Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: easment

How big is a farm? How long is a piece of string?

Seriously, there are two general answers to your question:

(1) Easements that are created by grant or reservation, or by any other kind of express agreement, usually specify the size of the easement, as well as its purpose and location. An example might be "X hereby grants to Y an easement thirty feet in width from the boundary between X and Y to State Highway 30, running along the northerly edge of X's property, for purposes of ingress and egress."

(2) Other times, easements arise from implied grant or by operation of law. Since these are often somewhat fuzzy as to location and dimensions, courts may be called upon to decide a variety of factors, including their dimensions, location, and permissible uses.

Easements can have sizes that vary from time to time. For example, certain easements for signs and really narrow stuff may be limited to a just a little more than the thing itself for 364 days a year, but since an easement also carries with it the right to do maintenance, maybe one day a year the easement holder could come in and use triple the ordinary width without being a trespasser.

I hope this is helpful; it is only a bulletin-board posting and not a full treatise on the subject. If you need more info, please contact me directly. Easements are an area of special interest to me.

Re: easment

It is whatever the document creating the easement says it is. The size can vary from a couple of inches to several acres.