Ownership and Land Use, 15% of the examination
Easement
A non-possessory right to use another's land for a specified purpose.
An easement appurtenant benefits a neighbouring parcel and runs with the land, involving a dominant tenement that benefits and a servient tenement that is burdened. An easement in gross benefits a person or company, such as a utility. An easement by necessity arises where a parcel is landlocked and the parcels were once commonly owned. A prescriptive easement requires five years of open, notorious, continuous and hostile use in California.
What this is confused with
The exam rarely asks for a definition. It describes a situation and offers two terms that both sound plausible.
Licence
A licence is revocable permission and is not an interest in land.
Encroachment
An encroachment is an unauthorised physical intrusion, not a right.
See also
See it in a question
One question from Ownership and Land Use, so the term lands in the context the exam uses it in.
Two unmarried people buy a house as joint tenants. One dies leaving a will giving her entire estate to her brother. What happens to her interest?
Written to DRE's published topic list. Not a real examination question, since reproducing those is a misdemeanour under B&P Code section 123.