Short answer. No. You keep ownership of the strip. An easement gives your neighbour a limited right to pass; it does not transfer the land. The Civil Code lets you continue using that portion yourself, provided your use does not interfere with the passage you granted.
What the law says
The owner of the servient estate retains the ownership of the portion on which the easement is established, and may use the same in such a manner as not to affect the exercise of the easement.
Civil Code, Article 630 — The Servient Owner Keeps Ownership. Read the full provision →
An easement is a burden, not a sale
This is the single most common misunderstanding in right-of-way disputes. The lot burdened by the easement is called the servient estate, and its owner remains the owner. What the neighbour acquires is a right of passage over your land — a limited real right — not a slice of the property. The strip stays in your name, stays on your title, and stays part of the area you are taxed on. When you eventually sell, you are selling the whole lot, subject to the easement, and not a lot reduced by the width of the path.
You may keep using the strip yourself
The second half of the article is the part landowners rarely realise they can rely on. You may use the burdened portion in such a manner as not to affect the exercise of the easement. So you may walk and drive over it, plant along its edges, run utility lines beneath it, or pave it. What you may not do is obstruct it: no gate that locks the neighbour out, no permanent structure across the path, no stacking of materials that makes passage impractical. The test is functional. If the neighbour can still pass as the easement allows, your own use is lawful.
The limits run both ways
The holder of the easement gets only what was granted — a particular width, in a particular place, for a particular kind of passage. He does not acquire a right to widen the path because he bought a larger vehicle, to park on it, to build on it, or to let it become a public thoroughfare. He is also generally the one who pays for the works needed to use and maintain it, unless the parties agreed otherwise. If the burdened owner later needs the easement moved, the Code contemplates that this can happen at his expense where the original location has become very inconvenient, provided the substitute is equally serviceable.
Put it in writing and annotate it
Because ownership does not change, no transfer of title occurs — but the easement should still be annotated on the certificate of title of the burdened lot. Annotation is what makes the arrangement visible to future buyers and lenders, and it protects both sides: the neighbour's right survives a sale of your property, and your ownership of the strip is on record rather than left to the memory of whoever paved it. A written grant should state the exact location and width, who bears maintenance, what kind of use is permitted, and what compensation was paid. Verbal arrangements between friendly neighbours are precisely the ones that turn into litigation a generation later, when the friendly neighbours are gone and their heirs each believe the strip is theirs.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- Sps. Bernabe Mercade, Jr., et al. vs. Sps. Jesus Bardillas and Letecia Gabuya Bardillas, G.R. No. 163157, June 27, 2016 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Hi-Lon Manufacturing, Inc. vs. Commission on Audit, G.R. No. 210669, August 1, 2017 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Bicol Agro-Industrial Producers Cooperative, inc. (BAPCI) vs. Edmundo O. Obias, et al, G.R. No. 172077, October 9, 2009 — read the decision on LawPhil →