One of the most common and basic types of Easements is the Affirmative Easement. An Affirmative Easement is an Easement that forces the owner of the Servient Estate to permit certain actions by the owner of the Dominant Estate, the Easement holder. A common example of an Affirmative Easement is an Easement that permits one property owner to discharge water onto the land of another. These Easements usually give someone the right of entry onto the land of another, so that the individual may do something on that land. It is important to note that Affirmative Easements do not arise when the right is one that amounts to profits, such as giving someone the right to log on your land, mine for gold, or drill for oil as these would be examples of profits.
Some Affirmative Easements are relatively commonplace, for example giving a right of way across your land or giving another the right to discharge water on to your land. Other examples of Affirmative Easements, however, are much rarer. One example of a rare Affirmative Easement may be the right to use a toilet that is located on someone else’s land. Another is the right to use a laundry room on someone else’s land to wash clothes, or the right to use a path and to access and swim in a swimming pool that is on another’s property. In some places, even the right to occupy a certain pew in a church was given as an Affirmative Easement. The key to distinguishing an Affirmative Easement from some of the other kinds of Easements is that an Affirmative Easement gives the benefited individual some right to do something on the land of the burdened individual.