Where this fits on the exam
| Official syllabus topic | Easements, Rights of Way, Licenses, Encroachments, and Adverse Possession |
|---|---|
| Official PSI area | Property Ownership |
| Published area weight | 10% of the national portion |
| Exam portion | National salesperson portion |
| Source edition | PSI Georgia Candidate Information Bulletin dated July 1, 2026 |
The Rule
PSI publishes the weight for the complete content area, not a fixed question count for this lesson. Learn the rule well enough to apply it when PSI changes names, numbers, or parties in a new scenario.
The lesson
Easements
An appurtenant easement benefits a dominant parcel and burdens a servient parcel. An easement in gross benefits a person or organization rather than another parcel.
Creation and termination
Easements can arise by express grant or reservation, implication, necessity, or prescription. They may end by release, merger, abandonment where legally sufficient, expiration, or loss of necessity.
License and encroachment
A license gives permission without creating the same land interest. An encroachment is a structure or improvement crossing a boundary.
Adverse possession
Possession must satisfy the jurisdiction's required qualities and statutory period. Mere occupancy or a boundary mistake does not automatically transfer title.
Other title issues
Leases, probate claims, mineral rights, air rights, and water rights can affect possession, use, or what the owner can convey.
Severed property rights
A deed can reserve or separately convey mineral, subsurface, air, or water-related rights within the applicable law. Owning the surface does not automatically establish ownership of every severed right. Review title instruments, access rights, recorded reservations, and legal restrictions before promising a permitted use.
Decision rule
Georgia-specific distinction
Worked example
Scenario. A garage built by one owner extends two feet across the recorded boundary onto the neighbor's parcel.
Reason it through. The physical improvement intrudes across the line. No facts establish permission, a granted use right, or completed adverse possession.
Answer. The condition is an encroachment and warrants survey and title review.
Common exam traps
- Calling a license an ownership interest
- Confusing an easement with possession
- Assuming every path is public
- Treating occupancy as completed adverse possession
Original practice questions with detailed explanations
These questions were written for instruction and mapped to the current outline. They are not copied from PSI or any live examination. Choose an answer before opening the explanation.
Question 1A recorded deed gives the owner of Lot A the right to cross Lot B on a driveway to reach the road. How is this interest classified?
- A. An easement in gross held by Lot A's owner
- B. An easement appurtenant benefiting Lot A
- C. A license that Lot B's owner may revoke
- D. An encroachment onto Lot B
Show answer and explanation →
Answer: B. An easement appurtenant benefiting Lot A
An appurtenant easement benefits a dominant parcel, here Lot A, and burdens a servient parcel, Lot B. Easement in gross is wrong because that kind benefits a person or organization rather than another parcel.
- A. Incorrect. An easement in gross benefits a person or entity rather than another parcel.
- B. Correct. Lot A is the dominant estate; the driveway right benefits that land and burdens Lot B.
- C. Incorrect. A recorded easement is an interest in land, unlike a generally revocable personal permission.
- D. Incorrect. An encroachment is an unauthorized intrusion; the deed authorizes this crossing.
Question 2A homeowner tells a neighbor, 'You can fish in my pond this summer.' What does the neighbor hold?
- A. A license, which is generally revocable
- B. An easement appurtenant
- C. An easement by prescription
- D. An easement in gross
Show answer and explanation →
Answer: A. A license, which is generally revocable
A license is permission that is generally revocable and does not create an interest in land. Prescription looks plausible, but a prescriptive easement comes from long use without permission, and here the owner gave permission.
- A. Correct. The owner gave permission, not a permanent interest in the land, so this is generally a revocable license.
- B. Incorrect. An appurtenant easement benefits a dominant parcel; the facts establish only personal permission.
- C. Incorrect. Permissive use is not adverse use and does not establish prescription.
- D. Incorrect. An easement in gross is a property right; permission to fish does not by itself grant one.
Question 3In Georgia, a person has openly and exclusively occupied a strip of a neighbor's land for 12 years with no deed or other written claim. Can the occupant claim title by adverse possession?
- A. Yes, the Georgia period is 10 years
- B. Yes, 7 years of open use is enough
- C. No, Georgia does not allow adverse possession
- D. No, 20 years is needed without color of title
Show answer and explanation →
Answer: D. No, 20 years is needed without color of title
In Georgia, adverse possession requires 20 years, or 7 years under color of title, along with the other required elements. The 7-year option looks plausible, but that shorter period needs color of title, such as a defective deed, which this occupant does not have.
- A. Incorrect. Georgia does not use a general ten-year period for adverse possession of land.
- B. Incorrect. Seven years requires qualifying written color of title as well as the other statutory elements.
- C. Incorrect. Georgia recognizes adverse possession when its statutory requirements are satisfied.
- D. Correct. Without written color of title, the land-possession period is twenty years; twelve years is too short.
Question 4The recorded deed to the seller reserved the mineral rights to a prior owner. The proposed sale conveys only the seller's surface interest. The buyer plans to mine gravel commercially. What should the agent do?
- A. Assure the buyer that surface ownership includes every mineral
- B. Flag the reserved rights and obtain title and legal review before promising extraction rights
- C. Treat the mineral reservation as a zoning variance
- D. Say a mining permit would erase the reservation
Show answer and explanation →
Answer: B. Flag the reserved rights and obtain title and legal review before promising extraction rights
Separate ownership rights can limit the buyer's intended use. Title and legal review must identify what the buyer can acquire and what approvals are also needed.
- A. Incorrect. The deed expressly separates the mineral interest from the interest conveyed.
- B. Correct. The intended extraction calls for checking the reservation, ownership, access, and required approvals.
- C. Incorrect. A private title reservation is not dimensional zoning relief.
- D. Incorrect. A public permit does not automatically convey private mineral rights.
Question 5A title review confirms that a separately owned air-space interest above a parcel is excluded from the seller's surface title. A buyer obtains zoning approval for a taller building. What remains unresolved?
- A. Whether zoning approval automatically transfers the excluded air-space interest
- B. Whether the buyer can acquire or obtain permission to use the separately owned interest
- C. Whether the new zoning classification makes the prior deed reservation expire
- D. Whether recording the surface deed removes the separate ownership
Show answer and explanation →
Answer: B. Whether the buyer can acquire or obtain permission to use the separately owned interest
Public permission and private ownership are separate questions. The title facts expressly exclude the air-space interest from this sale. The buyer needs appropriate title and legal review of acquisition or permission, as well as the public approvals for construction.
- A. Incorrect. Zoning approval does not itself convey the privately owned interest; the premise should not be assumed.
- B. Correct. The excluded private interest must be resolved before treating the proposed building rights as available.
- C. Incorrect. A zoning change does not, by itself, extinguish the stated private ownership.
- D. Incorrect. Recording a deed to the surface does not enlarge the interest that the seller can convey.
Question 6A Georgia buyer wants to withdraw water commercially from a stream beside the land. The seller offers informal permission, but no one has checked the buyer's water rights or EPD permit requirements. What is the appropriate next step?
- A. Treat adjacency to the stream as authority for any withdrawal volume
- B. Treat the seller's permission as a substitute for all required public permits
- C. Confirm the private rights and applicable withdrawal approvals before relying on the proposed use
- D. Treat a withdrawal permit as a deed conveying every private water right
Show answer and explanation →
Answer: C. Confirm the private rights and applicable withdrawal approvals before relying on the proposed use
A proposed water use can raise both property-right and public-permitting questions. The facts establish neither the buyer's full private entitlement nor any necessary regulatory approval. Check both before promising that the planned use is allowed.
- A. Incorrect. Being next to a stream does not establish unlimited withdrawal authority.
- B. Incorrect. A seller cannot waive the government's applicable permitting requirements by private permission.
- C. Correct. Title and legal review address private rights; EPD is the relevant Georgia route for checking withdrawal permitting.
- D. Incorrect. Regulatory permission and ownership are different matters; a permit should not be treated as a conveyance of every private right.
Ready to move on?
You are ready for the next lesson when all of these are true.
- Explain Easements, Rights of Way, Licenses, Encroachments, and Adverse Possession in one clear answer without notes.
- Separate Easements from Creation and termination using a fresh example.
- Apply the decision rule to a new fact pattern and name the fact that controls the result.
- State the Georgia-specific point or explain why the national rule applies unchanged.
- Answer every practice question and explain the rule each rejected option misapplies.
- Revisit this topic later in mixed practice without category labels.
Recommended next lesson
Continue with Sole, Co-Ownership, Common-Interest, Trust, Entity, and Life Estates. Sole, Co-Ownership, Common-Interest, Trust, Entity, and Life Estates moves from interests other people hold in your land to how owners themselves hold title, including why Georgia co-owners have no survivorship unless the deed says so.
Return to the Property Ownership hub to see every official branch and the complete lesson sequence for this content area.