On 23/05/2013,
you requested for the version in force on 23/05/2013
incorporating all amendments published on or before 23/05/2013.
The closest version currently available is that of 28/03/2013.
PART X
EASEMENTS
94.
—(1) In this Part, “dominant tenement” and “servient tenement” mean, respectively, the land to which the benefit of an easement has been made appurtenant, and the land which is subject to the burden of an easement.
(2) Nothing in this Act shall be construed as altering the law relating to the natural rights to support, light, air, water, or to access to a highway, nor as altering any rule or principle of law which implies in the grant of an easement such ancillary rights as may be necessary for the effective enjoyment of the easement.
95.
—(1) The Registrar shall not register as an easement any instrument purporting to create an interest —
(a)
of a kind which has not been recognised by law as an easement; or
(b)
which is not expressed to be appurtenant to land (whether registered land or otherwise) of a person other than the proprietor or owner of the site of the easement.
(2) The Registrar shall not notify any licence in the land-register, but in any case where a licence relating to the use or enjoyment of land is by law binding on assigns of the licensor, the licensee thereunder shall be deemed to have an interest in the land for the purposes of section 115.
(3) An inadvertent contravention of this section shall not give to any interest a greater operation or effect than the interest would have had without registration or notification.
96. For the purposes of this Act, the fact that a right to lay or maintain pipes or other installations through the land of a proprietor confers on the person or authority entitled to that right the exclusive possession or occupation of the soil, or of the space occupied by the pipes or other installations, shall not of itself prevent the right of passage of matter or energy through the pipes or other installations being registrable as an easement.
97.
—(1) An easement shall not be acquired over registered land by long-continued user adverse to a proprietor, nor by prescription, nor by any presumption of a lost grant, nor by any implication of law except as may be provided in this Act; but where an easement is intended to be created, the proprietor may execute an instrument of grant in the approved form, or, if the easement is being created incidentally to a transfer or lease, by appropriate words in the transfer or lease.
(2) An instrument of transfer which reserves out of the land transferred an easement appurtenant to other land of the transferor shall, upon registration, be effective as a regrant of the easement to the transferor without execution of the instrument by the transferee.
(3) The instrument creating an easement shall indicate clearly —
(a)
the nature of the easement and the extent of the land burdened by the easement;
(b)
the dominant tenement; and
(c)
the conditions, limitations and restrictions, if any, intended to affect the enjoyment of the easement.
(4) The servient tenement shall be described in accordance with section 54 except that where an easement relates to the passage of matter or energy through underground pipes, cables or other installations, which cannot conveniently be located, the Registrar may accept for registration an instrument in which the servient land is described approximately only.
(5) An easement shall be registered by the entry of a memorial thereof on the folio for the servient tenement.
(6) A notification of the easement shall be entered on the folio for the dominant tenement unless the proprietor thereof agrees to dispense with any notification.
(7) Where a grant of an easement over registered land is expressed to be appurtenant to land which is not under the provisions of this Act, the Registrar shall not be concerned to consider whether the person described therein as grantee is entitled to the land described as the dominant tenement if that person is expressed to be the owner for the time being of that land.
98.
—(1) There shall be implied in respect of each lot of land which forms part of the same development (referred to hereinafter as the lot) —
(a)
in favour of the proprietor of the lot, and as appurtenant thereto, easements for the passage or provision of water, electricity, drainage, gas and sewerage through or by means of any sewers, pipes, wires, cables or ducts to the extent to which those sewers, pipes, wires, cables or ducts are capable of being used in connection with the enjoyment of the lot;
(b)
as against the proprietor of the lot, and to which the lot shall be subject, easements for the passage or provision of water, electricity, drainage, gas and sewerage through or by means of any sewers, pipes, wires, cables or ducts, as appurtenant to every other lot capable of enjoying such easements.
(2) All ancillary rights and obligations reasonably necessary to make the easements referred to in subsection (1) effective shall be implied.
(3) The easements implied by this section entitle the proprietor of the dominant tenement to enter on the servient tenement at all reasonable times to repair, renew or restore any sewers, pipes, cables, wires or ducts as shall appear necessary but the proprietor of the dominant tenement shall make good any damage caused to the servient tenement.
(4) In respect of all the easements implied by this section, there shall also be implied a covenant, binding all parties enjoying the benefit of such easements, to contribute to the cost of construction, maintenance or repair of the sewers, pipes, cables, wires or ducts — the subject of the easements — as if the easements and the covenant to contribute had been created by an instrument registered under this Act and, so long as such easements subsist, the covenant to contribute shall bind any successor in title enjoying the benefit of the easements except that such a covenant shall not be implied where the proprietor of any lot is able to show that he is entitled to enjoy the easements free from the liability to contribute.
(5) Subsection (4) shall not render any person liable to contribute to expenditure incurred at a time before he became, or after he ceased to be, a proprietor of the tenement to which the liability is attached.
(6) Unity of seisin of 2 or more lots shall not destroy the easements implied by this section but on the cessation of such unity, they shall continue in full force and effect as if the seisin had never been united.
(7) The easements implied by this section shall be enforceable without any memorial or notification on the folios, and accordingly section 97(5) and (6) shall not apply thereto.
(8) In this section —
“development” means any land subdivided into 2 or more lots under section 12(3) of the Planning Act (Cap. 232) where those lots are affected by common easements for the passage or provision of water, electricity, drainage, gas or sewerage that are capable of being created as cross easements by an instrument and enjoyed as such by those lots;
“lot” means a parcel of land forming part of a development, to which the Chief Surveyor has allotted a Government survey lot number.
[30/2003]
99.
—(1) Where the competent authority has approved the development and subdivision of any land comprised in an estate before or after 1st March 1994 and the subdivision plan has been submitted to the competent authority, there shall be implied, in respect of each lot of the estate which is used or intended to be used as a separate tenement, in favour of the registered proprietor of the lot and as appurtenant thereto, all the easements referred to in subsection (1A).
[37/2004 wef 31/03/2005 wef 31/03/2005]
(1A) The easements which shall be implied under subsection (1) are all such easements of way and drainage, for party wall purposes and for the supply of water, gas, electricity, sewerage and telephone and other services to the lot on, over or under the lands appropriated or set apart for those purposes respectively on the subdivision plan submitted to the competent authority relating to the estate, as may be necessary for the reasonable enjoyment of the lot and of any building or part of a building at any time thereon.
[37/2004 wef 31/03/2005 wef 31/03/2005]
(2) All ancillary rights and obligations reasonably necessary to make the easements referred to in subsection (1A) effective shall be implied.
(3) In respect of all the easements implied by this section, there shall also be implied a covenant binding all registered proprietors enjoying the benefit of such easements to contribute to the cost of maintenance or repair of the subject of the easements as if the easements and the covenant to contribute had been created by an instrument registered under this Act and so long as such easements subsist the covenant to contribute shall bind any successor in title enjoying the benefit of the easements except that in the case of the right to erect and maintain party walls, the implied covenant provided in this subsection shall bind only the registered proprietors of the lots on which party walls have been erected.
(4) Subsection (3) shall not render any person liable to contribute to expenditure incurred at a time before he became, or after he ceased to be, a proprietor of the lot to which the liability is attached.
(5) The easements implied by this section shall be enforceable without any memorial or notification on the folios, and accordingly section 97(5) and (6) shall not apply thereto.
(6) Unity of seisin of 2 or more lots shall not destroy the easements implied by this section but on the cessation of such unity, they shall continue in full force and effect as if the seisin had never been united.
(7) The easements implied by this section shall not apply to the lots in an estate where subdivision approval was given by the competent authority prior to 1st March 1994 and satisfactory documentary evidence has been produced to the Registrar of the completion of the transfer of any lot in the estate to a purchaser with easements expressly created in an instrument which has been executed and delivered to the purchaser.
(8) In this section —
“estate” means any land which has been subdivided into lots under the Planning Act (Cap. 232), and includes —
(a)
land intended for use as easements to be made appurtenant to other lots within the same estate as shown in the subdivision plan submitted to the competent authority; and
(b)
undeveloped lots, if any, which are shown in the first subdivision plan submitted to the competent authority, each of which is capable of being subdivided as shown in one or more subsequent subdivision plans as and when submitted to or issued by the competent authority;
[37/2004 wef 31/03/2005 wef 31/03/2005]
“lot” means a parcel of land forming part of an estate to which the Chief Surveyor has allotted a Government survey lot number and also described as a “plot” in a subdivision plan submitted to the competent authority.
[3/98]
100.
—(1) Except as provided in sections 98 and 99, where upon the registration of a transfer or other instrument, the same person becomes the proprietor for the same estate and in the same interest of both dominant and servient tenements, it shall be the duty of that proprietor to indicate the fact of such union of tenements in the instrument by which it is effected.
(2) Upon the registration of the transfer or other instrument, the Registrar shall, at the request of the proprietor, cancel the registration and notification of the easement except that where the survey lots have been amalgamated as one new survey lot by the Chief Surveyor pursuant to the application made by the proprietor to him, the Registrar shall, as soon as he becomes aware of that amalgamation, cancel the registration and notification of the easement.
(3) For the purposes of this section, parcels of land shall not be deemed to be held for the same estate and in the same interest while one of those parcels is subject to a registered mortgage, charge or lease.
101.
—(1) Upon registration of a transfer or lease of land to which an easement is appurtenant, the easement shall pass to the transferee or lessee without any express mention in the transfer or lease.
(2) Where a transfer of part of a dominant tenement contains an express agreement that the easement shall not pass to the transferee, registration of the transfer shall operate to release the easement to the extent to which it had been appurtenant to the part transferred.
(3) Except as provided in subsection (2), an easement, so long as it subsists, shall continue to be appurtenant to every part of the dominant tenement notwithstanding severance.
102.
—(1) Where an instrument creating an easement contains a covenant binding either party to contribute to the cost of construction, maintenance or repair of any way, wall, drain or any other matter (the subject of the easement), then, unless a contrary intention is expressed in the instrument, so long as the easement subsists the covenant shall bind any successor in title to that party as if the successor had been a party to the original covenant.
(2) This section shall not render any person liable to contribute to expenditure incurred at a time before he became, or after he ceased to be, a proprietor of the tenement to which the liability is attached.
(3) For the purpose of subsection (2), any liability of a proprietor of an easement shall cease from the time at which he delivers to the proprietor of the servient tenement a registrable release of the easement.
103.
—(1) In an instrument purporting to create a right of way over registered land, the expressions “right of carriage way” and “right of footway” shall have the same effect as if there had been inserted in lieu thereof the words respectively contained in Parts I and II of the Schedule.
(2) The expressions referred to in subsection (1) shall not have the meaning attributed to them by this section if any alteration is made in the expressions otherwise than by means of a proviso thereto.
104.
—(1) In this section, “conveyance” has the same meaning as in section 2 of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act (Cap. 61), and it includes instruments of transfer taking effect under this Act.
(2) Where in a conveyance of land made by a person entitled to convey or to create easements in respect of a wall built on the common boundary of that land and adjoining land so that the boundary passes longitudinally through the wall (whether centrally or otherwise), the wall is described as a “party wall”, that expression means (unless a contrary intention appears) a wall severed vertically and longitudinally with separate ownership of the severed portions, and with cross easements entitling each of the persons entitled to a portion to have the whole wall continue in such a manner that each building supported thereby will have the support of the whole wall, and the conveyance shall operate to create such easements accordingly.
(3) Upon the registration of the conveyance creating any party wall, the Registrar shall include in a memorial entered for the conveyance on the relevant folio a reference to the creation of the party wall rights over the lot numbers as described in the conveyance.
106.
—(1) The Registrar shall cancel the registration or notification of an easement upon proof to his satisfaction that —
(a)
any period of time for which the easement was intended to subsist has expired;
(b)
any event upon which the easement was intended to determine has occurred; or
(c)
the easement has been abandoned.
(2) Where an application is made to the Registrar in the approved form and evidence is furnished to the Registrar of non-user of an easement for a period exceeding 12 years, he may, without further evidence of abandonment, give notice to the proprietor of the dominant tenement and, in the absence of objection by that proprietor within one month from the service of the notice, treat the easement as abandoned.