Pennsylvania Easement and Eminent Domain Laws (2026)

In Pennsylvania, a prescriptive easement generally takes 21 years of adverse, open, notorious, continuous and uninterrupted use, a period that comes from court decisions (Walley v. Iraca, Pa. Super. 1987). On the eminent domain side, Act 34 of 2006 added 26 Pa.C.S. § 204, which prohibits taking private property in order to use it for private enterprise, subject to listed exceptions for utilities, common carriers, blighted property, roads and several other uses.

This page covers both halves of Pennsylvania law: easements between private landowners first, then the government's power to take private property. For other states, see our guide to easement laws by state.

Information last verified on October 19, 2026. This article has not been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Jurisdiction scope: This article addresses Pennsylvania law on private easements (appellate case law, the Private Road Act and its 2021 maintenance amendment, the recording act and the Conservation and Preservation Easements Act) and on condemnation of private property (Pa. Const. art. I, § 10 and art. X, § 4; the Eminent Domain Code, 26 Pa.C.S.; and 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 5527, 5527.1 and 5530). It does not address adverse possession of title (see Pennsylvania squatters' rights and adverse possession), covenants in homeowners' associations, zoning or regulatory takings, federal condemnation, or local ordinances.

Prescriptive Easements in Pennsylvania: The 21-Year Rule

A prescriptive easement is a right to keep using another person's land, such as a driveway or path, that arises from long use rather than from a deed. The Superior Court stated the rule in Walley v. Iraca (1987):

"A prescriptive easement is created by (1) adverse, (2) open, (3) notorious, (4) continuous and uninterrupted use for a period of twenty-one (21) years."

The same opinion adds that "the party asserting the easement must demonstrate the above elements by proof that is clear and positive." The elements and the 21-year period come from case law; the limitation sections for land, 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 5527.1 and 5530, address actions for the possession of real property and title by adverse possession.

Prescriptive easements and adverse possession are different

Adverse possession gives title to land, while a prescriptive easement gives only a right of use. Under 42 Pa.C.S. § 5530(a)(1), an action for the possession of real property must be commenced within 21 years, "except as provided in section 5527.1 (relating to ten year limitation)." Section 5527.1 is a 10-year track for a judgment granting title by adverse possession, and it states that such a judgment "shall not, in and of itself: (i) discharge, terminate or give rise to a presumption of satisfaction or release of any interest in the property that runs with title to the property, including, but not limited to, easements." For the title rules, see Pennsylvania squatters' rights and adverse possession.

Permission and Preventing a Prescriptive Easement

In Pennsylvania, permission is the central defense to a prescriptive easement claim. Walley holds that "a landowner has the burden of proving the defense that the use of the alleged easement was under a grant of permission, contract, or special license," but that this burden "does not arise until the alleged easement holder has met his or her burden of proof that the use was adverse, open, notorious, and continuous for an uninterrupted period of twenty-one years."

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court put it the same way in Keefer v. Jones (1976): "The burden of showing a use began on a permissive basis is on the servient owner." An owner who allows a neighbor to cross under a written agreement or license therefore has the kind of evidence these cases describe.

A statute adds a second limit. The Act of 1850, as quoted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Martin v. Sun Pipe Line Co. (1995), provides: "No right of way shall be hereafter acquired by user, where such way passes through uninclosed woodland; but on clearing such woodland, the owner or owners thereof shall be at liberty to enclose the same, as if no such way had been used through the same before such clearing or inclosure." The court held that "the acquisition of a prescriptive easement through unenclosed woodland is strictly prohibited by 68 P.S. § 411."

Landlocked Property: Easement by Necessity and the Private Road Act

Pennsylvania offers two different routes for land with no road access: a common-law easement by necessity, which a court implies from the history of a property split, and a statutory petition under the Private Road Act, which works like a taking.

Easement by necessity

In Burns Mfg. Co. v. Boehm (1976), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, quoting its earlier decision in Bodman v. Bodman, explained that a right-of-way by necessity may be implied when "after severance from adjoining property, a piece of land is without access to a public highway." The court added that such an easement "can arise only upon a showing of 'reasonable necessity'" and "is not dependent upon a prior use of the land in an open, continuous and permanent manner."

Easement implied from prior use

Burns also applied a separate rule, quoting the court's earlier decision in Tosh v. Witts: "where an owner of land subjects part of it to an open, visible, permanent and continuous servitude or easement in favor of another part and then aliens either, the purchaser takes subject to the burden or the benefit as the case may be, and this irrespective of whether or not the easement constituted a necessary right of way." This easement turns on the visible use that existed when the land was divided, not on necessity.

The Private Road Act

The Private Road Act (36 P.S. § 2731 et seq.) lets landowners petition for a road "from their respective lands or leaseholds to a highway or place of necessary public resort, or to any private way leading to a highway," as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court quoted it in 2019. If the viewers report that the road is necessary, the court directs its breadth, "and thenceforth such road shall be deemed and taken to be a lawful private road."

As the Supreme Court described the Act in In re O'Reilly (2010), the owner of landlocked property petitions the court of common pleas for a board of viewers to evaluate the necessity of a private road to the nearest public thoroughfare or to a private way leading to one. The Act requires the landlocked owner to pay damages to the persons over whose property the road is built, and that owner is then afforded exclusive use of the road.

Under the Act's own text, no private road may be opened "before the damages shall be fully paid" (§ 16), its breadth "shall not in any case exceed twenty-five feet" (§ 5), the petitioners pay the expense of the view (§ 54), and the road is opened, fenced and kept in repair at the expense of the owner who requested it (§ 15(a)). Another person may petition to share the road by paying the sums the court sets, the landowner may apply for leave to hang gates across it (§§ 13, 17), and a court may change or vacate a road that has become "useless, inconvenient or burthensome" (§ 18).

Limits after O'Reilly and Adams v. Corl

In O'Reilly, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court treated the opening of a private road under the Act as a taking and held that "the public must be the primary and paramount beneficiary of the taking." The court vacated the Commonwealth Court's order and remanded the case "for further review consistent with this opinion." It did not strike down the Private Road Act.

In Adams v. Corl (2019), the Supreme Court held that the petitioners "have not demonstrated necessity as a matter of law based on their contemplated future use of their property, when, as in accordance with the Act, necessity must be based on the existing use of the property," and it reversed. A concurring opinion in that case, not the majority, observed that "The O'Reilly Court stopped short of declaring the Act unconstitutional," and that the circumstances in which an opening would be constitutional "appear tightly circumscribed."

Who Maintains a Shared Private Road

Section 15(a) of the General Road Law of 1836 places the cost of opening, fencing and repairing a private road on the owner at whose request it was laid out. Act 75 of 2021 amended section 15 to add a contribution rule:

"Each property owner that shares a common benefit from a private road shall contribute in proportion to the amount of the private road utilized to the cost of maintaining the private road at the current level of improvement and shall have the right to bring a civil action to enforce the requirement of this section."

The section does not apply "to a private road subject to a written maintenance agreement, a private road established by the Commonwealth or by a municipality entitled to the exception provided under 26 Pa.C.S. 204(b)(9)," or to a private road within a common interest ownership community under Title 68.

Moving an Easement

The Superior Court has said that "It is generally true that easements may not be modified, changed, altered, or relocated without the consent of both the dominant and servient estates" (Soderberg v. Weisel, 1997). Prescriptive easements are treated differently: the court found "no per se prohibition against a landowner relocating a prescriptive easement unless such action completely denies the easement holder the intended use of the original easement," and indicated it would permit relocation "where the resulting easement is as safe as the original location, the relocation results in a relatively minor change, and landowner's reasons for moving the easement are substantial."

Recorded, Conservation and Utility Easements

An easement granted in a deed or other written instrument depends on recording for protection against later buyers. Pennsylvania's recording act, as quoted by the Supreme Court in MERSCORP v. Delaware County (2019), provides that an instrument not acknowledged or proved and recorded "shall be adjudged fraudulent and void as to any subsequent bona fide purchaser or mortgagee or holder of any judgment ... without actual or constructive notice unless such deed, conveyance, contract, or instrument of writing shall be recorded, as aforesaid, before the recording of the deed or conveyance or the entry of the judgment" (21 P.S. § 351). To look up what is recorded against a parcel, see Pennsylvania property records.

Under the Conservation and Preservation Easements Act (Act 29 of 2001), "a conservation or preservation easement may be created, conveyed, recorded, assigned, released, modified, terminated or otherwise altered or affected in the same manner as other easements," except as the Act provides otherwise. Except as section 5(c) of the Act provides (a court's power to modify or terminate such an easement), a conservation or preservation easement created after the Act took effect may be perpetual "but in no event shall be for a duration of less than 25 years."

For electric cooperatives, 68 Pa.C.S. § 8202 allows broadband facilities in an existing easement the cooperative owns, holds or uses, and, except as subsection (b) provides, the attachment "shall not constitute a change to the physical use of the easement, interfere with or impair any vested rights of the property owner subject to the easement or place an additional burden on the property or interests of the owner."

How an Easement Ends: Abandonment

Rarely using an easement does not by that fact end it. In Piper v. Mowris (1976), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court applied this rule:

"Pennsylvania law requires that there be a showing of intent of the owner of the dominent tenement to abandon the easement, coupled with either (1) adverse possession by the owner of the servient tenement; or (2) affirmative acts by the owner of the easement that renders the use of the easement impossible; or (3) obstruction of the easement by the owner of the easement in a manner that is inconsistent with its further enjoyment."

The court noted that the easement "was seldom used," and held that "that alone does not indicate his intent to abandon." Separately, as noted above, a 10-year adverse possession judgment under 42 Pa.C.S. § 5527.1 does not, in and of itself, discharge an easement.

Eminent Domain in Pennsylvania

Eminent domain is the power to take private property for public use with payment. For every state and the federal rules, see our guide to eminent domain laws by state. Pennsylvania's Constitution, art. I, § 10, provides that private property shall not "be taken or applied to public use, without authority of law and without just compensation being first made or secured."

A second clause reaches damage as well as takings, for corporations that hold the power. Article X, § 4 provides: "Municipal and other corporations invested with the privilege of taking private property for public use shall make just compensation for property taken, injured or destroyed by the construction or enlargement of their works, highways or improvements and compensation shall be paid or secured before the taking, injury or destruction."

The Eminent Domain Code, Title 26 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, "provides a complete and exclusive procedure and law to govern all condemnations of property for public purposes and the assessment of damages" (26 Pa.C.S. § 102(a)).

At the federal level, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Kelo v. City of New London (2005) that a taking under an economic development plan satisfied the Fifth Amendment's public use requirement, while stressing that "nothing in our opinion precludes any State from placing further restrictions on its exercise of the takings power." For federally assisted projects, the acquiring agency must give assurances that it will be guided, "to the greatest extent practicable under State law," by the federal Uniform Relocation Act's land acquisition policies (42 U.S.C. § 4655(a)).

Pennsylvania's Ban on Takings for Private Enterprise

Pennsylvania answered Kelo with Act 34 of 2006. Section 204(a) of the Eminent Domain Code provides: "Except as set forth in subsection (b), the exercise by any condemnor of the power of eminent domain to take private property in order to use it for private enterprise is prohibited." A "private enterprise" is "A for-profit or not-for-profit entity or organization," excluding an institution of purely public charity (26 Pa.C.S. § 202).

Section 204(b) lists the exceptions. They include:

• the condemnee consents, or the condemnee "does not file or does not prevail on preliminary objection filed to a declaration of taking";
• the property is taken by, or transferred or leased to, a public utility or railroad as defined in 66 Pa.C.S. § 102, a common carrier, or a private enterprise that occupies an incidental area within a public project, to the extent the party has the power of eminent domain;
• a threat to public health or safety on or associated with the property;
• abandoned property;
• property that meets the blight requirements of § 205;
• property used for a road, street or highway, for access to a public thoroughfare for property that would otherwise be inaccessible as a result of eminent domain, or for ingress, egress or parking of motor vehicles;
• property acquired under section 12.1 of the Urban Redevelopment Law, for low-income and mixed-income housing projects under the Housing Authorities Law or the federal and state housing programs the section lists, or to remove blight within a former military facility in a county of the second class A.

The first exception is a practical trap: the ban does not protect an owner who does not file, or does not prevail on, preliminary objections within the deadline described below.

Section 205(b) limits when a single property may be declared blighted for acquisition by eminent domain. The listed conditions include a premises regarded as a public nuisance at common law, an unoccupied property that has been tax delinquent for two years, and a property having three or more of the characteristics the section lists.

The courts apply their own public-purpose test. In Middletown Township v. Lands of Stone (2007), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court repeated that "a taking will be seen as having a public purpose only where the public is to be the primary and paramount beneficiary of its exercise," and held that the stated purpose must be "real and fundamental, not post-hoc or pre-textual."

Who Can Condemn: Utilities, Pipelines and Other Condemnors

A "condemnor" under chapter 2 of the Code is any of the following authorized by law to exercise eminent domain: the Commonwealth or its agencies and authorities, a political subdivision, a public utility as defined in 66 Pa.C.S. § 102, a private entity, and an electrical cooperative corporation (26 Pa.C.S. § 202). A public utility corporation has the right to condemn property for "The transportation of artificial or natural gas, electricity, petroleum or petroleum products or water or any combination of such substances for the public" (15 Pa.C.S. § 1511(a)(2)), in addition to powers under other statutes.

Several approval layers protect particular land:

• Land in another municipality. No political subdivision may condemn land in another political subdivision "without the approval by resolution of the governing body of the political subdivision in which the land is situated" (26 Pa.C.S. § 206(a)).
• Farmland. Approval by the Agricultural Lands Condemnation Approval Board is required before a Commonwealth agency, political subdivision or municipal authority takes agricultural property under § 204(b)(3) or § 205 (26 Pa.C.S. § 207(a)).
• Land under a conservation easement. Except as subsection (g) provides, no political subdivision, authority, public utility or other body with eminent domain powers may condemn land subject to a conservation easement for any purpose without prior approval from the orphans' court of the county where the land is located (26 Pa.C.S. § 208(a)). Approval is not required for an underground public utility facility that does not permanently impact the open space benefits the easement protects, for a public utility facility or other project subject to federal approval whose necessity and environmental effects have been reviewed and ratified or approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, for emergency projects, or for condemnations by a Commonwealth agency (§ 208(a), (g)). Section 208 was added by Act 45 of 2018 and applies to declarations of taking filed after December 31, 2017.

How a Pennsylvania Condemnation Works

1. Entry before the taking. When a condemnor enters land under 26 Pa.C.S. § 309, the owner or the party in whose name the property is assessed must be notified ten days before entry, and the condemnor must pay any actual damages the entry causes.
2. Declaration of taking. Condemnation is effected only by filing a declaration of taking in court with the required security, and title passes to the condemnor on the date of filing. The condemnor must file within one year of the action authorizing the declaration (26 Pa.C.S. § 302).
3. Notice. Within 30 days after filing, the condemnor must give written notice to the condemnee, any mortgagee of record and any lienholder of record (26 Pa.C.S. § 305(a)).
4. Preliminary objections. The condemnee may file preliminary objections within 30 days after being served with notice; the court may extend the time on cause shown (26 Pa.C.S. § 306(a)).
5. Possession. The Eminent Domain Code contains no section requiring the condemnor to give the owner an appraisal before filing. After the objection period expires, the condemnor is entitled to possession or right of entry upon payment of, or a written offer to pay, its estimated just compensation; for an easement, a condemnor with the right to assess the property for benefits may take possession without that payment or offer (§ 307(a)(1)(ii)), and a court may issue a writ of possession before preliminary objections are decided (§ 307(a)(2)). If the condemnor has not paid within 60 days from the filing of the declaration, the condemnee may tender possession in writing, and the condemnor must then pay its estimate (26 Pa.C.S. § 307).
6. Viewers. The condemnor, condemnee or a displaced person may petition for the appointment of viewers, who assess damages (26 Pa.C.S. § 502(a)).
7. Appeal and jury. A viewers' report becomes final unless an appeal is filed within 30 days from the date it is filed, and an unappealed award becomes a final judgment (26 Pa.C.S. §§ 514(b), 516(a)(3)). An appellant who wants a jury must endorse the appeal or file a written demand when filing it, another party may demand a jury within 15 days after service of the appeal, and if no party demands one the right is waived (§ 517(a)(5), (b)). Any other party may cross-appeal within 15 days of the first appeal (§ 516(c)).

A condemnor may also relinquish the property by filing a declaration of relinquishment within two years from the filing of the declaration of taking, before making the payment under § 307 (or as to property the owner has not tendered under § 307), and only as to property it has not taken actual possession of for use in the improvement (26 Pa.C.S. § 308(a)).

Deadlines and Traps for Owners

The six-year rules for petitions for viewers come from Act 34 of 2006, which provided that the amendment of § 5527 applies only to causes of action accruing after its effective date.

Two of these steps carry a waiver. Section 306(b) provides: "Failure to raise by preliminary objections the issues listed in subsection (a) shall constitute a waiver. Issues of compensation may not be raised by preliminary objections." The issues preliminary objections must raise include "The power or right of the condemnor to appropriate the condemned property unless it has been previously adjudicated." And a viewers' award not appealed within 30 days becomes final. The six-year statute is covered with other filing periods in Pennsylvania's statute of limitations.

How Just Compensation Is Calculated

Section 702(a) of the Code sets the measure:

"Just compensation shall consist of the difference between the fair market value of the condemnee's entire property interest immediately before the condemnation and as unaffected by the condemnation and the fair market value of the property interest remaining immediately after the condemnation and as affected by the condemnation."

Fair market value is "the price which would be agreed to by a willing and informed seller and buyer," taking into account factors that include the present use of the property and its highest and best reasonably available use (26 Pa.C.S. § 703). In a partial taking, future damages and general benefits that affect the entire community beyond the abutting properties are not considered in the after value, and special benefits to the remainder "shall in no event exceed the total damages," except where the condemnor may make special assessments for benefits (26 Pa.C.S. § 706(b), (c)).

Other items the Code adds:

• Damage without a taking. All condemnors, including the Commonwealth, are liable for damages to property abutting an improvement from a change of grade of a road or highway, permanent interference with access, or injury to surface support, "whether or not any property is taken" (26 Pa.C.S. § 714).
• Delay compensation. Interest for delay in payment runs at the prime rate listed in the first Wall Street Journal edition of the year plus 1%, not compounded, from the date the condemnee gives up possession or, if possession is not required, from the date of condemnation (26 Pa.C.S. § 713(a)).
• Closing costs. An acquiring agency reimburses recording fees, transfer taxes and similar conveyance expenses, prepayment penalties on a preexisting recorded mortgage, and the pro rata share of real property taxes paid (26 Pa.C.S. § 708).
• Increased mortgage costs. An owner whose mortgage or installment contract is terminated by the acquisition, and who does not qualify for a payment under § 903(a)(2), is compensated for increased interest and other debt service costs of financing the replacement property, if the debt was a valid lien for at least 180 days before negotiations began (26 Pa.C.S. § 711).
• Lost rent before the taking. An owner may recover special damages for a reduction in rental income substantially due to general knowledge of the coming condemnation, only for losses after a 60-day period following written notice to the acquiring agency, and up to $30,000 in total (26 Pa.C.S. § 712).

Relocation and Business Payments

The Eminent Domain Code adds no percentage bonus for an owner-occupied home; beyond fair market value, its chapter 9 provides relocation payments. A displaced person who owned and occupied a dwelling for not less than 90 days before the initiation of negotiations or the receipt of written notice of intent to acquire or order to vacate may receive an additional replacement housing payment "not in excess of $31,000," paid only if the person buys and occupies a decent, safe and sanitary replacement dwelling within the one-year period the section sets (26 Pa.C.S. § 903(a)(1), (b)). A displaced tenant's rental assistance covers a comparable replacement dwelling for up to 42 months, "but not more than $7,200" (26 Pa.C.S. § 904(a)(1)).

A person displaced from a place of business or a farm operation is entitled, in addition to payments under § 902(a), to dislocation damages, and may instead elect "an amount not to exceed $12,000," which requires at least 60 days' written notice to the acquiring agency (26 Pa.C.S. § 902(b)(2)). A displaced business or farm may also receive actual reasonable expenses in searching for a replacement, and reestablishment expenses for a farm, nonprofit organization or small business "not to exceed $25,000" (§ 902(b)(3), (4)). Where the business cannot be relocated without a substantial loss of profits and is not part of a larger commercial enterprise as the section describes, it may receive a payment equal to average annual net earnings, "not more than $60,000 nor less than $3,000" (§ 902(b)(5)).

Attorney Fees and Costs

Pennsylvania reimburses an owner's reasonable appraisal, attorney and engineering fees and other costs in these situations:

• preliminary objections "which have the effect of terminating the condemnation are sustained" (26 Pa.C.S. § 306(g)(1));
• the condemnor relinquishes the property (26 Pa.C.S. § 308(d));
• the owner obtains a judgment awarding compensation in a proceeding the owner started under § 502(c) for a taking without a declaration (26 Pa.C.S. § 709);
• a condemnation is finally determined invalid after a court granted early possession, outside the utility right-of-way cases the section treats separately (26 Pa.C.S. § 307(a)(2)(ii));
• the condemnor tries to avoid paying monetary just compensation by using a substitute, and the owner incurs expenses securing an adjudication that the substitute is not adequate (26 Pa.C.S. § 716).

Section 710(a) provides that the owner of an interest in real property acquired or injured by an acquiring agency (any entity with the power of eminent domain), who is not eligible for reimbursement under § 306(g), § 308(d) or § 709, "shall be reimbursed in an amount not to exceed $4,000 per property, regardless of right, title or interest," toward reasonable appraisal, attorney and engineering fees actually incurred, "except where the taking is for an easement related to underground piping for water or sewer infrastructure, in which case the reimbursement is limited to $1,000."

Inverse Condemnation

When property is taken or damaged without a declaration of taking, the owner may file a petition for the appointment of viewers "setting forth the factual basis of the petition" (26 Pa.C.S. § 502(c)(1)). The petition must be filed within six years from the date the taking, injury or destruction occurred or could reasonably have been discovered (42 Pa.C.S. § 5527(a)(2)). A judgment awarding compensation in that proceeding includes reasonable appraisal, attorney and engineering fees and other costs actually incurred (26 Pa.C.S. § 709).

Buying Property Back if the Project Is Abandoned

Under 26 Pa.C.S. § 310, when a condemnor that condemned a fee abandons the purpose of the condemnation, property that "is undeveloped or has not been substantially improved" may not be disposed of within ten years after condemnation "without first being offered to the condemnee at the same price paid to the condemnee by the condemnor." For property devoted to agricultural use at the time of condemnation, the offer-back period is 21 years under the conditions in § 310(a)(2), and § 310(a)(3) restricts disposal for a nonpublic use or purpose within 21 years after condemnation on the terms it states. The former owner has 90 days after receipt of notice to accept in writing (§ 310(b)).

Recent Changes

• 2018: Act 45 added 26 Pa.C.S. § 208, requiring orphans' court approval before condemning land subject to a conservation easement, for declarations of taking filed after December 31, 2017.
• 2020: Act 98 added 68 Pa.C.S. chapter 82, letting electric cooperatives place broadband in existing easements.
• 2021: Act 75 added the private road maintenance contribution rule.

As of October 2026, the official text of the Eminent Domain Code shows no amendment since 2018, and the Private Road Act's most recent amendment is Act 75 of 2021.

Pennsylvania Easement and Eminent Domain Rules at a Glance

Related

• Easement laws by state
• Eminent domain laws by state
• Pennsylvania squatters' rights and adverse possession
• Pennsylvania property records
• Pennsylvania statute of limitations

This article provides general legal information about Pennsylvania easement and eminent domain law, not legal advice. For a specific situation, contact a lawyer licensed in Pennsylvania.

Last updated: October 19, 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to get a prescriptive easement in Pennsylvania?

Pennsylvania courts require 21 years of adverse, open, notorious, continuous and uninterrupted use, proved by clear and positive evidence (Walley v. Iraca, Pa. Super. 1987). The 21-year period comes from case law, and a statute bars acquiring a right of way by use through unenclosed woodland (68 P.S. § 411; Martin v. Sun Pipe Line Co., Pa. 1995).

Does Pennsylvania's 10-year adverse possession law apply to easements?

Section 5527.1 of Title 42 is a 10-year track for a judgment granting title by adverse possession, and the statute says such a judgment does not, in and of itself, discharge easements. The 21-year prescriptive-easement period comes from court decisions such as Walley v. Iraca.

What are the options for landlocked property in Pennsylvania?

Pennsylvania recognizes a common-law easement by necessity where, after severance from adjoining property, land is without access to a public highway, on a showing of reasonable necessity (Burns Mfg. Co. v. Boehm, Pa. 1976). The Private Road Act also lets an owner petition the court of common pleas for viewers, but the petitioner pays damages and, after In re O'Reilly (Pa. 2010), the public must be the primary and paramount beneficiary of the opening.

Is the Pennsylvania Private Road Act unconstitutional?

In In re O'Reilly (2010) the Pennsylvania Supreme Court did not strike down the Act; it held that a private road opening is a taking that must serve a public purpose, with the public as the primary and paramount beneficiary, and it vacated and remanded the case. A 2019 concurrence in Adams v. Corl noted that O'Reilly stopped short of declaring the Act unconstitutional.

Who pays to maintain a shared private road in Pennsylvania?

Under section 15 of the 1836 General Road Law as amended by Act 75 of 2021, each property owner that shares a common benefit from a private road contributes to the cost of maintaining it at its current level of improvement in proportion to the amount of the road used, and may sue to enforce that duty. The rule does not apply to a road covered by a written maintenance agreement, certain roads established by the Commonwealth or a municipality, or a private road within a common interest ownership community.

Can a landowner move an easement in Pennsylvania?

Generally an easement may not be relocated without the consent of both the dominant and servient owners. The Superior Court has indicated it would permit a servient owner to relocate a prescriptive easement where the new location is as safe as the original, the change is relatively minor and the owner's reasons are substantial (Soderberg v. Weisel, 1997).

Does not using an easement end it in Pennsylvania?

Not on its own. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Piper v. Mowris (1976) applied a rule requiring intent to abandon plus adverse possession by the servient owner, acts by the easement owner that make use impossible, or obstruction by the easement owner inconsistent with further enjoyment, and held that seldom use did not show intent to abandon.

Can Pennsylvania take my property for a private developer?

26 Pa.C.S. § 204(a) prohibits any condemnor from taking private property in order to use it for private enterprise. Section 204(b) lists exceptions, including takings for public utilities, railroads and common carriers, blighted property under § 205, abandoned property, threats to public health or safety, roads, and low-income and mixed-income housing projects, and the ban also does not apply when the owner consents or does not file or does not prevail on preliminary objections.

Can a pipeline company use eminent domain in Pennsylvania?

A public utility corporation may condemn property for the transportation of natural gas, electricity, petroleum or water for the public (15 Pa.C.S. § 1511(a)(2)). The private-enterprise ban in 26 Pa.C.S. § 204 does not apply to property taken by or transferred to a public utility or railroad as defined in 66 Pa.C.S. § 102 or a common carrier, to the extent it has the power of eminent domain.

How do you challenge an eminent domain taking in Pennsylvania?

The owner files preliminary objections to the declaration of taking within 30 days after being served with notice of condemnation; the court may extend that time on cause shown (26 Pa.C.S. § 306). Preliminary objections are the exclusive method of challenging the condemnor's power or right to take, issues not raised are waived, and compensation cannot be raised there.

How is just compensation calculated in Pennsylvania?

Just compensation is the difference between the fair market value of the owner's entire property interest immediately before the condemnation, as unaffected by it, and the fair market value of the remaining interest immediately after, as affected by it (26 Pa.C.S. § 702). Delay compensation runs at the prime rate plus 1%, not compounded (§ 713).

Does Pennsylvania pay attorney fees in eminent domain cases?

Reasonable appraisal, attorney and engineering fees are reimbursed when preliminary objections that end the condemnation are sustained (26 Pa.C.S. § 306(g)), when the condemnor relinquishes the property (§ 308(d)), and on a judgment in an owner-filed proceeding for a taking without a declaration (§ 709). Full reimbursement also applies in two other situations the Code lists (§§ 307(a)(2)(ii), 716). An owner not eligible under §§ 306(g), 308(d) or 709 receives limited reimbursement under § 710 of up to $4,000 per property, or $1,000 for an underground water or sewer piping easement.

What is the deadline to seek damages in a Pennsylvania condemnation?

Where a declaration of taking was filed, a petition for viewers generally must be filed within six years from the date the condemnor first made payment under 26 Pa.C.S. § 307(a) or (b), or from the filing of the declaration where no payment is required to obtain possession; where none was filed, within six years from when the taking, injury or destruction occurred or could reasonably have been discovered (42 Pa.C.S. § 5527(a)). A viewers' report becomes final unless an appeal is filed within 30 days from the date the report is filed (26 Pa.C.S. § 514(b)).