People who buy or sell real estate in Pennsylvania should always take the time to learn about any potential easements on a property as this may impact them as a buyer or as a seller in case a prospective buyer has concerns about a particular easement.
As explained by Trulia, an easement does not give someone else free reign to do whatever they want on a piece of land. Instead an easement grants permission for some persons to use a specific piece of property for a very specific purpose. Therefore, an easement that might allow people to pass through in order to access something on the other side does not allow those people to stop and have a picnic on the easement property.
The Balance indicates that the most common type of easement is granted to local utility companies. This allows electrical, gas, cable or other employees to go onto a certain area in order to maintain or repair power lines and other utility features. Many neighborhoods feature shared driveways especially where space may be limited and these are considered forms of an easement.
When in a real estate transaction, it is important that buyers carefully review a title report to see if any easements exist. They should also ask for mapped drawings of the easement as these things may prevent homeowners from building fences, installing pools or doing other things on their property that they might want to do. Knowing before a sale has been completed that an easement exists is essentially to preventing bigger problems down the road.