Buying a Home With Shared Access: Rights of Way and Title Checks

A route you can walk today is not enough to establish the access rights that come with a home. Before buying a property that depends on a shared lane, driveway or path, match the physical route to the title, plans and legal documents. Resolve any essential access question before committing to the purchase.

This guide concerns title-related easements over land registered under Singapore’s Land Titles Act. Public-road status, strata common-property rules, unregistered land and contractual licences can raise different questions. An estate map or a neighbour’s description should not be used to decide which legal arrangement applies.

Identify which land benefits and which land carries the burden

Section 94(1) of the Land Titles Act 1993 calls the land benefiting from an easement the dominant tenement, and the burdened land the servient tenement. Identify both lots, rather than describing the arrangement only by the street address or the current occupants.

SLA’s land-title search guidance explains the property information available through INLIS and cautions users to match an address with its lot number. Ask for the relevant title information and plans, together with the instrument or other basis said to create the right. A small map extract may omit the condition that matters to your use.

Read the right’s scope, not just its label

Under section 97(3), an instrument creating an easement must identify its nature, the extent of the burdened land, the benefiting land and any conditions, limitations or restrictions. Sections 97(5) and (6) address registration against the burdened title and notification against the benefiting title, with the stated notification exception.

For a buyer, the practical questions are specific: where is the permitted route, what use does it support, and what conditions apply? Do not assume a right described informally as access also permits parking, storage, widening a driveway or every vehicle you want to use. Have the actual wording explained against the proposed household use.

Prepare a marked plan showing the front gate, the part crossing another lot and the public road connection. Then write down the uses you need: ordinary pedestrian access, a family car, deliveries or access for someone with limited mobility. These are questions to test against the documents, not rights established by drawing the plan.

An empty title entry is not the end of the enquiry

Section 99(1), (1A) and (5) provides for specified implied easements connected with qualifying development and subdivision plans, enforceable without a memorial or notification. Its definitions, conditions and the historical exception in section 99(7) matter. A blank entry alone therefore does not establish that no relevant right exists.

The section 99(7) exception concerns certain estates approved before 1 March 1994 where the specified documentary evidence of an expressly created easement has been produced. Do not classify a home solely by its building’s apparent age. The subdivision history and documents need to be checked for the particular lots.

If an access claim relies on an implied easement, ask which provision and which plan support it. If it relies on permission from an owner, ask what the permission says and how a sale affects it. Section 95(2) treats licences separately from notified easements; the label should follow the legal documents, rather than the convenience of the present arrangement.

Include upkeep in the purchase decision

A right can be useful while still carrying obligations. Section 102 addresses contribution covenants in instruments creating easements and successors in title, subject to its terms and time limits. Section 99(3) and (4) separately addresses contributions for easements implied under that section. Neither is a universal rule that every neighbour splits every invoice equally.

Request the relevant wording, any current maintenance arrangement and records of work or disputes supplied by the seller. Separate an agreed recurring contribution from a proposed future resurfacing bill. If the division of a cost is uncertain, leave it unresolved in the budget rather than inventing a percentage.

Check what passes on sale and what would need changing

Section 101(1) provides for an appurtenant easement to pass on registration of a transfer or lease without express mention. Subsections (2) and (3) address part-transfers and severance. That does not turn every informal route used by a seller into an easement benefiting the purchaser.

For an invented example, a buyer plans to use a shared lane for a larger vehicle, but the documents supplied have not established the scope of access. The next step is to resolve that issue before treating the home as suitable, not to buy on the assumption that the neighbour will agree later.

If the intended use needs a change, section 105(1) provides for variation or release over registered land by an approved-form instrument. A proposed change is not an existing right. This guide does not determine a disputed easement or predict a court outcome.

Keep the access documents with the purchase file and use our conveyancing guide for the wider title and completion checks. For advice on the particular title or access arrangement, Lin Xuan or Ade can introduce property lawyers. The title question should be settled alongside the home’s practical suitability, not after the moving date is fixed.

Choa Chu Kang Way, photographed 31 October 2022. Photo: Wzhkevin, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized for web. Street context; no claim about title rights over the route shown. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Choa_Chu_Kang_Way_2.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.

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