Definition : Personal servitude

Charge imposed on an immovable, the servient land, in favor of one or several persons designated or identifiable. It is of limited duration, because it will expire when the term stipulated for its exercise occurs (for example, the servitude can be exercised for a maximum period of ten years) or, ultimately and in the absence of a specific term, when the person who benefits from it dies. Incidentally, there is therefore no dominant land. This charge obliges the owner of the servient land to tolerate certain acts of use or to abstain from exercising certain rights inherent to ownership.

Declarations of co-ownership sometimes include personal servitudes, such as a construction servitude that allows the developer of a real estate project to access the private or common portions of the immovable in order to finalize its development and construction, and that requires co-owners to tolerate the inconveniences resulting from this work.