An easement of light and air based on an express grant cannot be lost by lapse of time or nonuse.  In Hasselbring v. Koepke, 263 Mich. 466 (Mich. 1933), the plaintiff easement holder had a prescriptive easement of a four-foot strip on the adjoining land of defendants.  The defendants building was destroyed by fire and they constructed another building which obstructed the easement.  Court held that the easement holder is entitled to a declaration of rights, determined, declared, and protected by law and which is acquired for valuable consideration.  Court observed that, “although a prescriptive easement may be of no present practical use to the owners thereof, it belongs to them as a present property right appurtenant to their other property of marketable value in connection therewith, and the owners of this appurtenant property right are entitled to have it preserved and perpetuated, even though it is of no present practical use to them.  Where easement holders have acted seasonably to assert and protect their rights, the defendants should not be permitted to build up rights in themselves based upon such encroachment by prescription, occupancy, interference, or adverse use or possession, or otherwise, in derogation of the plain provisions of the grant to the easement holders by deed.  A prescriptive easement, based upon grant, cannot be lost by mere lapse of time or nonuser.  It is elementary that an easement once granted is an estate which cannot be abridged or taken away, either by the grantor or his subsequent grantees.”

In First Nat’l Trust & Sav. Bank v. Raphael, 201 Va. 718 (Va. 1960), the court held that, the fact that windows are not used as a source of light do not show an abandonment of the easement.  In, First Nat’l Trust, the defendant constructed a building over the easement area of plaintiff.  The defendant argued that the easement of light is cancelled because the adjacent property is no longer used for residential purposes.  The court observed that, the easement is for the benefit of the adjacent property, whether it be used for residential purposes or business purposes, or both.  An easement created by a general grant or reservation, without words limiting it to any particular use of the premises, is not affected by a reasonable change in the use of the premises.