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In this guide
By Onah Attorneys Inc • Updated July 2026 • Legal information, not a substitute for advice on your specific matter.
The neighbour who’s ‘always used that road’, the pipeline under your lawn, the landlocked plot with no gate to a public street — servitude law governs them all. These rights bind land itself, survive sales, and ambush buyers who never read the title deed. Here is how servitudes work, fight and die.
What a servitude is
A limited real right over someone else’s land: praedial servitudes serve a neighbouring property (right of way, water, pipeline, no-building restrictions) and bind every successive owner; personal servitudes (usufruct, habitatio) serve a person and die with them. Registered against the title deed at the Deeds Office, they are invisible on the ground and decisive in law — the first document to read in any access fight is the deed, not the fence line.
Creation
By agreement (notarial deed + registration — the clean way), by will, by court order, and by PRESCRIPTION: open, unchallenged use as if entitled for 30 years hardens into a right (Prescription Act). That ‘they’ve always driven through there’ problem has a clock attached — interrupt unwelcome use formally before year 30, or it stops being your choice.
The landlocked property: way of necessity
Land with no reasonable access to a public road can claim a via necessitatis over a neighbour — courts grant the least burdensome practical route, against compensation. It’s a right born of necessity, not convenience: existing awkward access defeats the claim; genuine landlock founds it. Buyers of cheap landlocked plots: this is your remedy, budget for it.
Living with a servitude
The rule is civiliter modo — exercise the right with minimum burden. The dominant owner may do what’s needed to use it (grade the road); the servient owner may not obstruct it (the gate may be closable, not lockable, unless terms say otherwise — endless case law lives in that distinction). Maintenance follows the terms, or default rules: the user maintains. Disputes: interdicts for obstruction, declaratory orders on scope.
Ending one
Agreement + notarial cancellation; abandonment (hard to prove); merger (one owner acquires both properties); prescription (30 years of non-use); court order where the servitude’s purpose has become impossible or it was tied to circumstances that vanished. Buying property ‘subject to’ an obsolete servitude? Price the cancellation process in — or make the seller do it before transfer.
Frequently asked questions
Does an unregistered ‘agreement’ with the old owner bind me?
Generally no — unregistered servitude agreements bind the parties personally, not successors (with narrow doctrine-of-notice exceptions). Registration is what makes land itself liable.
Can I lock the gate on a registered right of way?
Usually you may gate but not lock without providing access (keys/code), unless the registered terms say otherwise. Locking out the dominant owner invites a spoliation order.
The municipality has pipes under my property — can I build over them?
Municipal service servitudes typically bar building within the corridor. Check the SG diagram and title conditions before designing — relocation, where possible, is at your cost.
How do I stop the neighbour’s ‘shortcut’ becoming permanent?
Written objection, physical control (lockable gate), and if needed an interdict — clear interruption of the use resets the prescription clock.
Speak to an Attorney Today
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