An Easement by Necessity, like an Implied Easement, is an Easement created by the courts. In fact, an Easement by Necessity is in many ways a type of Implied Easement. Courts will create an Easement by Necessity only when the Easement is absolutely necessary to the reasonable use of some piece of property. One example may be an Easement that serves as the only means of connection to a road. Thus, this Easement is necessary for the owner of the dominant estate to enjoy his land.
Most often, Easements by Necessity occur when a certain piece of land is completely landlocked and would otherwise have no other access to a road. For instance, if your land were completely landlocked, and the only means of access you had, to the only road in the area, was by crossing over Property A, an Easement by Necessity would exist providing you access to the road over Property A. However, if at any time in the future other options arise and the necessity no longer exists, neither will the Easement. In other words, an Easement by Necessity can and will only last, for so long as it is necessary to achieve its result. Given our previous example, if at some later time the city buys some land next to you and puts in a new road that now gives you direct access without having to cross anyone else’s property, your previous Easement by Necessity over Property A will cease to exist because it is no longer necessary to achieve its result. In that case, the Easement by Necessity would be “extinguished.”