Rights of access, and rights to use and enjoy shared facilities can be extremely important elements of any property.  Where the property stands alone and immediately adjoins a public road establishing these rights can be a simple matter of entering and leaving the property from the road and making connections to the electricity, water, and drainage services that run along the road.  

On the other hand where you have to cross other privately owned land to gain access to your property or make connections to utilities it may not be so straightforward.

In Anglo-Saxon countries, access rights – “Rights of Way” -, or to enjoy facilities that lie on or cross other privately owned land are known as “Easements” and in Spain they are known as “Servidumbres” and are regulated by Articles 530 to 604 of the Spanish Civil Code.

The land which benefits from the Servidumbre is known both in English and Spanish Law as “Dominant” and the land which is crossed by the Servidumbre is likewise known as “Servient”.

A Servidumbre can either be continuous and not needing any active intervention, or non-continuous and exercisable at intervals, and either physically obvious or hidden.  For example a Right of Way giving access to a house along a road or track would be continuous and physically obvious, while a right to receive water for agricultural irrigation from time to time through a buried pipe would be non-continuous and hidden.

A Servidumbre of any type can be acquired by written agreement between the owners of the Dominant and Servient Land.  If the Servidumbre is of a type such as a Right of Way, which is continuous and physically obvious, it can be acquired by 20 years continuous use by the owners of the Dominant land without any obstruction by the owner of the Servient Land.  However if the Servidumbre is non-continuous and hidden it can only be acquired by written agreement.  

However, a Servidumbre cannot normally be acquired and enjoyed for nothing and there can be situations where the owner of the Servient land can hold the owner of the Dominant Land to ransom .   The owner of a piece of “land-locked” property has a right to cross adjoining land to get to the public highway, but the owner of the Dominant land that needs the access can be called upon to compensate the owner of the land that is crossed, the Servient land, for the value of ground taken up and any damage that may be done by the use of the Right of Way.  The exception to this rule is where the owner of the Servient land has sold off or partitioned a land-locked part of his own property when he cannot demand compensation (Art. 567). 

A change in the type or degree of use can have the effect of “resetting the clock” back to zero.  For example if a Right of Way has been use for private domestic purposes for 15 years but then starts to be used for commercial purposes, the first 15 years will not count towards the acquisition of a Right of Way for commercial purposes.  Similarly, if a house is built on land-locked agricultural land the owner of the Servient Land can demand compensation for the change in the nature of the access required.

The cost of maintaining the Servidumbre is the responsibility of the owner of the Dominant Land and if the Servidumbre benefits more than one piece of Dominant Land, the cost must be shared between them, and the work must be done so as to cause the least damage or inconvenience to the Servient land.     

There are separate rules dealing with rights to light, shared party walls, and drainage of rain-water dealt with in the Civil Code.  Also in their turn rights to connect to utilities, such as electricity, telephones, or main drains, are regulated by specific and detailed legislation.

A Servidumbre can come to an end by agreement between the owners of the Dominant and Servient Land; if it is renounced by the owner of the Dominant Land; if the Dominant and Servient Land come under the same ownership, when of course it would no longer be necessary; if it falls into disuse for more than 20 years or falls into disrepair so that it can no longer be used (Art. 546).

If you already own a piece of land-locked property and enjoy the use of a Servidumbre but are considering changing its use, or are considering buying such a property it is important that rights for access and provision of utilities are checked by your lawyer to avoid the risk of being held to ransom by the owner of the land which is crossed by the Servidumbre.