Transmission Easement
A distinct type of easement under Polish law benefiting a utility company that owns transmission infrastructure — power lines, gas pipelines, water or sewage mains, telecom cables — crossing or running under a plot of land.
Applies to Poland.
Definition
A transmission easement (służebność przesyłu) was introduced into the Civil Code by a 2008 amendment as Articles 305¹–305⁴, specifically to address utility infrastructure. Unlike an appurtenant easement, which benefits another plot of land, a transmission easement benefits the utility company itself (przedsiębiorca przesyłowy) directly — there is no "dominant estate," only an owner of pipelines, cables, or lines that physically cross the burdened property.
The easement can be established by agreement with the landowner in exchange for compensation, by a court ruling if the utility company and owner cannot agree, or — in many older cases — recognized as having already arisen through long, uninterrupted use of the infrastructure (acquisitive prescription), often for lines installed decades ago under a different legal regime without any formal agreement at all. It is entered in Section III of the land and mortgage register once formalized.
For an owner, a transmission easement typically restricts building or planting near the infrastructure within a defined safety strip, and gives the utility company a right of access for maintenance and repairs — restrictions a buyer needs to factor into any building plans for the plot.
Examples
A high-voltage power line has crossed a rural plot since the 1980s with no formal paperwork; the utility company and the current owner eventually sign an agreement establishing a transmission easement with one-time compensation.
A buyer planning to build a house on a plot discovers during due diligence that a gas pipeline easement runs through part of the land, and adjusts the building's planned location to respect the required safety strip.
How this affects buying and selling
Buyers evaluating a building plot should always check Section III of the register for transmission easements before finalizing house plans, since the safety strip around a pipeline or power line can significantly shrink the buildable area of an otherwise suitable plot. Owners with long-standing, undocumented utility infrastructure on their land can, in some cases, negotiate one-off compensation for formalizing an easement that has in practice existed for years.
