License

Key Takeaways

• A license is permission to use another person's land for a specific purpose, and it creates no interest in the land itself.
• A license can be created by spoken permission, while an easement conveys an interest in real estate and in Washington must be by deed (RCW 64.04.010).
• In Washington, a license is revocable by the owner who granted it, which is the sharpest line between a license and an easement.
• A license leaves possession and control with the owner, so it does not create a leasehold the way a lease does.

What It Means

A license in property law is permission to enter or use someone else's land for a stated purpose, given while the owner keeps possession and control. The examples are everyday ones: a neighbor who says you may park in the driveway, a landowner who lets a hunting club onto a field for the season, a ticket that lets you sit in a theater seat for two hours. In each case the holder receives permission to do one specific thing, not a piece of the property.

Three features follow from that. A license creates no interest in the land, so it is not an Encumbrance on the owner's title. A license can be created informally, including by spoken permission, because nothing is being conveyed. And a license is revocable, so the owner can withdraw the permission.

That is why students meet this term next to Easement. An easement is an interest in real property, created in writing and usually recorded. A license is personal permission that the owner controls. Watch the context too, because in a real estate course the same word also names the credential the state issues to a broker.

How It Works in Washington

The practical test is whether an interest in land changed hands, and Washington answers it in one sentence. In Washington, RCW 64.04.010 requires that every conveyance of real estate, or any interest in it, and every contract creating or evidencing an encumbrance on real estate, be by deed. An easement is an interest in real property, so it has to clear that bar. A license conveys no interest, so it never reaches RCW 64.04.010, and that is why spoken permission is enough to create one.

Recording is the second half of the difference. Under Washington's RCW 65.08.070, an acknowledged conveyance may be recorded in the county where the property sits, and an unrecorded conveyance is void against a later good faith purchaser for value who records first. A deeded easement recorded that way shows up in the Preliminary Title Report and binds the next owner. A spoken license produces no instrument at all, so a title search finds nothing, and a buyer who assumed the seller's handshake arrangement would continue can watch it disappear. When continued use matters to a client, the answer is a written easement, not permission.

The statutes cited above are Washington's. The line between a license and an easement is drawn in every state, but the conveyance statute, and in some states the rule on when a license stops being revocable, differ by jurisdiction. Confirm the controlling statute for the state you are licensed in.

Example

Dana owns a 5-acre parcel in Yakima County. Her neighbor Luis asks whether he can drive across the north edge to reach his barn, and Dana says yes over the fence. Luis uses the track for six years. That arrangement is a license: no deed, no recording, no interest in Dana's land.

Dana sells the parcel for $410,000. The preliminary title report lists two recorded easements, a utility easement along the road and a 20-foot access easement serving a different neighbor, and says nothing about Luis, because there was never an instrument to record. The new owner fences the north edge and Luis loses his route. Had Luis paid Dana $5,000 for an access easement granted by deed under RCW 64.04.010 and recorded under RCW 65.08.070, the right would have appeared in that title report and survived the sale.

Common Mistakes and Exam Traps

• A license is not an easement. An easement is an interest in real property; a license is permission only and creates no interest.
• A license does not have to be in writing. Washington's deed requirement in RCW 64.04.010 reaches conveyances of an interest in real estate, and a license conveys none.
• The word license has two meanings in a real estate course: this land-use permission, and the credential the state issues to a broker. Read the question to see which one is being tested.
• If the holder gets exclusive possession for a term, the question is describing a lease, not a license. A license leaves possession with the owner.