Easements, Restrictive Covenants & Encumbrances in Singapore

Land is rarely a neat, self-contained parcel. Your neighbour may have a right to walk across your driveway; your title may forbid running a shop from the house; a drainpipe may serve the plot next door. These are rights in another's land — the subject of CEA syllabus 1.7 — and they matter because they can *bind whoever buys the land next*. For a salesperson, the practical question is always the same: which of these rights run with the land (so your buyer inherits the benefit or the burden), and which are merely personal arrangements that vanish on sale?

Encumbrances: the umbrella term

An encumbrance is any right or interest in land held by someone *other than* the owner that limits the owner's use or reduces the value of the title. Under Singapore's Torrens system of title registration, many encumbrances are noted on the title (the land register is the authoritative record). Common encumbrances include mortgages/charges, easements, restrictive covenants, caveats and statutory interests. The key practical point: encumbrances generally stay attached to the land, so a buyer takes the property *subject to* them unless they are discharged.

Easements: a right over a neighbour's land

An easement is a proprietary right for one piece of land to use, or restrict use of, another piece of land. It always involves two parcels:

• Dominant tenement — the land that *benefits* from the easement (e.g. the plot that enjoys the right of way).
• Servient tenement — the land that *bears the burden* (the plot the path crosses).
• A true easement requires two separate parcels in different ownership benefiting/burdening each other — you cannot have an easement over your own land.

Typical examples: a right of way (to cross a neighbour's land), a right of drainage (to run water or a pipe through it), a right of support (a wall or building relying on the adjoining structure), and a right to eaves and gutters to overhang. The defining feature is that the right attaches to the land itself, not to a particular person — so it passes automatically to future owners of the dominant tenement.

Because a registered easement is noted on the title, it appears on and affects the title of both parcels — the servient owner's title shows the burden, the dominant owner's the benefit.

Restrictive covenants: private limits on land use

A restrictive covenant is a promise that restricts *how land may be used* — imposed privately, usually by a developer or original seller. Classic examples: 'no commercial or trade use', 'residential only', a building-line setback, or limits on height or the number of dwellings. The point of testing this at RES is the doctrine of the covenant running with the land:

• Restrictive (negative) covenants — a promise *not* to do something. The burden can run with the land and bind future owners of the burdened plot, so long as it is negative in substance and touches and concerns the land.
• Positive covenants — a promise to *do* something (e.g. pay for or build/maintain a fence). As a general rule the burden of a positive covenant does not run with freehold land to bind successors; enforcement against later owners is much harder.
• The benefit of a covenant can also pass to later owners of the land it was meant to protect, allowing them to enforce it.

So the shorthand for the exam: restrictive covenant burden = can bind buyers; positive covenant burden = usually does not. A buyer of restricted land inherits the restriction whether or not they personally agreed to it.

Profits à prendre (briefly)

A profit à prendre is a right to *take something* from another's land — for example soil, produce, or to graze animals — as opposed to an easement, which is a right merely to *use* the land. Profits are proprietary and can exist alongside easements; they appear only rarely in RES questions and are worth recognising by name rather than memorising in depth.

Licence vs a proprietary interest — the crucial contrast

This is the distinction examiners love. A licence is merely personal permission to be on or use land — a contractual or bare permission between two people. It is *not* an interest in the land. Compare it with an easement:

So if a neighbour merely *lets* the owner cross their land by informal permission, that is a licence — a new buyer of the neighbour's plot need not honour it. If the same crossing right is a properly granted easement noted on title, the buyer is bound. Same physical activity, very different legal outcome.

Party walls & encroachment

A party wall is a wall shared by, and serving, two adjoining properties (e.g. terrace or semi-detached houses); each owner has rights and duties in relation to it, and interfering with support can create disputes. Encroachment is where a structure — a wall, roof eaves, a fence, an extension — crosses the boundary onto the neighbouring land. Encroachment matters because it can create liability, affect the title/boundaries, and complicate a sale. It is one of the reasons the title/survey plan and physical inspection matter: a boundary shown on paper may not match what is built on the ground.

What a salesperson should check for a buyer

• Order and read the title search and title plan — look for noted easements, restrictive covenants, mortgages/charges and caveats.
• Check whether any noted restriction conflicts with the buyer's intended use (e.g. a home business against a 'residential only' covenant).
• Have the buyer's lawyer review encumbrances and, where relevant, arrange a survey to confirm boundaries and detect encroachment.
• Never assure a buyer that a right of way, drainage or access is 'fine' without confirming it is a registered easement, not a mere licence.
• Refer legal questions to a conveyancing lawyer — advising on the legal effect of covenants or easements is not the salesperson's role.

Edge cases & 'what-ifs'

• Unregistered easement — an easement not noted on title is harder to enforce and may not bind a buyer who takes the land without notice; treat unregistered 'rights' with caution.
• Encroachment discovered after purchase — the buyer may face a dispute, cost of rectification, or claims with the neighbour; a pre-purchase survey is the guard against this.
• Breach of a restrictive covenant — the party with the benefit may seek an injunction to stop the breaching use or damages; a buyer who ignores the covenant does not escape it.
• Easement vs licence in a fact pattern — ask whether the right was properly *granted* and *runs with the land* (easement) or is just *personal permission* (licence) that a new owner can revoke.
• Right of way blocked — if the servient owner obstructs a valid easement, the dominant owner can seek to have the obstruction removed and enforce the right; blocking it does not extinguish it.