Encumbrance
An encumbrance is any registered burden on a property title (easement, covenant, mortgage, caveat, lease) that can constrain a build; a title search lists them all.
Ask Chalkline about this →An encumbrance is any right or liability registered against a property’s title that burdens the land. The common ones are an easement, a restrictive or positive covenant, a mortgage, a caveat, and a lease. Each can constrain what you build or how you deal with the land, and a title search lists every encumbrance against the lot with its instrument number.
The defining feature is that encumbrances run with the land: they bind future owners, not just the person who created them. The ones that most often affect a build are:
- Easements: a right over part of the land (for drainage, sewer, access, or a carriageway). You generally cannot build over an easement.
- Restrictive covenants: limits on use or built form, single-storey only, a materials restriction, a building line.
- Positive covenants: an obligation, such as maintaining a retaining wall or shared structure.
- Mortgages: the lender’s registered interest.
- Caveats: a claimed interest that freezes dealings until resolved.
For a builder the practical rule is to read the title and the referenced instruments before you design, not after. In NSW the detail of easements and covenants is in the section 88B instrument; elsewhere it is in the plan and the dealing. A sewer easement running through the building footprint, or a covenant banning a second storey, can kill a design outright. Build over an easement and you can be forced to remove the structure or pay to relocate the service, so resolve every encumbrance against your proposed footprint at feasibility, while you can still change the design cheaply.
Also known as: Title encumbrance, registered interest.
Category: Property / Title.
Related
See also
References
- Title search basics (Chalkline) (verified 2026-06-01)
Last updated: 2026-06-01. Verified: 2026-06-01. Quarterly review for currency.