Easement acquired by express grant or reservation The extent of an easement acquired by this method depends upon the proper construction of the document that created it. For instance if an unrestricted right of way is granted expressly, it will not be confined to the purpose for which the dominant land was used at the time of the grant.
In White v Grand Hotel (Eastbourne) Ltd, an unrestricted right of way over the servient tenement, granted expressly to the owner of a private house on the dominant tenement, was held not to be limited to the purposes existing to the time of the grant. Thus, when the private house was converted into a hotel, the owners of the hotel were entitled to the use of the way for the general purposes of the hotel. In Bulstrode v Lambert, it was held that right to ‘pass and repass with or without vehicles’ over the servient tenement included a right to park vehicles for the purpose of loading and unloading, as this was necessarily incidental to the right of way (Tort- vicarious liability- any similarity?).
Easements acquired by implied grant or reservation In Corporation of London v Riggs, it was held that a way of necessity is strictly limited to the circumstances of the necessity that existed at the time of the conveyance. At the time of the conveyance, the land plot was used for agricultural purposes. Held, the easement of necessity was limited to those purposes and could not subsequently be used for carrying building materials to and from the dominant tenement on which the dominant tenement proposed to build a restaurant (this was a case of implied reservation).
Easement acquired by prescription Where an easement is acquired by long user, its extent is limited to the purpose for which that land has, in fact, been used during the prescription period. The principle is the easement cannot be extended to the purposes radically different from those enjoyed during the period.
However, there is no objection to the right of way being used more intensively- that is, as regards the number of people or vehicle using it- provided that the user is not different in character.
