Text of the provision

Art. 693. If the owner of the servient estate should have bound himself, upon the establishment of the easement, to bear the cost of the work required for the use and preservation thereof, he may free himself from this obligation by renouncing his property to the owner of the dominant estate.

(599)

Civil Code of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 386, approved June 18, 1949, effective August 30, 1950. Reproduced in full; verified verbatim against the LawPhil and ChanRobles renderings and the Official Gazette, all three of which agree word for word.

What this article means

The last article of the chapter on voluntary easements, immediately before the Code turns to nuisance. If, when the easement was created, the owner of the servient estate bound himself to shoulder the cost of the work needed to use and preserve the easement, he is not locked into that promise forever: he may free himself of the obligation by renouncing his property in favor of the dominant estate's owner. It mirrors the general co-ownership rule that no one may be compelled to keep contributing to the upkeep of a burden except by giving up the corresponding right or interest.

Related provisions

Cases interpreting this article

Note. The text of the provision above is reproduced in full from the official enactment (Republic Act No. 386), verified against the LawPhil and ChanRobles renderings. The annotation and commentary around it are the work of Vivas & Nobles Law Office and are general legal information, not legal advice. How a provision applies to a particular situation depends on facts that only a lawyer reviewing your case can assess.