Defined term
Prescriptive easement
A prescriptive easement is a right to use another's land — typically for access — acquired through open, continuous, and hostile use for the statutory period.
A prescriptive easement gives the possessor a right to use the land but does not transfer ownership. It shares most elements with adverse possession — open, notorious, continuous, hostile use for the statutory period — but the user acquires only a usage right, typically for access, drainage, or utilities.
Alabama's prescriptive period is 20 years. Florida's is also 20 years for most prescriptive-easement claims (though the case law is fact-intensive). The doctrine is most often invoked in landlocked-parcel access disputes and shared-driveway cases.
Worked exampleA Daphne property owner has driven across the neighbor's land to reach his boat slip for 25 years. The neighbor never objected. The first owner has a colorable prescriptive easement for ingress and egress, even though he does not own the strip.