Also known as: a prendre · profits à prendre · profit a prendre · profit à prendre
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
French phrase meaning 'to take,' used in the term 'profit à prendre' to identify a servitude that authorizes entry onto land and removal of timber, minerals, oil, gas, game, or other substances, as distinguished from a profit à rendre.
Patrick Phan granted Pinnacle Holdings a recorded right to enter his forested parcel each autumn and harvest marked cedar stands. After Phan sold the land to Prosperity Investments, the buyer attempted to bar entry. The court recognized the interest as a profit à prendre that binds successors because it authorizes entry plus removal of a natural resource.
Priscilla Parks executed a fifteen-year written agreement allowing Preston Pratt to enter her ranch each season and take designated game animals for a per-animal fee. When Parks sold the ranch, the new owner sought to revoke access. The interest qualifies as a profit à prendre because it combines entry with the right to remove a resource from the land.
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An ordinary easement grants only a right to enter and use land. A profit à prendre additionally authorizes removal of substances such as timber, minerals, or game. The removal component is the defining feature under the Restatement definition.
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Yes. The burden of a profit is always appurtenant and runs with the land. A buyer takes subject to the recorded profit even if the deed contains no express reference to it.
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Labels do not control. When the substance of the grant authorizes entry plus removal of a resource, courts recharacterize the interest as a profit regardless of the parties' description as a license.
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Creation typically requires a writing that satisfies the statute of frauds. Short-term oral permissions or expressly revocable licenses do not ripen into profits even after years of performance.
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