personal servitudes under articles 1142 and 1183, limited personal servitudes under articles 1188 to 1191; the twin structure of Ypothikofylakeio and Ktimatologio under Law 2308/1995 (Government Gazette A 114) and Law 2664/1998 (Government Gazette A 275). Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-20.
Ireland
What encumbrances can exist
Rights of way on foot and by vehicle, wayleaves for the lines of utility undertakings, rights to light and to water, and profits à prendre such as grazing, turbary (the right to cut turf) and fishing, all of which still occur on rural land. Alongside these stand the freehold covenants, promises that run with freehold land under sections 48 to 50 of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009, and, for apartments, the rights and duties under the lease towards the owners' management company.
Whether they bind the buyer
A duly created and registered easement binds every later owner without any need for consent. Where title is registered in the Land Registry, it appears as a burden in Part 3 of the folio, and that part of the folio is the decisive place to read. The real trap is the right that never appears there: under section 72(1)(h) of the Registration of Title Act 1964, easements and profits à prendre affect registered land without any registration at all, unless they were created by express grant or reservation after the land was first registered. A track used openly for decades can therefore bind the buyer while the folio stays silent. Since 30 November 2021 such long use has again been capable of creating rights under the common law doctrine of lost modern grant: the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2021 repealed sections 33 to 39 of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009, which between 2009 and 2021 had made prescription depend on a court order, and it sets periods of thirty years where the servient land belongs to a State authority and sixty years for foreshore. The holder of a prescriptive right can have it registered without going to court, on application to Tailte Éireann under section 49A of the Registration of Title Act 1964.
Basis: Easements and profits à prendre under the common law; burdens registrable under section 69(1) of the Registration of Title Act 1964, express grants after first registration under paragraph (j), prescriptive rights under paragraph (jj), freehold covenants under paragraph (kk) with sections 48 to 50 of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009; unregistered easements and profits binding registered land under section 72(1)(h), wayleaves under section 72(1)(hh) inserted by section 43 of the Gas Act 1976; prescription restored to the doctrine of lost modern grant by section 2 of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2021 (No. 35 of 2021), sections 33 to 39 of the Act of 2009 repealed by section 6(1) with effect from 30 November 2021, thirty and sixty years against State authorities and foreshore under section 3; registration of a prescriptive right without a court order under section 49A of the Act of 1964, inserted by section 41 of the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011 and substituted by section 5 of the Act of 2021; both registers under Tailte Éireann by the Tailte Éireann Act 2022 (No. 50 of 2022). Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-20.
Iceland
What encumbrances can exist
No codified servitude law: neither the act on ownership and rights of use in real estate no. 19/1966 (which regulates only acquisitions by foreign nationals) nor the Registration Act no. 39/1978 (Þinglýsingalög, the registration procedure) describes the servitude as a right type of its own. The Registration Act nonetheless presupposes it: the act speaks expressly of hefðuð réttindi, rights in land acquired through long actual exercise (articles 16 and 32), which can appear in the register as a kvöð (encumbrance) or an ítak (right of use in another's land). A separate, verified statutory basis exists for the line rights of energy utilities (Electricity Act no. 65/2003, Raforkulög).
Whether they bind the buyer
A registered encumbrance, whether a kvöð or an ítak, binds every buyer. The base pattern follows Nordic registration law: rights in real estate must be registered (þinglýst) to hold against anyone who bases his right on a contract for the property and against creditors (article 29 of the Registration Act); a merely contractual, unregistered right can be displaced by an acquirer whose own documents are registered and who is grandlaus, meaning he neither knew nor ought to have known of the older right (article 29, second paragraph), and article 33 shields him against objections drawn from a defect in his predecessor's title. The same act expressly carves out prescriptive rights: an encumbrance acquired by hefð, long actual exercise, stands unimpaired (standa óhögguð) under article 16, even though articles 15, 29 and 32 would point the other way, if the new right-holder has not sued to enforce his right within two years of acquiring it. Where the prescription period was still running at the purchase, he must sue before that two-year window closes if prescription completes within it (article 16, second paragraph); once prescription completes, the conflicting rights in the property lapse (article 16, third paragraph). A buyer who does not litigate stays bound by a servitude that appears in no register, and the extract looks clean throughout. For energy lines a separate, clearly regulated model applies instead of a classical private servitude: owners must grant utilities access, works may begin only after a compensation agreement or expropriation (article 21 Raforkulög), and compensation is fixed in expropriation proceedings if need be (articles 22 and 23).
Basis: Registration Act no. 39/1978 (Þinglýsingalög): article 16 (unregistered prescriptive rights stand unimpaired unless the new right-holder sues within two years of acquiring; once prescription completes, conflicting rights lapse), article 29 (rights in real estate must be registered to hold against contractual acquirers and creditors; the blameless acquirer whose documents are registered displaces the older unregistered right), article 32 (rights acquired by hefð are subject to registration) and article 33 (good-faith protection against objections from a defective predecessor title); plus the negative finding on act no. 19/1966 (foreign acquisitions only) and the line rights under the Electricity Act no. 65/2003 (Raforkulög), articles 21 to 23. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-19.
Italy
What encumbrances can exist
Easements (servitù prediali) such as a right of way (servitù di passaggio), alongside the usufruct (usufrutto, article 978 Codice Civile) and the rights of use and habitation (uso e abitazione, articles 1021 and 1022); statutory easements such as the right of way of a landlocked parcel (passaggio coattivo, article 1051 Codice Civile) and the duty to let a neighbouring building draw surplus water (somministrazione di acqua, article 1049 Codice Civile) exist by force of law.
Whether they bind the buyer
A contract that creates or modifies a servitù prediale must be recorded by transcription in the land registers (trascrizione in the registri immobiliari, article 2643 no 4 Codice Civile); once transcribed, the easement binds every later owner of the servient land. If transcription was skipped, a buyer who transcribes his own acquisition first can shake the burden off: an untranscribed deed has no effect against third parties who acquired rights in the property under a deed transcribed earlier (article 2644 Codice Civile). Three paths lead past that protection, and none of them shows in the excerpt. First, apparent easements can be acquired by twenty years of continuous possession (articles 1031 and 1158 Codice Civile), apparent meaning that visible and permanent works serve their exercise, such as a paved track or an openly laid line; non-apparent easements can be acquired neither by possession nor through a former common owner's layout and always require a title (article 1061 Codice Civile). Second, an easement arises through the destinazione del padre di famiglia (articles 1031 and 1062 Codice Civile): where the same owner held two parcels and visibly left them in the state from which the burden results, and the parcels are then separated without any arrangement, the easement is taken to be created for and against each of the separated parcels, provable by any kind of evidence and without any written title. Third, statutory easements arise without any title, among them the passaggio coattivo: an owner who has no outlet to a public road, or cannot create one without excessive expense or difficulty, may require the neighbour to grant a right of way, constituted by judgment and carrying an indemnity where no contract is reached (articles 1051 and 1032 Codice Civile); houses, courtyards, gardens and their yards are exempt from that burden.
Basis: Easement (servitù prediale) under article 1027 Codice Civile, constitution by title, compulsorily, by prescription or by destination under article 1031, constitution by judgment against an indemnity under article 1032, twenty years of continuous possession under article 1158, only apparent easements capable of prescription under article 1061, destinazione del padre di famiglia under article 1062, passaggio coattivo under article 1051, somministrazione di acqua under article 1049; duty to transcribe the constituting contract under article 2643 no 4, no effect of untranscribed deeds against earlier transcribing third parties under article 2644, transcription of the ascertaining judgment for acquisition by prescription under article 2651; usufruct under article 978, rights of use and habitation under articles 1021 and 1022 Codice Civile.. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-19.
Croatia
What encumbrances can exist
Real servitudes (stvarne služnosti) such as rights of way (pravo prolaza) and utility line rights, alongside the personal servitudes (osobne služnosti): usufruct (pravo plodouživanja), right of use (pravo uporabe) and right of residence (pravo stanovanja); plus real burdens (stvarni tereti, recurring charges on the value of the encumbered property) and the building right (pravo građenja) as a separate right in rem.
Whether they bind the buyer
A servitude registered in the land register (zemljišna knjiga) binds every buyer. Croatian law also lets a real servitude arise without any registration: under article 229 of the Property Act, whoever honestly possesses and exercises the content of a servitude for twenty years without the owner of the servient property objecting acquires it by operation of law (dosjelost); never, though, where the use was secret, forced, in abuse of trust or by revocable tolerance, and servitudes that can only rarely be exercised need at least three occasions within twenty years. The buyer's shield is article 230: an unregistered servitude that arose by law cannot be opposed, not even once confirmed by a court, to an acquirer who in good faith registered his own right while the servitude was still unregistered, and article 9(4) of the Land Register Act confirms that the good-faith registrant takes free of burdens neither registered nor visibly applied for. Unlike Danish law, which gives the buyer two years to object actively, Croatian law protects him without any step of his own. But good faith fails where the buyer knew or had sufficient reason to suspect (article 9(3)): a path visibly worn across the plot for decades is exactly such a reason, and then the prescribed servitude binds the buyer as well.
Basis: Servitudes under the Zakon o vlasništvu i drugim stvarnim pravima (consolidated text, Narodne novine 81/15, corrigendum 94/17): definition in article 174, the three personal servitudes in article 199(2), creation by operation of law in article 228(1), prescription (dosjelost) in article 229, protection of the good-faith registrant in article 230, extinction by twenty years of non-exercise in article 241, real burdens in article 246; good faith, the structure of the folio, the burdens sheet and public inspection under the Zakon o zemljišnim knjigama (Narodne novine 63/19), articles 9, 20, 24 and 25. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-19.
Latvia
What encumbrances can exist
reālservitūti (real servitudes) under sections 1141 and following of the Civil Law (Civillikums), among them the ceļa servitūts (right of way) and the water servitudes with special rules in sections 1155 and following, as well as the building servitudes under sections 1172 and following; alongside them the personālservitūti: the lietojuma tiesība (usufruct) under sections 1190 and following and the dzīvokļa tiesība (right of residence).
Whether they bind the buyer
A real servitude is inseparable from the dominant immovable and passes with it; it may neither be alienated separately from the land nor transferred to the use of a third person (section 1145 of the Civil Law). For the binding effect on a buyer, Latvia relies wholly on the register: the real right arising from a servitude is established and effective for the owners of the dominant and the servient immovable only after its registration in the zemesgrāmata (land register); until then only a personal obligation exists between the parties, the registration of which each side may demand (section 1235). The same holds across the system: the transfer of an immovable confers ownership only upon registration (section 993), only the registered person is recognised as owner, and until registration the acquirer has no rights against third persons (section 994). A servitude that was merely agreed and never entered therefore does not bind the buyer; it remains a personal claim, an action in personam against the alienor (section 1478). A servitude can arise only by law, by a court judgment or by contract or will (section 1231); that closed list leaves no room for creation by prescription, while a servitude is conversely extinguished through prescription by non-use (section 1237 clause 6). What stays invisible is only the real rights existing directly on the basis of law, which are in effect even without an entry (section 1477(2)), such as the duty of new shore owners to give the previous ones the necessary access to the water (section 1107).
Basis: servitūts under section 1130 of the Civil Law (real servitude inseparable from the dominant immovable, section 1145; establishment only by law, judgment, contract or will, section 1231; real effect only upon registration, section 1235; no creation by prescription, section 1231 being a closed list; extinction through prescription by non-use, section 1237 clause 6); acquisition of ownership and third-party effect only through the zemesgrāmata, sections 993 and 994; corroboration mandatory, section 1477, without it only an action in personam against the alienor, section 1478; public credibility of the entry with the land register office liable for mistakes, section 1480; real rights existing on the basis of law valid without registration, section 1477(2), access to water under section 1107; land registers open to everyone with public credibility under section 1 of the Land Register Law (Zemesgrāmatu likums). Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-19.
Liechtenstein
What encumbrances can exist
Grunddienstbarkeiten, the servitudes that attach to land itself, above all the Wegrecht or right of way, together with the personal real rights: Nutzniessung (usufruct), Wohnrecht (a right of residence for a named person), a building right held as a servitude and the right to a spring. Two things sit outside that list and matter more to a buyer than their placing suggests. The Durchleitungsrecht, the right to run supply and drainage pipes across a neighbouring plot, belongs to the law of neighbours rather than to the servitudes chapter (article 95). And the statute itself grants ways over other people's land with no agreement at all: the Notweg for a plot with no access, the Streckrecht across fields, the right to slide felled timber and the customary winter path, each measured by local usage.
Whether they bind the buyer
A Grunddienstbarkeit created by agreement comes into existence only on entry in the Grundbuch (article 199(1)); once entered it binds every later owner of the burdened plot, whether or not he knew of it. The question that decides whether a clean extract protects a buyer is what can arise without any entry, and in Liechtenstein the answer is narrow and can be traced through the statute. Prescription is allowed under article 199(3), but only against plots where ownership itself could be acquired by prescription, and articles 42 and 43 confine that to a plot never taken into the Grundbuch at all, or one whose owner does not appear from the register, is dead or has been declared missing; even then registration follows only on a court order after public notice. Against an ordinary purchase, a plot with its own Hauptbuchblatt and a living owner, no servitude can be acquired by prescription. What does bind without an entry is statutory: the Durchleitungsrecht may be raised against a purchaser in good faith even where it was never registered (article 95(3)), and the statutory ways and the customary winter path exist of their own force, noted in the register only where they are permanent (article 109). Those burdens arise directly from the statute on conditions the statute itself sets out, not from years of quiet use, which is why the register remains the source of title here. They are still worth a walk over the ground: a visible pipe or a made-up track is the only warning a buyer will get.
Basis: Grunddienstbarkeit under articles 198 f. Sachenrecht (SR), LR 214.0, LGBl. 1923 No. 4, consolidated version of 1 June 2026; entry constitutive under article 199(1), part-plot servitudes drawn on the register plan under article 199(1a), prescription only against plots where ownership is itself prescriptible under article 199(3), which articles 42 and 43 confine to unregistered plots and plots without a traceable living owner; Durchleitungsrecht under article 95, arising from the duty of toleration in article 95(1) where a plot cannot otherwise be serviced, enforceable against a purchaser in good faith without entry under article 95(3), inserted by LGBl. 2016 No. 349; statutory ways and the customary winter path under articles 102 f. and 109; Wohnrecht articles 248 ff.; Nutzniessung articles 216 ff.; entry in section 2 of the Hauptbuchblatt under articles 524(2) and 536(2) SR.. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-21.
Lithuania
What encumbrances can exist
servitutai, the Lithuanian servitudes, above all rights of way, together with uzufruktas, the usufruct, and rights to run lines across land. The Code names particular types outright, among them the right of way granting the right to drive cattle (article 4.120) and the servitude of buildings (article 4.122). A servitutas is always a right over another person's immovable thing, or a restriction on its owner, so that the thing in whose favour it exists can be properly used (article 4.111(1)).
Whether they bind the buyer
A servitutas survives a change of owner on either side, dominant or servient. What matters more to a buyer is how one can come into being at all, and here the Code is closed: under article 4.124(1) a servitude may be established by laws, by transactions, by a court judgement and, in cases stipulated by laws, by an administrative act. Prescription is not among them, neither in that article nor anywhere else in the Code. Years of tolerated use therefore never harden into a right in rem in Lithuania, which sets the country apart from Hungary, Malta and Cyprus. To that the Code adds its registration rule: rights and obligations arising from a servitude take effect against third parties only once the servitude has been registered, the sole exception being a servitude established by laws, whose conditions the statute itself sets out (article 4.124(2)). The judicial route is narrow in the same way: a court will establish a servitude only where the owners fail to agree and the thing could not otherwise be used according to its purpose at reasonable expense (article 4.126(1)). A clean register extract protects a buyer here further than in most neighbouring countries.
Basis: servitutas under article 4.111(1) of the Civilinis kodeksas, the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania; the closed list of grounds of establishment (laws, transactions, court judgement and, in cases stipulated by laws, an administrative act) under article 4.124(1), which does not include prescription; effect against third parties only upon registration, save for a servitude established by laws, under article 4.124(2); establishment by transaction reserved to the owner of the dominant thing under article 4.125; establishment by court judgement only where the owners fail to agree and the thing could not otherwise be used according to its purpose at reasonable expense under article 4.126(1); named types such as the right of way to drive cattle under article 4.120 and the servitude of buildings under article 4.122.. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-21.
Luxembourg
What encumbrances can exist
Servitudes such as the droit de passage (the statutory right of way of an enclosed parcel, articles 682 to 685 of the Civil Code), alongside the usufruit (usufruct, article 578 and following) and the droit d'usage et d'habitation (right of use and habitation, article 625 and following).
Whether they bind the buyer
A servitude created or transferred by deed must be transcribed at the Bureau de la conservation des hypothèques for the district where the property lies (article 1 of the loi du 25 septembre 1905 on the transcription of rights in rem over immovables); until transcription the right cannot be set up against third parties who acquired rights over the property from the same transferor and complied with the law (article 11). Read literally, that sanction reaches only rights arising from the deeds and court decisions listed in article 1, and three paths of creation sit outside it. First, continuous and apparent servitudes can be acquired by thirty years of possession (article 690 Code civil): continuous means those whose use needs no current human act, such as water conduits, drains and views (article 688), apparent means those announced by visible works such as a gate, a window or an aqueduct (article 689). Servitudes that are not continuous or not apparent, such as a bare right of way, always require a title, and even immemorial possession does not create them (article 691). Second, the destination du père de famille counts as a title for continuous and apparent servitudes (articles 692 to 694): where one owner has visibly arranged two parcels so that a burden runs between them and then disposes of one without any stipulation, the visible burden persists. Third, the owner of an enclosed parcel with no outlet to the public road may claim a passage from the neighbours against compensation proportionate to the damage (article 682), and the passage continues even once the compensation claim is time-barred (article 685). None of these three paths arises from a deed or a decision within the meaning of the transcription law: there is nothing to transcribe and nothing that would protect a buyer in good faith. Unlike Belgium's new Book 3 (article 3.30), Luxembourg law demands no transcribed declaration for a servitude acquired by prescription.
Basis: A servitude under article 637 Code civil, contractual servitudes under article 686, continuous and apparent servitudes defined by articles 688 and 689, acquisition by thirty years of possession under article 690, a title alone for all others under article 691, destination du père de famille under articles 692 to 694; statutory right of way of the enclosed parcel under articles 682 to 685 (the passage survives the limitation of the compensation claim, article 685); usufruit under article 578 and following, droit d'usage et d'habitation under article 625 and following; transcription duty for inter vivos deeds transferring rights in rem under article 1, non-opposability of untranscribed rights from those deeds and decisions against law-abiding third parties under article 11, extracts and certificates under article 7, all of the loi du 25 septembre 1905 sur la transcription des droits réels immobiliers as amended by the loi du 8 juillet 2021.. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-20.
Malta
What encumbrances can exist
Praedial easements such as the right of way, including the statutory way for a landlocked tenement, rights over party walls, windows and balconies, and water rights such as the watercourse and the right of drawing water. Alongside these stand the personal real rights: usufruct, and the rights of use and habitation, which give a named person rather than another tenement the benefit.
Whether they bind the buyer
An easement is created for the advantage of a tenement, not of a person: the burdened land is the servient tenement, the benefited land the dominant tenement. For an easement granted inter vivos two hurdles decide whether it binds the buyer: the title is null unless it results from a public deed, and the deed must be registered in the Public Registry before the easement is operative against third parties (article 458 of the Civil Code). That, however, is only one of three routes. A continuous and apparent easement can also arise from thirty years of actual use with no deed at all, and the holder need produce no title and cannot be met with a plea of bad faith (article 462); the right of way of a tenement with no other outlet to the public road can be acquired by prescription although it is discontinuous (article 469(2)). Where the land is registered in the Land Registry, which remains voluntary in Malta, easements and rights acquired by prescription bind the registered land as overriding interests without appearing on the register (article 43(1)(a) and (c) of the Land Registration Act). A clean registry extract therefore does not rule out an encumbrance.
Basis: easement under article 400(1) of the Civil Code (Chapter 16 of the Laws of Malta): a right established for the advantage of a tenement over another tenement belonging to another person; title null without a public deed and an inter vivos grant operative against third parties only after registration in the Public Registry under article 458 with article 330; prescription of continuous and apparent easements after thirty years under article 457(b) and article 462 (forty years for church and entail), the right of way of a landlocked tenement prescriptive even though discontinuous under article 469(2), extinction by non-user after thirty years under article 481 (forty for Government and church); usufruct under articles 328 and 330, use and habitation under articles 389 and 390, each by public deed plus registration; overriding interests over registered land under article 43(1)(a) and (c) of the Land Registration Act (Chapter 296), voluntary registration under article 17; person-based search of the Public Registry under article 28 of the Public Registry Act (Chapter 56). Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-20.
Netherlands
What encumbrances can exist
Easements (erfdienstbaarheden) such as a right of way (recht van overpad), alongside usufruct (vruchtgebruik, which likewise arises by establishment or by prescription, article 3:202 Burgerlijk Wetboek) and the right of use and habitation (recht van gebruik en bewoning); the deed of establishment can charge the owner of the dominant estate with a recurring money payment (retributie, article 5:70 paragraph 2 Burgerlijk Wetboek), and the burden can even include a duty to build or to maintain the structures, works or plantings needed to exercise the easement (article 5:71 Burgerlijk Wetboek).
Whether they bind the buyer
Establishing an erfdienstbaarheid requires a notarial deed executed between the owners of the two estates and its entry in the public registers of the Kadaster (article 3:89 paragraph 1, applied to the creation of limited real rights by article 3:98 Burgerlijk Wetboek), and once registered the burden follows the land. A buyer who registers his own deed of acquisition cannot be confronted with a fact that could have been registered but was not yet registered at that moment, unless he knew of it (article 3:24 paragraph 1 Burgerlijk Wetboek). That shield has one explicit hole, and it is a large one: it does not cover prescription (article 3:24 paragraph 2 under e Burgerlijk Wetboek), and erfdienstbaarheden can arise by establishment and by prescription (article 5:72 Burgerlijk Wetboek). A possessor in good faith acquires the easement by ten years of uninterrupted possession (article 3:99 paragraph 1 Burgerlijk Wetboek), and even a possessor who is not in good faith acquires it once the entitled person's claim to end the possession is time barred (article 3:105 paragraph 1 Burgerlijk Wetboek), which the general twenty year limitation period brings about (article 3:306 Burgerlijk Wetboek). Good faith is lost by anyone who knew the facts or, in the given circumstances, ought to have known them (article 3:11 Burgerlijk Wetboek). On top of that, buyer and predecessor are jointly and severally liable for the money debts under the easement that fell due in the preceding two years, such as an outstanding retributie (article 5:77 paragraph 2 Burgerlijk Wetboek).
Basis: erfdienstbaarheid under article 5:70 Burgerlijk Wetboek, establishment by notarial deed and registration in the public registers under article 3:89 paragraph 1 in conjunction with article 3:98, arising by establishment and by prescription under article 5:72, acquisitive prescription after ten years of uninterrupted possession in good faith under article 3:99 paragraph 1, acquisition even without good faith once the claim to end the possession is time barred under article 3:105 paragraph 1 in conjunction with the twenty year period of article 3:306, possession as holding a good for oneself under article 3:107 paragraph 1, protection of the registered acquirer against unregistered facts with the explicit exception of prescription under article 3:24 paragraphs 1 and 2 under e, loss of good faith through knowledge or constructive knowledge under article 3:11, joint liability of the acquirer for two years of due money debts under article 5:77 paragraph 2, content and manner of exercise by deed and local custom under article 5:73 paragraph 1, usufruct arising by establishment or prescription under article 3:202 Burgerlijk Wetboek. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-19.
Norway
What encumbrances can exist
Encumbrances called servitutter, such as a right of way or a right to run utility lines, plus usage rights and negative servitudes that forbid the owner a particular use of their own land.
Whether they bind the buyer
What matters is registration in the land register (grunnboka). A registered servitutt binds every later owner. An unregistered right can lose out to a buyer who registers their own title first, but only if that buyer acted in good faith: under section 21 of the Land Registration Act (tinglysingslova), good faith requires not just that the buyer did not know about the unregistered right, but that they could not have discovered it through reasonable diligence either, for instance by noticing a well-used path, a pipe, or a pole crossing the land. Anyone who relies on the register and checks the site is protected; anyone who overlooks a registered burden is not.
Basis: A servitutt under section 1 of the Servitude Act (servituttlova, Act of 29 November 1968 on special rights of use over another's property); registration in the grunnboka decides whether it takes effect against a buyer, under sections 20 and 21 of the Land Registration Act (tinglysingslova).. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-18.
Poland
What encumbrances can exist
Land servitudes (służebności gruntowe) such as rights of way (przechód, przejazd), including the necessary road (droga konieczna) that the owner of a plot without access to a public road may demand over neighbouring land against compensation (article 145 Kodeks cywilny), alongside personal servitudes such as the right of residence (służebność mieszkania), usufruct (użytkowanie) and the life annuity charge (dożywocie).
Whether they bind the buyer
A land servitude is a limited real right: it clings to the plot and binds every buyer, a sale does not extinguish it. As a rule the land and mortgage register (księga wieczysta) protects the buyer in good faith (rękojmia wiary publicznej, article 5 of the Land and Mortgage Register Act): whoever buys in good faith from the registered owner may rely on what the register shows. Four express statutory exceptions reach even the good-faith buyer (article 7 of that Act): encumbrances existing by statute, the dożywocie, servitudes created by an administrative decision and the droga konieczna together with the boundary-crossing servitude all bind regardless of any entry. And a land servitude can arise without any registration by usucapion (zasiedzenie), provided it consists in the use of a durable and visible installation (article 292 Kodeks cywilny): ten years of possession in good faith and twenty in bad faith, the periods of article 172 applied accordingly. A clean register extract therefore does not fully settle the matter.
Basis: Land servitude under article 285(1) Kodeks cywilny (personal servitudes under article 296, usufruct, dożywocie); usucapion only of a servitude consisting in the use of a durable and visible installation under article 292, with the periods of article 172 applied accordingly (ten years in good faith, twenty in bad faith), personal servitudes excluded under article 304; public faith of the register under article 5 of the Land and Mortgage Register Act with the exceptions of article 7 (statutory encumbrances, dożywocie, administrative servitudes, droga konieczna under article 145 Kodeks cywilny). Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-19.
Portugal
What encumbrances can exist
Predial servitudes (servidões prediais) such as a right of way, including the statutory passage servitude that the owner of an enclosed plot (prédio encravado) may demand over neighbouring land against compensation (articles 1550 and 1554 Código Civil), alongside usufruct (usufruto) and the right of use and habitation (uso e habitação); the content of a servitude can be any utility for the dominant property, even a future or contingent one (article 1544 Código Civil).
Whether they bind the buyer
A servidão predial is a real right: it follows the land and binds every buyer. Servitudes created by contract are subject to registration in the land register (registo predial) and in principle take effect against third parties only from the date of registration (article 5(1) Código do Registo Predial). Two express statutory exceptions reach the buyer without any entry: rights acquired by usucapião and every APPARENT servitude, meaning one revealed by visible and permanent signs (article 5(2)(a) and (b) Código do Registo Predial). And only apparent servitudes can be acquired by usucapião at all (article 1548 Código Civil; non apparent servitudes are excluded by article 1293(a) Código Civil): fifteen years of possession in good faith and twenty years in bad faith, where neither a title nor the possession itself is registered (article 1296 Código Civil). A clean register extract therefore does not settle the matter for the buyer.
Basis: Predial servitude under article 1543 Código Civil (content under article 1544, creation by contract, will, usucapião or destinação do pai de família under article 1547(1)); usucapião only of apparent servitudes under article 1548 and article 1293(a), fifteen years in good faith and twenty years in bad faith without any registration under article 1296; rights acquired by usucapião and apparent servitudes take effect against third parties even without registration under article 5(2) Código do Registo Predial. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-19.
Romania
What encumbrances can exist
The servitute, above all the servitutea de trecere or right of way, together with uzufruct, and the rights of uz and abitație, the Romanian forms of use and habitation. A servitute always burdens one plot for the benefit of another plot in different ownership: it attaches to the land, not to a person, and passes with it.
Whether they bind the buyer
Romania rules out the encumbrance invisible on the register by a route of its own, and an unusually clear one. Prescription of a servitute is possible, but in one form only: article 763 of the Civil Code allows it for positive servitudes alone and by uzucapiune tabulară alone, prescription on the register. That form presupposes, under article 931, that someone is already entered in the cartea funciară, even if without lawful cause, and has possessed in good faith for five years. A servitude arising purely from years of use with no entry anywhere is therefore unknown to Romanian law, which sets it apart from Hungary, Malta and Cyprus. The second provision points the same way: article 887 lists exhaustively which rights in rem arise without entry, namely those from succession, natural accession, forced sale, expropriation in the public interest and cases expressly provided for by statute; prescription of a servitude is not among them. The general rule of article 885, that rights in rem over land recorded in the register are acquired both between the parties and against third parties only by entry, is itself expressed subject to contrary provisions. For a buyer the upshot is straightforward: as regards servitudes, what the extract does not show cannot bind him.
Basis: servitute under articles 755 ff. of the Codul civil (Law 287/2009), acquisition by prescription only as uzucapiune tabulară and only for positive servitudes under article 763, prescription on the register presupposing an existing entry and five years of good-faith possession under article 931(1); acquisition of rights in rem over registered land only by entry, subject to contrary provisions, under article 885(1); the exhaustive list of rights arising without entry (succession, natural accession, forced sale, expropriation) under article 887(1).. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-21.
Sweden
What encumbrances can exist
Encumbrances called servitut, such as a right of way, plus nyttjanderätt, a time-limited right of use.
Whether they bind the buyer
A registered servitut binds a new owner even without any reservation. An unregistered one generally falls away on a sale, but only if neither of two things applies: the seller made an explicit reservation about it in the sale, or the buyer already knew about it before the change of ownership. Only when neither applies does it actually lapse.
Basis: A servitut under chapter 14 of the Land Code (Jordabalken, 1970:994); if registered, it binds a new owner under chapter 7, section 14, and so does an unregistered one where the buyer knew of it or the seller reserved it in the sale.. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-18.
Serbia
What encumbrances can exist
Real servitudes called stvarne službenosti, such as a right of way, plus plodouživanje (usufruct) as a personal servitude.
Whether they bind the buyer
A stvarna službenost exists for the needs of the dominant LAND itself, not for a person, so it attaches to the property and passes with it. It can also arise through twenty years of exercise without objection from the owner of the burdened land, something a register extract alone will not always show.
Basis: A stvarna službenost under article 49 of the Law on the Basics of Property Relations (Zakon o osnovama svojinskopravnih odnosa); the right exists for the needs of the dominant land and so attaches to the property, and can be acquired by prescription after twenty years.. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-19.
Slovakia
What encumbrances can exist
vecné bremená (easements and real charges) such as the right of way and utility line rights, together with the access right a court may create for a building whose access cannot be secured in any other way (§ 151o(3) of the Občiansky zákonník, the Civil Code). The right arising from the encumbrance belongs either to the ownership of a given immovable or to a specific person (§ 151n(1)); whoever uses another's thing on the basis of the encumbrance shares the costs of keeping and repairing it (§ 151n(3)), and a merely personal encumbrance ends at the latest with the beneficiary's death (§ 151p(4)).
Whether they bind the buyer
An encumbrance tied to ownership passes with the ownership to the buyer, one owed to a specific person does not (§ 151n(1) and (2) of the Civil Code). When it is created by contract, the encumbrance comes into existence only with the vklad, the registration in the kataster nehnuteľností: rights in immovables based on a contract arise, change and cease only with the vklad (§ 28(2) of the katastrálny zákon, the Cadastral Act), across the system just like ownership itself (§ 133(2) of the Civil Code). Next to this, however, the very same right can arise with no entry at all: Slovak law expressly allows the prescription of easements. Whoever exercises the right for ten years as an authorised holder acquires it by vydržanie (§ 151o(1) together with § 134 of the Civil Code, and the time of the legal predecessor counts towards the period). The Cadastral Act records prescriptive, statutory and authority-created rights only through a záznam, a mere notation with no effect on their creation (§§ 5(2) and 34(1)). A prescriptive encumbrance therefore appears in no extract until someone applies for the notation, and it still binds the buyer because it attaches to the land (§ 151n(2) of the Civil Code).
Basis: vecné bremeno under § 151n of the Civil Code (Act No. 40/1964 Zb.), passing with ownership under § 151n(2), creation by contract, will, approved heirs' agreement, authority decision or statute as well as by prescription under § 151o(1), vydržanie in the ten-year period of § 134, court-created access right under § 151o(3), extinction under § 151p; the vklad as the constitutive act for contract-based rights under § 28(2) of the Cadastral Act (Act No. 162/1995 Z. z.), the merely declaratory záznam for rights arising from statute, decision or prescription under § 34(1) together with § 5(2), inspection open to everyone under § 68(1), rebuttable presumption under § 70(1); transfer of ownership only upon the vklad under § 133(2) of the Civil Code. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-20.
Slovenia
What encumbrances can exist
Real servitudes (stvarne služnosti) such as rights of way and utility line rights, positive (pozitivna) or negative (negativna), alongside the personal servitudes (osebne služnosti): usufruct (užitek), right of use (raba) and right of residence (služnost stanovanja); plus real burdens (stvarna bremena, recurring performances tied to the encumbered property) and the building right (stavbna pravica) as a separate right in rem.
Whether they bind the buyer
A servitude registered in the land register (zemljiška knjiga) binds every buyer; creating one by transaction requires a registration permit (zemljiškoknjižno dovolilo) and the entry itself (article 215 of the Property Code, SPZ), so registration is constitutive there. Slovenian law also lets a real servitude arise without any entry: under article 217, whoever actually exercises a servitude in good faith for ten years, or for twenty years without the owner of the servient property objecting, acquires it by prescription (priposestvovanje); never where the exercise abused trust, used force or deceit or ran on revocable permission, and negative servitudes cannot be prescribed at all. The buyer's shield is article 44(2): a right acquired by prescription must not prejudice an acquirer who, in good faith and in reliance on the public books, acquired his own right before the prescribed right was entered, and the reliance principle (article 10 SPZ, article 8 of the Land Register Act) states the same as a general rule. Unlike Danish law, which gives the buyer two years to object actively, Slovenian law protects the good-faith registrant without any step of his own, the same pattern as Croatian law. Good faith is presumed (article 9) but fails where the buyer knew or could have known (article 28): a path visibly worn across the plot for years is exactly such a case, and then the prescribed servitude binds the buyer as well. Two Slovenian peculiarities stand out against Croatia: prescription runs on two tracks (ten years with good faith, twenty without objection), and a servitude dies far faster, three years of non-exercise after the servient owner objects (article 223) instead of twenty years.
Basis: Servitudes under the Stvarnopravni zakonik (SPZ, consolidated text, Uradni list RS 87/02, 91/13 and 23/20): definition in article 210, real servitudes in article 213, transaction-based creation with registration in article 215, prescription (priposestvovanje) in article 217, extinction in article 223, the three personal servitudes in articles 227 and 228; reliance on the register in article 10 SPZ and article 8 of the Zakon o zemljiški knjigi (ZZK-1, consolidated text, Uradni list RS 58/03 and later amendments), protection of the good-faith acquirer against prescribed rights in article 44(2) SPZ, good faith in articles 9 and 28 SPZ; publicity and free e-ZK access in articles 4, 195 and 198 ZZK-1. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-19.
Spain
What encumbrances can exist
Easements (servidumbres) such as a right of way (servidumbre de paso), alongside the usufruct (usufructo, article 467 Código Civil) and the rights of use and habitation (uso y habitación, articles 523 et seq. Código Civil); statutory easements (article 536 Código Civil) such as the right of way of an enclosed estate (article 564 Código Civil), the duty to let rainwater drain from an enclosed yard or corral through neighbouring land (article 588 Código Civil) and the duty to receive waters descending naturally from higher estates (article 552 Código Civil) exist by force of law.
Whether they bind the buyer
Deeds that create, acknowledge, transfer, modify or extinguish a servidumbre can be entered in the Registro de la Propiedad (article 2 no 2 Ley Hipotecaria); limited real rights and any charge on ownership take effect against third parties only if they appear in the registration of the burdened estate (article 13 Ley Hipotecaria), and an unregistered deed does not harm third parties (article 32 Ley Hipotecaria). A buyer who purchases for value and in good faith from the person the register shows as entitled to transfer, and who then registers his own right, keeps his acquisition even if the seller's title is later annulled for causes outside the register (article 34 Ley Hipotecaria), and good faith is presumed. Three paths lead past that protection, and none of them shows in the excerpt. First, continuous and apparent easements can be acquired by twenty years of prescription (article 537 Código Civil), while continuous non-apparent and discontinuous easements can arise only by title (article 539 Código Civil); where their constitutive title is missing, only a notarised deed of acknowledgment by the servient owner or a final judgment can replace it (article 540 Código Civil). Prescription does not bow unconditionally to the register either: against a registered holder protected as a third party under article 34, a completed prescription, or one that completes within a year, prevails where the acquirer knew, or had rational means to know, of the de facto possession before his purchase, or tolerated it throughout the following year (article 36 Ley Hipotecaria). Second, an apparent sign of an easement between two estates, set up by the owner of both, counts as title for the easement to continue once one estate is sold, unless the deed of sale says otherwise or the sign was removed before the deed was granted (article 541 Código Civil). Third, statutory easements arise without any title, among them the right of way of an enclosed estate: an owner whose land lies hemmed in by other estates with no outlet to a public road may demand passage over the neighbouring estates against an indemnity, at the point least harmful to the servient estate and, as far as compatible with that rule, by the shortest route to the public road, in the width the needs of the dominant estate require (articles 564, 565 and 566 Código Civil).
Basis: Easement (servidumbre) under article 530 Código Civil, statutory and voluntary easements under article 536, prescription of continuous apparent easements after twenty years under article 537, title-only creation of continuous non-apparent and discontinuous easements under article 539, replacement of a missing title by deed of acknowledgment or final judgment under article 540, apparent sign of a former common owner as title under article 541, right of way of the enclosed estate against an indemnity under article 564, location and width under articles 565 and 566, drainage duty under article 588 and natural descent of waters under article 552; registrability of deeds under article 2 no 2 Ley Hipotecaria, effect against third parties only upon registration under article 13, no harm to third parties from unregistered deeds under article 32, protection of the good-faith acquirer under article 34, prescription prevailing against registered third parties under article 36 Ley Hipotecaria; usufruct under article 467, rights of use and habitation under articles 523 et seq. Código Civil.. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-19.
Czechia
What encumbrances can exist
Servitudes (služebnosti) such as rights of way and the utility network easement (služebnost inženýrské sítě), the right to lay and maintain water, sewerage, energy or other lines across another's plot (section 1267 of the Civil Code), alongside the right of residence (služebnost bytu, section 1297) and real charges (reálná břemena, sections 1303 onwards), among them the výměnek, the benefit a retiring farmer reserves when the holding is handed over.
Whether they bind the buyer
A servitude is a real right: it clings to the property and binds every buyer, a sale does not extinguish it. As a rule the land registry (katastr nemovitostí) protects the buyer in good faith (section 984(1) of the Civil Code): whoever acquires for value and in good faith from the person shown as entitled may rely on what the register shows. Three express statutory exceptions reach even the good-faith buyer (section 984(2)): the necessary path (nezbytná cesta) granted by a court against payment (sections 1029 onwards), the výměnek and rights arising by statute regardless of the register all bind without any entry. And a servitude can arise without any registration at all by prescription (vydržení, section 1260(1)): ten years of undisturbed honest possession with a legal ground, and twice that period, twenty years, without one, unless bad faith is proven (sections 1091(2) and 1095). Unlike in Poland the law does not tie prescription to any durable and visible installation: every kind of servitude can be prescribed. A clean registry extract therefore does not fully settle the matter.
Basis: Servitude under section 1257 of the Civil Code (Act No. 89/2012 Coll.), with the utility network easement under section 1267, the right of residence under section 1297 and real charges under sections 1303 onwards; prescription of a servitude under section 1260(1) within the periods of sections 1091(2) and 1095 (ten years with a legal ground and good faith, otherwise twenty years), registration of a contractually created servitude under section 1262(1); public faith of the katastr nemovitostí under section 984(1) with the exceptions of section 984(2) (nezbytná cesta under sections 1029 onwards, výměnek, statutory rights); registration by vklad under section 11(1)(c) of the Cadastral Act (Act No. 256/2013 Coll.). Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-19.
Hungary
What encumbrances can exist
The telki szolgalom, the servitude attached to land, covering a right of way, the supply and drainage of water, the sinking of a cellar, the placing of line poles and the support of a building, or any similar purpose useful to the holder of the benefited plot (section 5:160(1) of the Civil Code). Beside it stands the haszonélvezet, a usufruct held by a named person. A way of necessity does not depend on any agreement at all: where a plot has no link to a suitable public road, the neighbours must tolerate passage across their land (section 5:160(2)). A public authority may also impose a servitude for public purposes against compensation (section 5:164).
Whether they bind the buyer
Registration is the rule. Rights in rem over land come into being, change and end on entry in the ingatlan-nyilvántartás, the land register, but the statute qualifies this from the outset: it holds only where the same Act does not provide otherwise (section 5:166(1)). For servitudes it does provide otherwise. The holder of a plot acquires the telki szolgalom by prescription where the holder of the other plot does not object to the use for fifteen years; a right granted as a favour or revocably never ripens into one (section 5:161(3)). Such a servitude appears on no tulajdoni lap, the register extract. Even so the extract does protect a buyer, and this is what decides the classification: in favour of a person who acquires in good faith and for value, the content of the register is to be treated as correct and complete even where it departs from the substantive position (section 5:168(1)), and the holder of an unregistered right cannot enforce it against such a registered acquirer (section 5:169(2)). Two limits remain. The protection depends on good faith, and a buyer who sees a track in open use across the land will struggle to claim it. And a right arising by operation of law binds without entry where some other entry on the register puts it beyond doubt that the plot falls under the rule creating it (section 5:166(3)).
Basis: telki szolgalom under the Polgári Törvénykönyv (Act V of 2013), content section 5:160(1), statutory way of necessity section 5:160(2), creation by contract and by fifteen years of unopposed use section 5:161(3), extinction by fifteen years of non-use section 5:163(2), deletion from the register on consensual release section 5:163(3), servitude for public purposes section 5:164; the registration principle with its express reservation for other provisions of the same Act section 5:166(1), effect without entry of rights arising by operation of law where the register makes their application beyond doubt section 5:166(3), positive publicity section 5:167, protection of the good-faith acquirer for value by the fiction that the register is correct and complete section 5:168(1) and the unenforceability of unregistered rights against him section 5:169(2); haszonélvezet sections 5:147 ff.. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-21.
United Kingdom
What encumbrances can exist
Easements such as a right of way, plus restrictive covenants and life interests.
Whether they bind the buyer
Since 13 October 2003, an expressly granted easement takes effect at law only once it is registered (section 27(1) and (2)(d) of the Land Registration Act 2002), and a restrictive covenant only works if entered as a notice on the charges register. The trap is the right the register stays silent about: easements that arose by implied grant, for instance under the rule in Wheeldon v Burrows or through section 62 of the Law of Property Act 1925, or by twenty years of uninterrupted use under section 2 of the Prescription Act 1832 or the lost modern grant doctrine, are legal without any registration and bind the buyer as overriding interests under Schedule 3, paragraph 3. Only where the buyer neither actually knew of the right nor could have spotted it on a reasonably careful inspection, and where it was not exercised in the year before the sale either, does the buyer take free; a way used for decades and still in use therefore binds even when the register looks clean.
Basis: An easement and a restrictive covenant; an express grant of an easement is a registrable disposition and takes effect at law only on registration, section 27(1) and (2)(d) of the Land Registration Act 2002, except a grant by section 62 of the Law of Property Act 1925 under section 27(7); registration binds the buyer under section 29; unregistered legal easements and profits a prendre override under Schedule 3, paragraph 3, unless the buyer neither knew of them nor could have spotted them on a reasonably careful inspection, and even then they bind if exercised in the year before the disposition, Schedule 3, paragraph 3(1) and (2); prescription after twenty years of uninterrupted enjoyment, forty years absolute, section 2 of the Prescription Act 1832 (2 & 3 Will. 4 c. 71), time running under section 4, the right to light under section 3, alongside the common-law doctrine of the lost modern grant.. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-20.
Cyprus
What encumbrances can exist
Easements such as the right of way, including the statutory right of way for enclosed land, rights of support over boundary and party walls, and water rights, which by statute include the right to channel water, sewage and other liquids across neighbouring land. One peculiarity of Cyprus: an easement is itself immovable property within the meaning of the law and is registered as such.
Whether they bind the buyer
The statute exhaustively lists eight routes by which a right over another person's land can be acquired, and a grant by the owner registered at the District Lands Office is only the first of them (section 11(1)(a) of the Immovable Property (Tenure, Registration and Valuation) Law, Cap. 224). The same right can arise with no grant at all: thirty years of uninterrupted exercise by the claimant or by those under whom he claims (section 11(1)(b), never against the Republic), recognition by the decision of a competent court (paragraph (c)), a grant by firman before 4 June 1878 (paragraph (d)), the right of way for enclosed land under section 11A (paragraph (e)), compulsory acquisition (paragraph (f)), a reservation in writing by the owner on a transfer (paragraph (g)), or a decision of the Director of the Department of Lands and Surveys securing access to a plot left enclosed by a partition (paragraph (h)). However acquired, the right is deemed attached to the property and passes with every dealing (section 12(1)); it is lost again by written abandonment or by thirty years of non-exercise (section 12(2)). A clean search of the Lands Office books therefore does not rule out an easement acquired by long use.
Basis: easement under section 11(1) of the Immovable Property (Tenure, Registration and Valuation) Law, Cap. 224: acquisition only by one of eight routes, including a grant by the owner registered at the District Lands Office (paragraph (a)), thirty years of uninterrupted exercise (paragraph (b)), recognition by a competent court (paragraph (c)), the right of way for enclosed land under section 11A (paragraph (e)) and a decision of the Director on partition under section 29 (paragraph (h)); attached to the property and passing with every dealing under section 12(1), lost by written abandonment or thirty years of non-exercise under section 12(2); duty to grant passage over neighbouring land against reasonable compensation under section 11A(1), expressly including the channelling of water and sewage; easements are themselves immovable property under section 2; prescription construed in Christodoulos Yianni Voskou v. Michael HjiPetrou (1964 C.L.R. 21) and Socratis Sofocli Hadji-Demosthenous v. Alexandres Georghiou ((1969) 1 C.L.R. 187): open and peaceable enjoyment for the full thirty years. Last checked against the legal text: 2026-08-20.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the seller have to disclose these rights?
Yes, wherever they matter to your decision. Since most are recorded anyway, staying quiet about them does not help the seller much: you can request the extract yourself, and you should do that before signing anything.
Does a right of way bind me as the new owner?
As a rule, yes. A registered encumbrance binds every owner, not only the one who granted it. That is exactly what the recording is for.
More
Ready to have a property checked honestly?
In a few minutes you have a complete, conservative report with a valuation PDF. No appointment, no paperwork.
Stay in the loop
We write rarely and only when it is genuinely useful: new features, a sober look at the market, honest advice on buying, selling and renting.