What is "ingress" and "egress"?

What is "ingress" and "egress"?

Howard Gould (Neighbor Law Expert, Finestone & Richter) gives expert video advice on: What are "trespass" and "easement"?; Is trespassing a criminal act? and more...

Ingress is when you're going in, and egress is when you're coming out. So when we say ingress and egress, what we're talking about is a walkway, a roadway or a driveway - some means of getting in and out. One interesting thing about easements is that an easement is limited by it's own terms. So if you have an easement for ingress and egress - and those are the terms that will probably be in the easement - over your neighbor's property, that doesn't necessarily mean that you can then put your utilities in that easement. Your rights are defined in the terms of that easement, and generally you can't use the easement for other matters. For example, let's say you want to park your car there. Well, if that's going to interfere with somebody coming in and out, and that's not a right that's given in the easement itself, you may not be able to do that.