Easement laws in Arkansas recognize three broad categories — public utility easements, conservation easements, and private easements — and your rights depend on which type applies, how it was created, and what the governing document or statute says about use, upkeep, transfer, and termination. If you hold an easement over someone else’s land, or your land is burdened by one, the practical answers to almost every question you have flow from those two facts.
The Three Categories Arkansas Recognizes
Public utility easements let utility companies install and maintain power lines, water pipes, and telecommunications equipment across private property. Because they serve the public, the protections around them are strong. If you own the burdened land, you face real limits on what you can build inside the easement’s boundaries. Permanent structures with concrete foundations over utility lines are typically prohibited, and if you build one anyway, the utility company can require you to demolish it at your own expense.
Conservation easements restrict development to protect environmental, historical, or cultural resources. In Arkansas, the Old State House Commission oversees conservation easements tied to historical and architectural preservation, and the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission handles easements protecting natural habitats and ecological areas. These are almost always voluntary. Landowners who donate them often receive significant federal tax benefits in exchange for permanently limiting how the land can be used.
Private easements are agreements between individual property owners. The most familiar example is a right-of-way letting one owner cross another’s land to reach a public road. Terms are usually negotiated between the parties, though, as explained below, some private easements arise with no agreement at all.
How Private Easements Are Created
Private easements in Arkansas come into existence through three paths: express grant, necessity, and prescription. Each has different requirements and produces easements with different characteristics.
Express Easements
An express easement is created by a written agreement, typically recorded in a deed or a separate instrument. Because an easement is an interest in real property, the Statute of Frauds requires it to be in writing. The document should describe the location and scope of the easement clearly enough that both parties understand what’s permitted. Express easements offer the most predictability, because the parties control the terms, including width, permitted uses, and duration.
Easements by Necessity
When a property is landlocked with no access to a public road or navigable waterway, Arkansas Code 27-66-401 provides a statutory process. The landlocked owner can petition the county court after giving the neighboring landowner at least 20 days’ written notice, including an offer of payment for the right-of-way.1Justia. Arkansas Code 27-66-401 – Establishment The petition must show that the neighbor refused to grant access and that the petitioner has no other legal right of ingress or egress. If the court grants the petition, it appoints viewers to determine the road’s path, and the benefited landowner pays compensation to the neighbor whose property is crossed.
Prescriptive Easements
A prescriptive easement arises when someone uses another person’s land without permission, openly and continuously, for the statutory period. Arkansas courts have established that the prescriptive period is seven years after the landowner knows or should know the use is adverse to their interest. The person claiming the easement bears the burden of proving the use was adverse, under a claim of right, and visible enough that the property owner should have been aware of it. Permission defeats the claim: having permission to cross someone’s land, no matter how many years that continues, does not create a prescriptive easement. If permissive use shifts to adverse use and the landowner knows or should know about the shift, the seven-year clock starts running.2Justia. Fields v. Ginger – 1996 – Arkansas Court of Appeals Decisions
This is where owners get caught. A neighbor who drives across your back pasture for years while you look the other way can eventually gain a permanent right to keep doing it, provided the use was clearly adverse rather than something you permitted. If you want to head off a potential claim, the two options are to grant written permission (which defeats the “adverse” element) or to take affirmative steps to block the use.
Who Pays to Maintain an Easement
The default rule in Arkansas, and in most other states, is that the person who benefits from the easement (the dominant estate) is responsible for maintaining it. The owner whose land the easement crosses (the servient estate) has no obligation to keep it up unless the parties agreed otherwise in writing. When both parties use the easement, both share the maintenance burden.
This rule surprises people. If you own a parcel accessed by a gravel road that crosses your neighbor’s property, you are responsible for keeping that road usable. Your neighbor has no duty to fill potholes or clear debris, even though the road physically sits on their land. A well-drafted easement agreement should spell out maintenance obligations, cost-sharing formulas, and what happens if one party neglects upkeep. Without that clarity, disputes tend to simmer for years before anyone does anything about them.
What Happens to an Easement When the Property Is Sold
Whether an easement survives a sale depends on its type. An easement appurtenant, the most common kind, is tied to the land rather than to the individual who created it. When either the benefiting or burdened property changes hands, the easement transfers automatically. If you buy a house whose deed includes a right-of-way across the neighboring lot, that right belongs to you as the new owner. If you buy the neighboring lot, the burden comes with it.
An easement in gross benefits a specific person or entity rather than a parcel of land. Utility easements are the familiar example. These generally transfer when the utility company assigns its rights but do not automatically pass when the underlying property is sold.
For anyone buying property in Arkansas, the practical point is to review the deed records and title report carefully. Easements recorded in the county deed records bind future owners regardless of whether the seller disclosed them during negotiations. An unrecorded easement, such as one based purely on an oral agreement, is far more vulnerable when property changes hands.
How Private Easements End
Private easements are not necessarily permanent. Arkansas recognizes several ways one can terminate.
Merger
When one person acquires ownership of both the benefiting and burdened properties, the easement is extinguished by merger. You cannot hold an easement over your own land. Once merged, the easement typically does not spring back into existence if the properties are later separated and sold to different buyers. A new easement would need to be created.
Abandonment
An easement can be terminated if the holder abandons it, but proving abandonment takes more than showing the easement hasn’t been used in years. Non-use alone, even for decades, does not by itself constitute abandonment. Courts look for affirmative conduct showing an intent never to use the easement again, such as building a permanent barrier across the easement path or executing documents that exclude the easement from the property description. Prolonged non-use combined with clear actions inconsistent with future use is what courts find persuasive.
Release
The cleanest way to end an easement is a voluntary written release from the easement holder to the burdened property owner. Because an easement is an interest in real property, the release must satisfy the Statute of Frauds and be in writing, typically as a quitclaim deed or easement release deed. The document should clearly identify the easement being extinguished, be properly executed and notarized, and be recorded in the county deed records.
Vacating a Public Utility Easement
Removing a public utility easement follows different procedures depending on whether the property sits inside or outside a city or town.
Property Outside City or Town Limits
Owners outside city or town limits petition the county court. The petition must clearly describe the easement and is filed with the county clerk.3Justia. Arkansas Code 18-60-901 – Petition to Vacate After filing, the county clerk publishes notice at least once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper with general circulation in the county. The notice must identify the property owners who signed the petition and describe the easement. If the easement benefits a specific utility company, that company must also be given direct notice before the court can proceed. Skipping this step is fatal; actual notice to the utility is a condition precedent to vacating the easement.4Justia. Arkansas Code 18-60-902 – Notice
Property Inside City or Town Limits
For property within a first-class city, second-class city, or incorporated town, the process runs through the municipal government rather than the county court. Owners whose land the easement runs through sign a petition and file it with the municipal legislative body, which handles it under the same procedures used for vacating streets and alleys. Once the municipality adopts an ordinance vacating the easement, the property is no longer burdened by it. Two important limits apply: the municipality cannot vacate a utility easement that is still actively in use, and it cannot vacate an easement owned by a utility company without paying just compensation.5Justia. Arkansas Code 14-199-103 – Vacation of Public Utility Easements
Common Easement Disputes and Remedies
Easement conflicts in Arkansas usually fall into a few predictable categories: someone blocks access to an easement, an easement holder exceeds the scope of their rights, or the parties disagree about maintenance costs or boundaries.
When a property owner physically blocks access to an established easement, the easement holder can ask a court for an injunction ordering the obstruction removed. Courts use injunctions to preserve the status quo and prevent ongoing harm while the case is resolved. If the interference caused actual financial harm, such as lost rental income from a landlocked property or damage to improvements, the easement holder may also pursue monetary damages. Courts weigh whether money alone is an adequate remedy or whether the nature of the harm requires an injunction.
When an easement holder goes beyond the scope of their rights, the roles reverse. If someone with a right-of-way for vehicle access starts running heavy commercial trucks across a path designed for passenger cars, or begins clearing trees and regrading the land beyond the easement’s boundaries, the burdened owner can seek relief. The central question in scope disputes is what the original easement authorized, which is why the language of the creating document carries so much weight.
For any easement dispute, the practical advice is the same: document everything, preserve any written agreements, and act promptly. Waiting years to challenge an encroachment or obstruction can weaken your position, particularly if the other side argues you acquiesced to the changed conditions.