Articles on Easements
How Do I Know Which Kind of Easement I Have?
I am one of a group of property owners that owns land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. This is all dirt road and these owners say that we will be responsible for maintaining it. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by peoples backyards with no access to it unless you enter through our property. My and my neighbor’s property lines run across the same pond and back to land on the other side, splitting the pond in 3 sections. Questions exist as to if property lines exist within water, and thus required to stay within property lines, or does entire pond become available for full use of all 3 owners? I am a homeowner. My property has a transformer unit/box on my ground property. On June 2, 2012 an unknown auto hit the box and caused a power outage. The outage was repaired and now the utility company is billing me for the damages because the transformer is on my property. Can they hold me liable to it if it was not me or any family member who caused the damage? The person who did the damage is unknown because it happened overnight while the entire street was asleep. What steps do I have to take to stop my neighbor from using our private driveway? My neighbors next to us pull into their driveway to enter their premisses but use our driveway to enter the main road. They have at times even pulled into our driveway to be able to go to the back of their house. We have asked them many times to stop doing this because we are afraid one day that we might have an accident. When they use our driveway, they fly out their very fast so we don’t see them using it. We live in New Jersey and have a 40-foot deeded necessary easement type right-of-way through a neighbor’s property. Lately he has begun parking large tractor-trailer size vehicles for long periods of time to one side of the easement. Although it’s an eyesore, it doesn’t impede our ability to get to our home as our driveway is much narrower than 40 feet. Is this permitted by law, and if so, will it have any effect on the conditions of the easement? Our HOA’s common area is subject to an equestrian easement. The city wants to use the easement and build a 10 feet wide bike trail. This would require that many of the trees on that part of the property to be cut down. We are afraid that this will cause a reduction in our property value. Is there any way we can fight the easement? We are located in Goleta, County of Santa Barbara, California. I am a resident of Louisiana and have purchased a property with easement issues. This property was once part of a larger tract. The original landowner used the house and an area of land around the house as collateral for a building loan. There was an easement included that went from the road to the house. After this, the landowner dug a very large pond across the easement. He built a limestone driveway that went around the pond to get to the house. This was never stated to be a legal easement. Our house was built in a development in the State of New York in 2008 that connected our road to another in the development. There is a 10′ drainage easement on the WEST side of the property (our side lot). Now, the Town wants to put SWALES through 4 feet of our front yard. Our question is: The Town has no drainage easement on the front of our property, I have thoroughly researched the Deed. I live in Tiburon, CA. I own a swimming pool and have a legal easement, with my next-door neighbor, that his tenants can use the pool. If one of his tenants were injured, on my property where the pool is located, would I be legally responsible? I have a house on a lake, and next to the lot is an easement. The people across the street say that the easement is a deeded easement and it is on all of their titles so they have a right to put a dock on the easement. I would not have a problem with that, except that the dock is only about half a foot away from my property line. Are they able to put the dock on the easement legally? I’m trying to work out an exchange of easements with a neighbor who owns property on both sides of me. I need an easement across one of their properties in order to reach an otherwise inaccessible part of my property, and they want an easement across my property to get from one to the other of theirs. My deed states that the nonexclusive right of way, which is the driveway to my property was bought, paid for and is transferred with the property to future owners. My question: Do I have to share the driveway with the property owner? The property adjoining the driveway was bought by another person who lays claim to the driveway, or right of way, of access. Do I have to maintain the road at my total expense if other property owners are using it? “I am having an issue with the utility company in NYS. The title was searched, and there was no recorded ROW or Easement with the Town or County. I contacted the company to have them remove the pole and now they are saying they have a notarized unrecorded document granting them easement dating back to 1967. Is this a legal easement, and am I now out of luck with them moving it? Thank you for your assistance.” What rights do I have to compel neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. What rights do I have to compel a neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. Prior to selling me the property, the neighbor owned both my lot and the adjacent lot, where he built his home. I just bought a foreclosed home and my neighbor has told me the previous owner gave him easement for his septic. You can see where it was put in as the ground has been freshly dug. It is about five feet from my pole barn. We live in a small town in northern Michigan where it is not uncommon for people to dig a whole and drop a fuel oil tank to hold their sewage. Recently, we erected a fence on our property and about 1 foot of it extends onto the conservation easement. Do we need to be concerned? We did get a permit but have not yet been visited by a township inspector. If/when the inspector comes by, will he or she look to see where the easement is and, if so, will we be required to move the fence? I am one of a group of property owner that own land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by the backyards of others with no access to it unless you enter through our property. I’ve been cleaning since 1984 when I purchased the property. My house and my neighbors house share a common sewer line; that is, my sewer line crosses over into their property and then connects with their sewer line. The combined line connects with the main sewer running underneath the city street. The neighbor has started doing major renovations and has broken the sewer lines as part of their foundation work. I received an “Unauthorized use of Easement” letter from the electric company notarized and signed by an attorney. The electric company is recording the unauthorized use of the easement in Real Property Records in our state of Texas. A residential developer, who wanted to develop a tract of property adjacent to ours, has approached my sister and me about placing a detention pond and easement, which the city required his development to have, across our property in exchange for the purchase of our property within a specified future date and price per acre. We agreed to allow the easement and detention pond subject to the execution of 2 agreements drawn up by the developer: (1) Option to Purchase Real Estate with a scheduled execution date of Sept. 2005, and (2) Agreement of Intent to Develop Real Estate which specified a scheduled execution date of Feb. 2006, and which he signed. My neighbor bought an overgrown wooded lot (about an acre) which has two water run off easements running through it and has since the subdivision was built in the 1960’s. This property they bought borders our property. One of the easements runs through our backyard, through their property and then into an agricultural pond not owned by them. I have a Swimming Pool easement with my next-door neighbor. The easement includes a bathroom with a toilet. My next-door neighbor hired a plumber to unclog the toilet, however he did not contact me about this toilet problem. He wants me to pay for part of the $680.00 bill. I live in Tiburon, CA. Am I responsible for this bill? I have sprinklers near the road which are continually run over or damaged. Is it legal for me to put up stakes or blocks to protect them? I have a private easement pole in my yard and my neighbor has tapped it with lines that run across my property, directly where I want to install a pool. What can I do? We live in a lake front community and own docks. Our HOA is now demanding a lease payment for these docks, some of which are over 25 years old. Can they do that? I’ve just discovered that my gas meter was servicing my neighbor’s utility room. The electric company told me it was my responsibility to correct it, which I’ve done. Does my neighbor have any obligation for part of the repair bill? My property has a water easement on it. Recently, I have had three pipes fixed and my monthly bill has been approximately $1800. Could the leaks I’m experiencing be a result of the easement? Our HOA is using our driveway, designated as a utility easement for the local water company, to check the status of a water tower several times a day. Do they have the right to do this? My property has a utility easement, of which the city has completely restricted access. Can they do this, since it affects a large area of my property? My neighbor, who has access to a joint easement “right of way” is building property that requires access through another homeowner’s right of way. That neighbor does not want to extend his access for this new property. We are hoping to avoid litigation. Do you have any advice? My neighbor’s property has a mineral right easement on it. A gas company, in order to easily access their new well, want to use a road on my property. Can I deny them? We were unaware of a 20 foot easement when we purchased our property and are now having trouble selling the home because of the easement. Do we have any recourse? We need to move an easement line over about 10 feet. How do we legally do this? Our road association is making changes that have not been approved by all homeowners and seem to be exceeding their authority. How can we find out whether they are within their legal rights? My neighbor won’t grant me a utility easement, in order for me to get electricity to the home I am building, unless I sell him another lot at half price. Do I have any recourse? I have a utility easement in my backyard. What rights do I have regarding getting the utility company to inform me when they will be accessing my yard and can I request they bury the four cables, currently above ground, running through my yard? We share a driveway, from which we access our horses, with other property owners. One neighbor wants to put in an electric gate, which would impede our ability to ride our horses out of our property safely. Do we have a position to argue the fact that we do not want the gate? A municipality sold land, that actually belonged to me, to my neighbor. Although my neighbor is willing to quit-claim the property back to me, who is responsible for the correcting the excavating that was done? My attorney failed to disclose, at closing, that there was an easement across my property. Can I sue him? Do I have an automatic easement if I own a property that has always used the well and septic system from an adjoining property? My Easement runs along my entire North Property Line where 1 of the subdivision road is now, which I utilize until the road takes a hard right and I go straight onto my easement (which we have solely maintained since 1978) down to my property to access my driveway/property, at the end on the left (straight ahead is the Corps Property/Lake). The problem is the relatively new neighbor (2001). Over the last 7 years, he rarely came up and if he did was not a nuisance but over the last 6 months or so, has come up more often and utilizing my Easement. I tried to politely explain that the Easement is not for parking and to utilize his property only; however, he got belligerent and insisted that I had no authority to tell him were to park or not and that he’d soon own it!!! Short of a Civil Suit, who has the Authority to tell him he can’t park on it??? I bought a an acre and a half with a 30 foot easement with a ditch on my side of the property line that goes from the road to a canal. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. She has no easements on her side. The developer plans to build a concrete driveway on the easement (Easement “A”), and place his utility lines along side, on the our- property side of the driveway. In addition to laying out the concrete drive, he plans to create a large entryway where the easement joins the public road and landscape to further (visually) associate the entire easement, as well as his untouched and unused 15 ft. wide, 200 ft. long flag pole, with his property, thus expanding his property footprint and increasing its market value while significantly diminishing ours. I have contacted the law office of the attorneys who drafted the document, and they refuse to clarify the intent of their language. Do the words “ingress and egress” mean that my neighbor can pour a driveway on the easement? My neighbors have begun building a locking auto mated gate with an alarm system and security cameras at the street- side- end of the driveway. Can the benefactors of an express easement for only “driveway and utility purposes” build a gate on what is, save for the easement, my property? If not, can I stop them without the hassle and expense of a survey and lawsuit? At some point in time a previous lot owner cleared a path along this easement and now it is used by the neighborhood as a road. Our association has notified the current property owners that they will no longer provide snow removal as this is private property and not an established road (county assessor confirmed). Now, if the county assessors records show there is no established road and only two lots with a utility easement then can the current property owners claim a grandfather clause and demand continued snow service as they have received in previous years?” I want to build a fence across my property line which would result in me building a retaining wall and filling in my part of the pond. Do I need to file some sort of easement with the property owner to be able to build a retaining wall even if the said wall would be solely within my property line?” We have been in several disagreements with the next door neighbor and he is the president of the HOA for our section of the community, but not for the whole governing community. What are my options, I have even offered to obtain the permits from the city and install a 12 inch pipe. This seems like a vendetta and not justice.” The City has recently developed upstream and the State has widened the road in front of my property and added drainage that runs through this ditch. Since flow has increased, should either entity have obtained an easement? We are in the process of selling our land and want to make sure the new owners have access to the water shut offs and sewer lines if neccessary. The lawyer won’t write up the easement with out the city noting where the water and sewer line lay. So is it legal for us to write up an agreement and have it notorized and signed by our neighbor? The city decided to clean out a old ditch and used my property for access, telling me there was an easement. All of the privacy trees and shrubs were removed and some property was destroyed in the process. My deed shows that there is not an easement on my property. What can I do about the damage which was caused? “I have a contract to buy a piece of property. During the survey, it was determined that a portion of the driveway is on “the brothers” (referred to as 2B’s from here on) land next door. And does the gas company have any rights to my land even though there is no pipe on it, a large (90′ pines with other tall vegetation under them) vegetative buffer barring the use of it, and no recorded easement (there is one on the 2B’s land and the previous owner was compensated for it; the 2B’s purchased their land with the easement already there)? Currently, the only people who use the easement are neighborhood children, many of whom ride their bicycles (and on one occasion, a gasoline-powered motorized scooter) through our front yard, past our house, through the backyard, and into the trees beyond. Our lawn is suffering serious damage because of this. Is it possible to vacate the pedestrian easement, and if so, how? The language of the easement grants the servient estate owner the right to relocate the easement. Does this allow the servient estate owner to create a separate right-of-way for each easement holder; thus requiring each easement holder to construct and maintain a separate roadway? I bought my property in October 2008 and I was told at signing that I had lot 14 and 14a. I have the lot 14a on my deed and then when i was putting up a fence on the opposing side of my ditch I ran into a conflict with my neigboor about this. I called the deeds office in the county and they say that the deed shows 14 and 14a as mine but it is an easement. What does this mean? Is this portion of land of 14a mine? We have been contacted by one of the family members of the person who once owned both plots of land. They believe that they own the 50 foot easement even though our deed says that it is part of our property. Do they really “own” this property? We recently purchased a 5 acre piece of property. Unfortunately we did not have access to the language of the document when we purchased the property. This is what was “told” to us about the easement when we purchased the property. Our neighbors have recently brought to our attention that we were mistaken about the extent of the length of the easement. They have stated that they intend to put a road the entire length of the easement– nearly 400 feet. Do they have the “right” to do all of these things? They removed the easement from the property, I have letters from the HOA and township validating this. The problem is that the water issue was not mitigated. My question is, since we were misinformed about the easement and the necessity of it, and since we have a major water issue and would not have purchased this home had that been disclosed to us, can we hold the HOA responsible to resolve this issue at their cost. In addition, if an easement is required on this property, can we hold the HOA liable for the dimished value of the home as a result? I have a property in the Hollywood Hills that is landlocked. Does anyone know if this is the right course? If so, how do I apply for an easement? Which department in the county do I need to contact? To get into our property we have to cross two other properties. Last fall when we paved our part of the driveway and the man in the middles driveway the contractor had some extra material and asked us if he could put it on the top of the driveway, of course we liked the idea of getting in and out easier but warned the contractor that the man on the top is very unreasonable and he would have to get his permission. Several months later we received a letter from his attorney who is also his nephew saying we had to remove the asphalt and take it back to dirt and gravel. Please give me some feedback on the situation. Can government entities explicitly grant Easement by Necessity to private landowners, particularly if the government entity may have created a landlock situation? How do we now establish access/egress to our lot? Do we stand a chance of convincing the Bureau of Reclamation to explicitly grant us use of the easement, which should satisfy the permitting requirement for the other bridge? My neighbor has an ingress and egress easement through my property. Can I have the neighbor sign a liability waiver? Would it be possible to have waiver written up to protect myself in California? We are a townhome community with a private road that connects to public streets on each end. Though we are responsible for all repairs to that private road, probably 90% of the traffic is cut-through traffic between the public streets. Could we legally close one end of this road permanently? Years ago a Water District acquired a residential parcel for construction of a water tank. The residential property has an easement for ingress/egress to an private road shared by over twenty other residential properties. The Water District (public utility) now is permitting a cellular company (private business) to apply for County permits to construct a cellular antenna facility on the property. Can the Water District give permission to the cellular company to use the private road to install and maintain the cellular facility when all of the other easement holders are in opposition? We bought a house/land 6 years ago and signed an ingress/egress easement with the previous owners to allow them the use of our driveway to access their property that adjoins ours. We are having major problems with the renters (& parents of the daycare children) speeding up and down our driveway and forcing us to get out of their way when we are on it. In an effort to slow down the traffic we have put up a nonlocking gate at the end of the driveway where it joins their property. The property owners are now saying we have no legal right to install the gate. The parish of Iberia were I live was going to build a road that would have gone between our lots and the easement was 60 foot but they decide to do away with that easement and went with the 30 foot drainage easement on my side of the boundry line. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. What should I watch out for? My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. It seems that I would be giving up substantial property rights were I to grant the easement, and that the unrecorded quality of the easement seems sneaky. What should I watch out for? We and our adjacent neighbors are in a dispute over a 4 foot high concrete retaining wall that straddles both of our property lines. We’ve had large clay terra-cotta pots sitting on top of retaining wall with lattice in the pots to obscure the neighbors privacy fence, which is few feet back from the retaining wall. Recently (last week), they decided to start objecting to the clay pots (which are on their property, according to their survey). Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? The easement borders my entire property line, I have a private driveway off the easement to my house. The neighbor who lives directly behind me says that when I pull off the paved part of the easement over the grass part of the easement (approx. 10 ft) to get to my front yard, I am tresspassing over his property. He has called the police 4 times in the past 6 months accusing me of trespassing when I park my car in my yard. Do I have the right to access my property from the easement? Does he have the right to call the state police to my house everytime I park in my yard? I have a 1 acre peice of property in a gated community. There is a 14 ft utility easement at the front of my property as there is a transformer there. The HOA came in on my property and installed Electrical power panels to service a gate for back entry/ exit to the sub division. They did not have my permission. They also dug a trench completely across my property about 2 feet wide to reach the transformer for power to the gate and when finished left my property in a mess. My question is, did the HOA have the right to do what they did without my permission? I purchased a commercial building in Maryland and attempted to get an occupancy permit for a tenant. The town conditioned approval with a request for me to grant easements to the town for the maintenance of sewer lines running under my property and to enter my property to inspect them. These easements, if granted, would severely limit my ability to add on to my building and park in my lot. If they don’t agree to negotiate more favorable terms (to me) can I cap off the sewer lines with impunity? May they condition an occupancy permit on an unrelated grant of an easement to them? Have access to irrigation water via a pipeline across neighbors property. Helped to pay for pipeline that supplies water to their parcel, and to our pipeline. New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? I recently discovered that a contractor has run a water line to the house that he is building on property adjacent to ours. The contractor has placed this line inside the 10′ easement on our property rather than disturb the paving that covers the 10′ easement on the adjacent property. Is this legal? City wants a pipeline easement across a small section of the backside of the property. Now heres the question – if I take their ca$h, and later after the work is done , water or gas line leaks show up, say in my yard, is the city liable? What is a “non-assignable and exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and across the following described lands:…” New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? Because we’ve lived in the house (for 12 years) and maintained the retaining wall before and after it was rebuilt, and paid entirely for the reconstruction of the wall, does this give us a right to a prescriptive easement (i.e. right to own the wall completely) overriding the neighbor’s survey, which they claim gives them exclusive ownership rights? Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? My deed states that an adjacent landowner has a strip beside my property that is “as wide as a road”….their deed says a 60 foot wide strip. In 1924 the two deeds said the same thing, but the next time the land changed hands, the 60 ft. was specified. Since it was not recorded on both deeds, can this be legal? The electric and cable companies apparently have an easement on our property although I am unable to find proof of this in our deed and abstract. We do not subscribe to cable and our electric is fed to the property from another line (not on our property) have asked the companies to please fix the cables/wires that they are encroaching on my ability to use my own property and it poses a safety risk. What can I do? Recently there has been a change of ownership on one of the properties. The new owner has a teenage son. The parents leave town often and leave the son alone. While the parents are away the son has been throwing parties where there is teenage drinking. We are concerned that at some point one of these underage drunk children will cause and/or have an accident that will result in death or injury while crossing our property. Can we be held liable if something like this should occur? Other than calling law enforcement to alert them to the party is there any thing else we can do to protect ourselves? As a small Home Owners Association in Washington state, we have a plated 60 foot access & egress easement which has existed for over 20 years. The easement in question passes across a tiny segment of the 5 acres of a single member’s property but they are exceedingly resistant to expanding the margin of the easement though the expansion will be into a completely unused area of their property and out of sight and will fully address their and our membership’s concerns of liability/risk. Given the facts above, within reason, and without damaging in any way the associate member’s property or its value does our Homeowner’s association have a right to demand the expansion of the easement margin? I purchased a narrow lot two houses from my house in 2005. My neighbor whose house next to my narrow lot bought his house in 1998. He constructed sliding iron front gates on track in front of his house sometime after which I am not sure. But it is very likely that was more than 5 years ago. About 8-10 feet of the track is on my property(I have a survey done). Now my question is would it still work if I give notice of permission for him to continue to use it to park his cars in order to prevent a potential claim of prescriptive easement? This family has settled this land 100 years ago. At the turn of the century loggers started this road to reach the top of this ridge which crossed thier land as will as someone elses. When the second generation owner sold 30 acres next to this 500 feet she recorded an easement back in 1968. So that they could still use this pathway. Now the current owner of the 30 acres complained to the forest service and the have recently de-constructed the pathway, and put up concrete barriers. The question is does the national forest have to recognize perscriptive easements? A piece of land I am thinking of buying is land locked but has a deeded Right of way that is 10ft wide and 50 feet long in PA. Can I pave or lay gravel down on this section to help my vehicle get thru. I Live on a Busy Street and my Neighbor with Easement Access Leaves my Gate Unlocked and Open, What can I do? My neighbor wants an easement on my property for his proposed sewer line. We will be selling our property within the next nine months. Are there any legal, physical or real estate sales issues if we grant the easement? What is the value of this easement? I own a building with another company and there is an easement on the property. There is a restrictive covenant which states I am to provide “reasonable permanent access” to this easement. What is meant by reasonable permanent access? The owners of the land over which our easement runs is in the process of having a home built on the second parcel and one of the conditions of their building permit is that they must run sewer lines back to the house (we are on septic) and the only place where the sewer lines can run is up the middle of the 150′ easement road. The builders informed us that when the sewer company puts in the sewer, that we will not have access to our property for three days. The sewer installers have further said that they will not put down the steel plates common to such an installation as the expense is too great. Can the owner of the easement and/or their contractors deny us access during this process? For past few months, My neighbors (12 people) are now constantly using their basement door and my driveway as their main door, even their guest use it as a entrance door even though they have their front door and it is becoming extremely difficult to use my driveway where I park my cars(because of their constant presence, sitting in the driveway, children playing in the driveway etc), when I ask them to stop sitting or playing, they apologize, but keep repeating, them blocking my driveway with their cars is also becoming a problem. How to solve this problem, Is their a legal way? Can I stop them from using my driveway? I live in the state of NY and I have a right of way on a piece of property from 1970. This was used for a turn around and a place for the kids to play. It is 50-100ft, we are at the end of a dead end street. The town just abandoned this piece for a neighbor to have a driveway to get to there new house. Can this be legally done? My right of way was also included with the deed given to the town when they took over the road in 1992. Is a verbal easement legal and binding? We are planning on building a home with our frontage being on a private road that has five homes on it. We have a written easement with our neighbor right across from us. But we have had a verbal easement with our neighbor that sits at the start of the private road for about three years now. Dose a verbal easement eventually become legal or our we going to be having problems? Do we even need a written easement from him with us all ready having a easement to our frontage? We live in a site built condominium association. We share a drainage/walkway easement with our next door neighbors according to our plat map which is what our township considers. A state park trail runs along the east side of our development. We have always invited the homes in the development to access the trail by walking through our yard. A few in the association now want to put a sidewalk through to make the walkway more official. Do we have to go by what the township says about where the easement is or by the Master Deed? Do we have to allow a sidewalk through our yards? Does a Condo Association have the legal right to build a sidewalk on a walk-way easement? An easement was approved by the township to allow residents access to a public walking trail, this easement was defined as a 20ft area between two adjoining lots. Does a Condo Association have the right to make such improvements; even if the owners of the lots do not agree with this (assuming it properly approved by a majority of residents)? I am buying a home on 1.34 acres of land and should be closing on it in about a month. The owner of another acre directly behind my land would like to sell the land to me the land is currently landlocked. What would I have to do to purchase this land? I’m assuming this means that I need to have an easement? If so, is this costly? What is the difference between an easement for INGRESS AND EGRESS (not exclusive) as opposed to an easement “OVER AND ACROSS” lands? The easements run through a gated community to a river. We are not a part of the HOA. WE recently bought a 2nd home on the river. The property has a boat ramp on it. The latest Platte chart, only shows the outline of our property, no indication of a boat ramp. AND there are no easements recorded to date. BUT, everyone allows everyone to share… We’ve asked that they sign a waiver of liability in exchange for permission of using the ramp, since this is our 2nd home and we cannot maintain the ramp non-stop. We’ve been indirectly threatened that an easement by prescription will be placed on our ramp… What are our rights? My husband and I purchased a piece of land 17 years ago which consisted of a working commercial fish hatchery, buildings and 3 homes. There is a piece of property between us and the county road on which we have “a non-exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and under a piece of land 20 feet in width”. We now have a new owner of the property on which we have the easement who is claiming that we don’t have the right to have this business as the easement is for a single family residence access only. Can he stop us from having this business which has been in existence since 2004? I own an undeveloped 5 ac parcel in California. Upon having it surveyed, I learned that my neighbor’s driveway falls as much as 20′ outside of the easement. The easement is 60′ (30′ of which is on my property) for a one lane gravel road. Can I insist the road be moved to regain my property? Is it my responsibility to rebuild it, or the responsibility of the neighbor? I recently purchased 9 acres of land that has an easement attached to it. There is a 40 foot public road easement that was granted back in the 70’s on the property and has never been used. We want to build a new house on the property. The only access is a driveway tile installed right on this 40′ easement. We have been told that if we build there and use this drive as our access we could possibly be sued or the owner of the easement could put a lien on our property. Is this true? If we are not blocking his access in any way, are we not entitled to use this drive to get to our house? My home is landlocked but has a road easement for access purposes. I know want to subdivide the property into 4 parcels. Do I need additional easements for all the new properties? I live in a home with a 20 ft easement driveway from the main road to a semi public lake. Home owners have been granted ingress & egress to the lake. There are 3 houses and 1 duplex on the easement driveway. About 20 years ago the owner of our home built and maintained a dock that sits just off the natural water line of the lake and it meets all state codes and is legally there. We bought the home 7 years ago and we have maintained the dock and keep our boat anchor during the summer. Can the owners of the duplex give their tenants the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Can the tenants of the duplex give anyone (i.e., friends, neighbors, relatives, etc.,) the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Do we have the right to prohibit the tenants from the dock even though we have no paperwork showing ownership of the dock? Can the Board of a HOA enter a private property within the community that happens to have the waterfall circuit board and the sprinkler system control panel located on their property? We can’t find anywhere in the documents or bylaws where the board was given a utility easement or access easement to get to these panels. Do we have a right to enter a backyard to access the control panels without a documented easement? Can this homeowner forbid us access to the panels? My neighbor has planted a hedge that is growing across my property. I asked him to trim it back so it would still look nice, but be on his property. He not only has let it grown further (he claims he’s using the easement, which half happens to be over MY boundary line). He called the police on me, and they said I could be arrested if I touched his plants Why can he cut my bushes on MY property, yet he can continue to encroach on mine? Does he have the right to let his plants grow over the easement that is on my property? We own a property on a private road with 14 homes. We all have septic and wells. We have an irreparable septic problem. We have been denied a permit for a new on-lot septic option. Our neighbors have reported us to county and local government. Thus causing us to enter into the legal system to fight it. We have a developer who is ready to put in a private line to a sewer main. All that we need is for the neighbors to sign giving us an easement to put it in along the private road. They are giving us a hard time about it and will not sign. Is there anyway to force the easement through so that we can fix our problem? There is an access easement on my property so that my neighbor can access his yard (they use my driveway). I am wanting to build a fence on my property line which would cross a small portion at the end of the easement. I would not be hindering his access to his backyard, but he is against my building the fence. Would I legally be able to build the fence as long as I am not keeping him from getting into his backyard (egress and ingress)? We have allowed our neighbors to use the back portion of our yard for almost five years in exchange for the landscaping they did for us. Their house is directly behind ours, and they did not have room for their son and daughter to play. They have paid the water bill, but no insurance, property taxes, mortgage, etc. Do we need to have a formal easement agreement? Can they take over our property and assume ownership after a prescribed length of time? The Dominant tenant has a right to cross my backyard to access her own backyard. The easement is 6 feet wide. Am I allowed to develop this area of land at all (low wood deck, asphalt, concrete etc). I do not intend to impede her access at all. The original property owner gave an easement and “right-of-way for the purpose of ingress & egress and to run with said land and to be transferable therewith; reserving unto the grantor the right to use said road & grant others a like easement and right-of-way.” I am putting an underground sprinkler system in the front yard but the neighbor insists that it will be in the easement area. The sprinkler heads will be flush with the ground and will not impede traffic flow. Is this allowed? There is very little likelihood that the road will ever be paved or taken over by the state. What are my rights? Three homes drive over our properties this easement . On the deed its state non exclusive easement for ingress and egress. I been having a bad time with a neighbor that drives over my land and the neighbors land, his dogs attacked me on my property and I find him. Now he wont stop driving past my house fast and he will come to a complete stop and peel out right in front of my house on this easement road. Is there any law that will help me on private easement roads with endangerment or damages. The dog attack is on record .the police wont touch private roads in Washington state. They told me that he has to go out onto the public road. Is this right? I have speed limit signs and a speed pump on a gravel road which we all agreed on even him, so I want to know what I can do by law to stop him, is this harassment? An easement through an unincorporated HOA community in Yavapai County, AZ allows access through the community to landlocked abutting Property. Easement metes and bounds describe a route somewhat different from existing roads. Owner has unfettered access. Adherence to the described easement would require demo of some existing construction and construction of new roads. What are respective rights of community and easement grantee (Property owner)? For example, does the law allow the Property owner unrestricted rights to treat the route of his described easement however he deems necessary irrespective of the current use of that property? I have recently purchased 20 acres of land in Indiana that was considered landlocked and was given a proper easement to said land for ingress and egress and utilities. The problem we have run into after residing here for 1 year is there is no signage or notification of where our easement begins off of a private drive. Am I allowed to put signage (my family name, private drive, no trespassing, etc…) at the beginning of our easement to recognize what the easements intent is and to deter unwanted traffic? The owner of the land has forbade us to place any signage on their property (our easement) at this time. My house (primary residence) is on a lot without well defined borders to my neighbors. The grassy yard flows right into my neighbor property and there are some trees that act as a division but according to the plot plan my property runs well past them. Her lawn service cleans part of my lot (the part after the trees) and I worried she might think her yard is bigger than it is. How do I make sure after time she does not claim rights to the part of the yard she cleans? I recently purchased property that the driveway goes through my land, and continues to my new neighbors property. The “neighbor” is already giving me a hard time about keeping up with the driveway such as plowing snow up to the end of my property, not just where my family needs to park. She also stated that the “right of way” was in their deed. My deed has no information pertaining to giving them “right of way” through my property. If I have to give them access, shouldn’t it be stated in my deed also? I am wanting to know if we had allowed an easement across our property for another property owner to have access to their property behind us and now they are selling their property and the buyer is an adjoining property owner that will now have access to the property from his own property will be still have to allow access or use of the easement that is running through our property? We have given a 60 foot road easement for the purpose of ingress and egress to an adjacent property which is landlocked. The easement is situated on a steep sand hill which washes out easily. Previous owners have maintained the road and did not destroy the 60 foot easement. The current owner had not maintained the road and now are driving from side to side of the 60 feet to avoid the ruts that they have created. We have placed barriers on the side, leaving the previously maintained road clear. We have been told by one source that we could place gates at each side of the easement as long as we do not lock them without giving the adjacent property owner a key. Do we have the right to do this or do we have to allow these owners to destroy our land. I live in Texas, the property that I bought had an unrecorded easement. I would like to know if it is possible for the people using this easement to legally have the width of it extended from about 12ft. to 20ft.? I have an Easement on my land that specifically states for ingress and egress purpose to a land locked piece of land. The location of the easement lies in an area that one can only access the land locked land by foot. My question is, what can I do and what can I not do with that land that belongs to me? Can I erect a building, On the Easement, that dose not hinder the travel to and from the land locked land or can I not? A Real Estate Developer wants an Easement to my property. The Developer wants an easement to install a sewer line. Since, the Developer stands to gain capital from the installation of the sewer lines. Shouldn’t I be compensated at a commercial rate? Do I have to allow this easement? Two neighbors and I went together and put in a well for the purpose of irrigating our yards. We equally divided the cost of the well, pump, etc. Now the neighbor on whose property the well is located is selling her home. How can my other neighbor and I retain the legal right to use the well after the property is sold? I live in Maine and have house with a deeded right of way through someone’s property to get to my house. My deeded right of way is stated as 50 ft. My driveway is very narrow, only about 8 ft. wide. Could I tar the rest of the 50 ft. if I want? What are my rights? Right across the road from my property are my and one neighbor’s mailboxes. They turn come from their home and turn around in my driveway when they get their mail because it is more convenient for them to do that. Recently, they accused me of some things and I told them to not come on my property anymore. I have a number of questions concerning a private road easement which goes through our property along the floor of a steep valley. A mid portion stretch of the road goes through our property. I would like to access the property at the bottom of the hill for recreational activities and for maintenance (i.e. removing debris that periodically gets washed down, or dead trees that may have fallen). I have verbally asked the neighbors if it was OK for me to use of the road and they have declined. The easement in question was recorded in 1983. This is all news to us. We never were asked or notified. We bought property in 1977 and title search at that time showed no easements. I have a drainage easement (swale)running the back 20 feet of my property. Because of the overwhelming water we have been recieving, the “swale” is causing the water to pond, and as a result, my backyard is collapsing rapidly, and my basement is flooding during heavy rain. I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. This is for the purpose of developing his property and he is requesting three separate easements across our property. We share a reciprocal driveway easement with our neighbors, they park on our property and we drive across theirs. The easement documentation provides that we share in the costs of paving the easement. Some of our trees hanging over the area where they park have old, thick branches that could fall and damage their cars. Who is responsible for trimming the trees and keeping them safe? We have painted our remodeled home on three sides and our neighbor is denying us access to use the area beyond the 12 inches (which is on his property) to paint the wall. My neighbor has recently erected a barrier preventing us from driving across that portion of “her” driveway. It’s almost impossible to drive in 1 of 2 cars into the 2 car garage with this barrier. We have the deed and have had our property surveyed which clearly show our property line, however the property line is adjacent to an easement for a driveway. Our neighbor decided to pave the driveway which is on our property. Our deed has nothing in it about an easement being on our property. We were recently sent a letter from the local sewer authority requesting that we sign the attached right-of-way agreement and grant of right-of-way for an existing sewer line on our property for the sum of $1.00. Should we do it? After this new owner had his land surveyed he realized that I, and my neighbor, drove across a ~ 250 sq. ft piece of land in the nethermost corner of his 93 acre holding. This small piece of his adjoining property has been used continuously as a driveway entrance to our properties since their development 40 years ago. We have a 10 foot easement on the back end of our land as likewise do the owners of the field in the back. They would have to cut down 2 30 (foot) trees that are in our yard to do this. They told me at a meeting that if I did not give them the right of this easement through my property that they would condem that part of my yard and use it anyway. Our sewer line goes across our neighbor’s property. It was that way when each of us bought our properties. Now I need to replace the sewer line, and we can’t find any recorded easement. If our neighbor tries to keep us from replacing our sewer line, will we be able to prevail based on a prescriptive easement? In California, who is required to maintain an existing roadway easement across my neighbor’s land that allows access to my house? We recently acquired a piece of property that has an easement running on one side of it for 2 property owners to pass to get to their houses. Now a third person wants us to sign an agreement for an easement. We want to know what is the normal procedure for an easement? Our neighbor has an easement across our land, which he has permission to use. However, we just found out that all along he has been using property which is 5 feet outside of the permitted easement area. Now he wants to pave it. Does he have a prescriptive easement for the area which he was using which was outside of the original permitted easemenet area? Our property has an easement to the adjacent land to allow for farming. Now they are selling that land and intend to convert it to residential with “road” access down our easement. My neighbor’s chickens are constantly on my land. Is there any kind of easement that they could acquire over time on my property if I continue to allow this? How can we get someone who inherited our right of way (ROW) easement to deal with us? I want to move soon and rent out my house. Would I reduce my chances for keeping an easement I have on a neighboring lot if the other owner decides to bring a lawsuit to disclaim the easement and I don’t live here? The easement across our land is unusable. If I cut a road for my needs on my property (not on the easement) do the easement owners have the right to use my new road? I live in the Texas and want to know what size easement is required for an electrical line? What is an easement in gross? If you have paid a neighbor for use of a strip of land can they put a 4 foot high post at the corner of it, even though you were very clear that you were going to use it for a drive for your cars? Someone has built a house down the block from us and has decided to put a dock 20 feet from us, and instead of making his own access to his dock he has decided to use ours. What can we do? My wife and I recently bought a house on 80 acres that has an easement. The easement owner wants to use it to cross cattle; can we keep him from doing so? We want to change an existing easement by moving it 3 feet. This will not fundamentally change the easement owner’s access. The easement owner does not want us to make the change. Can we change the location of the easement under the circumstances described? Does an Implied Eastment of Necessity exist? I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. Is a prescriptive easement through notorious use automatic? The small town where I’ve lived for 15 years is now telling me that the “city mainâ€? is really a private service line. Over the years I have replaced all my outside sewer lines – this was before I realized the line ran across neighbors’ yards and where the actual problem lays. How do I go about getting an easement that would provide my home future protection? I feel like I’m being forced into giving the county a drainage easement. Can the county force me to give them a drainage easement? I would like to know if I can fight an easement that is already in place on the land I purchased An agreement between a townhome homeowners association and a neighboring condo homeowners association includes financial contributions for upkeep of property easements. Can one demand financial accountability from the other? An easement is a right-of-way you grant to someone to cross your land whenever they need to. Governments can force easements through the use of eminent domain law. Private groups have no such power.
How Do I Know Which Kind of Easement I Have?
I am one of a group of property owners that owns land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. This is all dirt road and these owners say that we will be responsible for maintaining it. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by peoples backyards with no access to it unless you enter through our property. My and my neighbor’s property lines run across the same pond and back to land on the other side, splitting the pond in 3 sections. Questions exist as to if property lines exist within water, and thus required to stay within property lines, or does entire pond become available for full use of all 3 owners? I am a homeowner. My property has a transformer unit/box on my ground property. On June 2, 2012 an unknown auto hit the box and caused a power outage. The outage was repaired and now the utility company is billing me for the damages because the transformer is on my property. Can they hold me liable to it if it was not me or any family member who caused the damage? The person who did the damage is unknown because it happened overnight while the entire street was asleep. What steps do I have to take to stop my neighbor from using our private driveway? My neighbors next to us pull into their driveway to enter their premisses but use our driveway to enter the main road. They have at times even pulled into our driveway to be able to go to the back of their house. We have asked them many times to stop doing this because we are afraid one day that we might have an accident. When they use our driveway, they fly out their very fast so we don’t see them using it. We live in New Jersey and have a 40-foot deeded necessary easement type right-of-way through a neighbor’s property. Lately he has begun parking large tractor-trailer size vehicles for long periods of time to one side of the easement. Although it’s an eyesore, it doesn’t impede our ability to get to our home as our driveway is much narrower than 40 feet. Is this permitted by law, and if so, will it have any effect on the conditions of the easement? Our HOA’s common area is subject to an equestrian easement. The city wants to use the easement and build a 10 feet wide bike trail. This would require that many of the trees on that part of the property to be cut down. We are afraid that this will cause a reduction in our property value. Is there any way we can fight the easement? We are located in Goleta, County of Santa Barbara, California. I am a resident of Louisiana and have purchased a property with easement issues. This property was once part of a larger tract. The original landowner used the house and an area of land around the house as collateral for a building loan. There was an easement included that went from the road to the house. After this, the landowner dug a very large pond across the easement. He built a limestone driveway that went around the pond to get to the house. This was never stated to be a legal easement. Our house was built in a development in the State of New York in 2008 that connected our road to another in the development. There is a 10′ drainage easement on the WEST side of the property (our side lot). Now, the Town wants to put SWALES through 4 feet of our front yard. Our question is: The Town has no drainage easement on the front of our property, I have thoroughly researched the Deed. I live in Tiburon, CA. I own a swimming pool and have a legal easement, with my next-door neighbor, that his tenants can use the pool. If one of his tenants were injured, on my property where the pool is located, would I be legally responsible? I have a house on a lake, and next to the lot is an easement. The people across the street say that the easement is a deeded easement and it is on all of their titles so they have a right to put a dock on the easement. I would not have a problem with that, except that the dock is only about half a foot away from my property line. Are they able to put the dock on the easement legally? I’m trying to work out an exchange of easements with a neighbor who owns property on both sides of me. I need an easement across one of their properties in order to reach an otherwise inaccessible part of my property, and they want an easement across my property to get from one to the other of theirs. My deed states that the nonexclusive right of way, which is the driveway to my property was bought, paid for and is transferred with the property to future owners. My question: Do I have to share the driveway with the property owner? The property adjoining the driveway was bought by another person who lays claim to the driveway, or right of way, of access. Do I have to maintain the road at my total expense if other property owners are using it? “I am having an issue with the utility company in NYS. The title was searched, and there was no recorded ROW or Easement with the Town or County. I contacted the company to have them remove the pole and now they are saying they have a notarized unrecorded document granting them easement dating back to 1967. Is this a legal easement, and am I now out of luck with them moving it? Thank you for your assistance.” What rights do I have to compel neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. What rights do I have to compel a neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. Prior to selling me the property, the neighbor owned both my lot and the adjacent lot, where he built his home. I just bought a foreclosed home and my neighbor has told me the previous owner gave him easement for his septic. You can see where it was put in as the ground has been freshly dug. It is about five feet from my pole barn. We live in a small town in northern Michigan where it is not uncommon for people to dig a whole and drop a fuel oil tank to hold their sewage. Recently, we erected a fence on our property and about 1 foot of it extends onto the conservation easement. Do we need to be concerned? We did get a permit but have not yet been visited by a township inspector. If/when the inspector comes by, will he or she look to see where the easement is and, if so, will we be required to move the fence? I am one of a group of property owner that own land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by the backyards of others with no access to it unless you enter through our property. I’ve been cleaning since 1984 when I purchased the property. My house and my neighbors house share a common sewer line; that is, my sewer line crosses over into their property and then connects with their sewer line. The combined line connects with the main sewer running underneath the city street. The neighbor has started doing major renovations and has broken the sewer lines as part of their foundation work. I received an “Unauthorized use of Easement” letter from the electric company notarized and signed by an attorney. The electric company is recording the unauthorized use of the easement in Real Property Records in our state of Texas. A residential developer, who wanted to develop a tract of property adjacent to ours, has approached my sister and me about placing a detention pond and easement, which the city required his development to have, across our property in exchange for the purchase of our property within a specified future date and price per acre. We agreed to allow the easement and detention pond subject to the execution of 2 agreements drawn up by the developer: (1) Option to Purchase Real Estate with a scheduled execution date of Sept. 2005, and (2) Agreement of Intent to Develop Real Estate which specified a scheduled execution date of Feb. 2006, and which he signed. My neighbor bought an overgrown wooded lot (about an acre) which has two water run off easements running through it and has since the subdivision was built in the 1960’s. This property they bought borders our property. One of the easements runs through our backyard, through their property and then into an agricultural pond not owned by them. I have a Swimming Pool easement with my next-door neighbor. The easement includes a bathroom with a toilet. My next-door neighbor hired a plumber to unclog the toilet, however he did not contact me about this toilet problem. He wants me to pay for part of the $680.00 bill. I live in Tiburon, CA. Am I responsible for this bill? I have sprinklers near the road which are continually run over or damaged. Is it legal for me to put up stakes or blocks to protect them? I have a private easement pole in my yard and my neighbor has tapped it with lines that run across my property, directly where I want to install a pool. What can I do? We live in a lake front community and own docks. Our HOA is now demanding a lease payment for these docks, some of which are over 25 years old. Can they do that? I’ve just discovered that my gas meter was servicing my neighbor’s utility room. The electric company told me it was my responsibility to correct it, which I’ve done. Does my neighbor have any obligation for part of the repair bill? My property has a water easement on it. Recently, I have had three pipes fixed and my monthly bill has been approximately $1800. Could the leaks I’m experiencing be a result of the easement? Our HOA is using our driveway, designated as a utility easement for the local water company, to check the status of a water tower several times a day. Do they have the right to do this? My property has a utility easement, of which the city has completely restricted access. Can they do this, since it affects a large area of my property? My neighbor, who has access to a joint easement “right of way” is building property that requires access through another homeowner’s right of way. That neighbor does not want to extend his access for this new property. We are hoping to avoid litigation. Do you have any advice? My neighbor’s property has a mineral right easement on it. A gas company, in order to easily access their new well, want to use a road on my property. Can I deny them? We were unaware of a 20 foot easement when we purchased our property and are now having trouble selling the home because of the easement. Do we have any recourse? We need to move an easement line over about 10 feet. How do we legally do this? Our road association is making changes that have not been approved by all homeowners and seem to be exceeding their authority. How can we find out whether they are within their legal rights? My neighbor won’t grant me a utility easement, in order for me to get electricity to the home I am building, unless I sell him another lot at half price. Do I have any recourse? I have a utility easement in my backyard. What rights do I have regarding getting the utility company to inform me when they will be accessing my yard and can I request they bury the four cables, currently above ground, running through my yard? We share a driveway, from which we access our horses, with other property owners. One neighbor wants to put in an electric gate, which would impede our ability to ride our horses out of our property safely. Do we have a position to argue the fact that we do not want the gate? A municipality sold land, that actually belonged to me, to my neighbor. Although my neighbor is willing to quit-claim the property back to me, who is responsible for the correcting the excavating that was done? My attorney failed to disclose, at closing, that there was an easement across my property. Can I sue him? Do I have an automatic easement if I own a property that has always used the well and septic system from an adjoining property? My Easement runs along my entire North Property Line where 1 of the subdivision road is now, which I utilize until the road takes a hard right and I go straight onto my easement (which we have solely maintained since 1978) down to my property to access my driveway/property, at the end on the left (straight ahead is the Corps Property/Lake). The problem is the relatively new neighbor (2001). Over the last 7 years, he rarely came up and if he did was not a nuisance but over the last 6 months or so, has come up more often and utilizing my Easement. I tried to politely explain that the Easement is not for parking and to utilize his property only; however, he got belligerent and insisted that I had no authority to tell him were to park or not and that he’d soon own it!!! Short of a Civil Suit, who has the Authority to tell him he can’t park on it??? I bought a an acre and a half with a 30 foot easement with a ditch on my side of the property line that goes from the road to a canal. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. She has no easements on her side. The developer plans to build a concrete driveway on the easement (Easement “A”), and place his utility lines along side, on the our- property side of the driveway. In addition to laying out the concrete drive, he plans to create a large entryway where the easement joins the public road and landscape to further (visually) associate the entire easement, as well as his untouched and unused 15 ft. wide, 200 ft. long flag pole, with his property, thus expanding his property footprint and increasing its market value while significantly diminishing ours. I have contacted the law office of the attorneys who drafted the document, and they refuse to clarify the intent of their language. Do the words “ingress and egress” mean that my neighbor can pour a driveway on the easement? My neighbors have begun building a locking auto mated gate with an alarm system and security cameras at the street- side- end of the driveway. Can the benefactors of an express easement for only “driveway and utility purposes” build a gate on what is, save for the easement, my property? If not, can I stop them without the hassle and expense of a survey and lawsuit? At some point in time a previous lot owner cleared a path along this easement and now it is used by the neighborhood as a road. Our association has notified the current property owners that they will no longer provide snow removal as this is private property and not an established road (county assessor confirmed). Now, if the county assessors records show there is no established road and only two lots with a utility easement then can the current property owners claim a grandfather clause and demand continued snow service as they have received in previous years?” I want to build a fence across my property line which would result in me building a retaining wall and filling in my part of the pond. Do I need to file some sort of easement with the property owner to be able to build a retaining wall even if the said wall would be solely within my property line?” We have been in several disagreements with the next door neighbor and he is the president of the HOA for our section of the community, but not for the whole governing community. What are my options, I have even offered to obtain the permits from the city and install a 12 inch pipe. This seems like a vendetta and not justice.” The City has recently developed upstream and the State has widened the road in front of my property and added drainage that runs through this ditch. Since flow has increased, should either entity have obtained an easement? We are in the process of selling our land and want to make sure the new owners have access to the water shut offs and sewer lines if neccessary. The lawyer won’t write up the easement with out the city noting where the water and sewer line lay. So is it legal for us to write up an agreement and have it notorized and signed by our neighbor? The city decided to clean out a old ditch and used my property for access, telling me there was an easement. All of the privacy trees and shrubs were removed and some property was destroyed in the process. My deed shows that there is not an easement on my property. What can I do about the damage which was caused? “I have a contract to buy a piece of property. During the survey, it was determined that a portion of the driveway is on “the brothers” (referred to as 2B’s from here on) land next door. And does the gas company have any rights to my land even though there is no pipe on it, a large (90′ pines with other tall vegetation under them) vegetative buffer barring the use of it, and no recorded easement (there is one on the 2B’s land and the previous owner was compensated for it; the 2B’s purchased their land with the easement already there)? Currently, the only people who use the easement are neighborhood children, many of whom ride their bicycles (and on one occasion, a gasoline-powered motorized scooter) through our front yard, past our house, through the backyard, and into the trees beyond. Our lawn is suffering serious damage because of this. Is it possible to vacate the pedestrian easement, and if so, how? The language of the easement grants the servient estate owner the right to relocate the easement. Does this allow the servient estate owner to create a separate right-of-way for each easement holder; thus requiring each easement holder to construct and maintain a separate roadway? I bought my property in October 2008 and I was told at signing that I had lot 14 and 14a. I have the lot 14a on my deed and then when i was putting up a fence on the opposing side of my ditch I ran into a conflict with my neigboor about this. I called the deeds office in the county and they say that the deed shows 14 and 14a as mine but it is an easement. What does this mean? Is this portion of land of 14a mine? We have been contacted by one of the family members of the person who once owned both plots of land. They believe that they own the 50 foot easement even though our deed says that it is part of our property. Do they really “own” this property? We recently purchased a 5 acre piece of property. Unfortunately we did not have access to the language of the document when we purchased the property. This is what was “told” to us about the easement when we purchased the property. Our neighbors have recently brought to our attention that we were mistaken about the extent of the length of the easement. They have stated that they intend to put a road the entire length of the easement– nearly 400 feet. Do they have the “right” to do all of these things? They removed the easement from the property, I have letters from the HOA and township validating this. The problem is that the water issue was not mitigated. My question is, since we were misinformed about the easement and the necessity of it, and since we have a major water issue and would not have purchased this home had that been disclosed to us, can we hold the HOA responsible to resolve this issue at their cost. In addition, if an easement is required on this property, can we hold the HOA liable for the dimished value of the home as a result? I have a property in the Hollywood Hills that is landlocked. Does anyone know if this is the right course? If so, how do I apply for an easement? Which department in the county do I need to contact? To get into our property we have to cross two other properties. Last fall when we paved our part of the driveway and the man in the middles driveway the contractor had some extra material and asked us if he could put it on the top of the driveway, of course we liked the idea of getting in and out easier but warned the contractor that the man on the top is very unreasonable and he would have to get his permission. Several months later we received a letter from his attorney who is also his nephew saying we had to remove the asphalt and take it back to dirt and gravel. Please give me some feedback on the situation. Can government entities explicitly grant Easement by Necessity to private landowners, particularly if the government entity may have created a landlock situation? How do we now establish access/egress to our lot? Do we stand a chance of convincing the Bureau of Reclamation to explicitly grant us use of the easement, which should satisfy the permitting requirement for the other bridge? My neighbor has an ingress and egress easement through my property. Can I have the neighbor sign a liability waiver? Would it be possible to have waiver written up to protect myself in California? We are a townhome community with a private road that connects to public streets on each end. Though we are responsible for all repairs to that private road, probably 90% of the traffic is cut-through traffic between the public streets. Could we legally close one end of this road permanently? Years ago a Water District acquired a residential parcel for construction of a water tank. The residential property has an easement for ingress/egress to an private road shared by over twenty other residential properties. The Water District (public utility) now is permitting a cellular company (private business) to apply for County permits to construct a cellular antenna facility on the property. Can the Water District give permission to the cellular company to use the private road to install and maintain the cellular facility when all of the other easement holders are in opposition? We bought a house/land 6 years ago and signed an ingress/egress easement with the previous owners to allow them the use of our driveway to access their property that adjoins ours. We are having major problems with the renters (& parents of the daycare children) speeding up and down our driveway and forcing us to get out of their way when we are on it. In an effort to slow down the traffic we have put up a nonlocking gate at the end of the driveway where it joins their property. The property owners are now saying we have no legal right to install the gate. The parish of Iberia were I live was going to build a road that would have gone between our lots and the easement was 60 foot but they decide to do away with that easement and went with the 30 foot drainage easement on my side of the boundry line. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. What should I watch out for? My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. It seems that I would be giving up substantial property rights were I to grant the easement, and that the unrecorded quality of the easement seems sneaky. What should I watch out for? We and our adjacent neighbors are in a dispute over a 4 foot high concrete retaining wall that straddles both of our property lines. We’ve had large clay terra-cotta pots sitting on top of retaining wall with lattice in the pots to obscure the neighbors privacy fence, which is few feet back from the retaining wall. Recently (last week), they decided to start objecting to the clay pots (which are on their property, according to their survey). Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? The easement borders my entire property line, I have a private driveway off the easement to my house. The neighbor who lives directly behind me says that when I pull off the paved part of the easement over the grass part of the easement (approx. 10 ft) to get to my front yard, I am tresspassing over his property. He has called the police 4 times in the past 6 months accusing me of trespassing when I park my car in my yard. Do I have the right to access my property from the easement? Does he have the right to call the state police to my house everytime I park in my yard? I have a 1 acre peice of property in a gated community. There is a 14 ft utility easement at the front of my property as there is a transformer there. The HOA came in on my property and installed Electrical power panels to service a gate for back entry/ exit to the sub division. They did not have my permission. They also dug a trench completely across my property about 2 feet wide to reach the transformer for power to the gate and when finished left my property in a mess. My question is, did the HOA have the right to do what they did without my permission? I purchased a commercial building in Maryland and attempted to get an occupancy permit for a tenant. The town conditioned approval with a request for me to grant easements to the town for the maintenance of sewer lines running under my property and to enter my property to inspect them. These easements, if granted, would severely limit my ability to add on to my building and park in my lot. If they don’t agree to negotiate more favorable terms (to me) can I cap off the sewer lines with impunity? May they condition an occupancy permit on an unrelated grant of an easement to them? Have access to irrigation water via a pipeline across neighbors property. Helped to pay for pipeline that supplies water to their parcel, and to our pipeline. New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? I recently discovered that a contractor has run a water line to the house that he is building on property adjacent to ours. The contractor has placed this line inside the 10′ easement on our property rather than disturb the paving that covers the 10′ easement on the adjacent property. Is this legal? City wants a pipeline easement across a small section of the backside of the property. Now heres the question – if I take their ca$h, and later after the work is done , water or gas line leaks show up, say in my yard, is the city liable? What is a “non-assignable and exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and across the following described lands:…” New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? Because we’ve lived in the house (for 12 years) and maintained the retaining wall before and after it was rebuilt, and paid entirely for the reconstruction of the wall, does this give us a right to a prescriptive easement (i.e. right to own the wall completely) overriding the neighbor’s survey, which they claim gives them exclusive ownership rights? Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? My deed states that an adjacent landowner has a strip beside my property that is “as wide as a road”….their deed says a 60 foot wide strip. In 1924 the two deeds said the same thing, but the next time the land changed hands, the 60 ft. was specified. Since it was not recorded on both deeds, can this be legal? The electric and cable companies apparently have an easement on our property although I am unable to find proof of this in our deed and abstract. We do not subscribe to cable and our electric is fed to the property from another line (not on our property) have asked the companies to please fix the cables/wires that they are encroaching on my ability to use my own property and it poses a safety risk. What can I do? Recently there has been a change of ownership on one of the properties. The new owner has a teenage son. The parents leave town often and leave the son alone. While the parents are away the son has been throwing parties where there is teenage drinking. We are concerned that at some point one of these underage drunk children will cause and/or have an accident that will result in death or injury while crossing our property. Can we be held liable if something like this should occur? Other than calling law enforcement to alert them to the party is there any thing else we can do to protect ourselves? As a small Home Owners Association in Washington state, we have a plated 60 foot access & egress easement which has existed for over 20 years. The easement in question passes across a tiny segment of the 5 acres of a single member’s property but they are exceedingly resistant to expanding the margin of the easement though the expansion will be into a completely unused area of their property and out of sight and will fully address their and our membership’s concerns of liability/risk. Given the facts above, within reason, and without damaging in any way the associate member’s property or its value does our Homeowner’s association have a right to demand the expansion of the easement margin? I purchased a narrow lot two houses from my house in 2005. My neighbor whose house next to my narrow lot bought his house in 1998. He constructed sliding iron front gates on track in front of his house sometime after which I am not sure. But it is very likely that was more than 5 years ago. About 8-10 feet of the track is on my property(I have a survey done). Now my question is would it still work if I give notice of permission for him to continue to use it to park his cars in order to prevent a potential claim of prescriptive easement? This family has settled this land 100 years ago. At the turn of the century loggers started this road to reach the top of this ridge which crossed thier land as will as someone elses. When the second generation owner sold 30 acres next to this 500 feet she recorded an easement back in 1968. So that they could still use this pathway. Now the current owner of the 30 acres complained to the forest service and the have recently de-constructed the pathway, and put up concrete barriers. The question is does the national forest have to recognize perscriptive easements? A piece of land I am thinking of buying is land locked but has a deeded Right of way that is 10ft wide and 50 feet long in PA. Can I pave or lay gravel down on this section to help my vehicle get thru. I Live on a Busy Street and my Neighbor with Easement Access Leaves my Gate Unlocked and Open, What can I do? My neighbor wants an easement on my property for his proposed sewer line. We will be selling our property within the next nine months. Are there any legal, physical or real estate sales issues if we grant the easement? What is the value of this easement? I own a building with another company and there is an easement on the property. There is a restrictive covenant which states I am to provide “reasonable permanent access” to this easement. What is meant by reasonable permanent access? The owners of the land over which our easement runs is in the process of having a home built on the second parcel and one of the conditions of their building permit is that they must run sewer lines back to the house (we are on septic) and the only place where the sewer lines can run is up the middle of the 150′ easement road. The builders informed us that when the sewer company puts in the sewer, that we will not have access to our property for three days. The sewer installers have further said that they will not put down the steel plates common to such an installation as the expense is too great. Can the owner of the easement and/or their contractors deny us access during this process? For past few months, My neighbors (12 people) are now constantly using their basement door and my driveway as their main door, even their guest use it as a entrance door even though they have their front door and it is becoming extremely difficult to use my driveway where I park my cars(because of their constant presence, sitting in the driveway, children playing in the driveway etc), when I ask them to stop sitting or playing, they apologize, but keep repeating, them blocking my driveway with their cars is also becoming a problem. How to solve this problem, Is their a legal way? Can I stop them from using my driveway? I live in the state of NY and I have a right of way on a piece of property from 1970. This was used for a turn around and a place for the kids to play. It is 50-100ft, we are at the end of a dead end street. The town just abandoned this piece for a neighbor to have a driveway to get to there new house. Can this be legally done? My right of way was also included with the deed given to the town when they took over the road in 1992. Is a verbal easement legal and binding? We are planning on building a home with our frontage being on a private road that has five homes on it. We have a written easement with our neighbor right across from us. But we have had a verbal easement with our neighbor that sits at the start of the private road for about three years now. Dose a verbal easement eventually become legal or our we going to be having problems? Do we even need a written easement from him with us all ready having a easement to our frontage? We live in a site built condominium association. We share a drainage/walkway easement with our next door neighbors according to our plat map which is what our township considers. A state park trail runs along the east side of our development. We have always invited the homes in the development to access the trail by walking through our yard. A few in the association now want to put a sidewalk through to make the walkway more official. Do we have to go by what the township says about where the easement is or by the Master Deed? Do we have to allow a sidewalk through our yards? Does a Condo Association have the legal right to build a sidewalk on a walk-way easement? An easement was approved by the township to allow residents access to a public walking trail, this easement was defined as a 20ft area between two adjoining lots. Does a Condo Association have the right to make such improvements; even if the owners of the lots do not agree with this (assuming it properly approved by a majority of residents)? I am buying a home on 1.34 acres of land and should be closing on it in about a month. The owner of another acre directly behind my land would like to sell the land to me the land is currently landlocked. What would I have to do to purchase this land? I’m assuming this means that I need to have an easement? If so, is this costly? What is the difference between an easement for INGRESS AND EGRESS (not exclusive) as opposed to an easement “OVER AND ACROSS” lands? The easements run through a gated community to a river. We are not a part of the HOA. WE recently bought a 2nd home on the river. The property has a boat ramp on it. The latest Platte chart, only shows the outline of our property, no indication of a boat ramp. AND there are no easements recorded to date. BUT, everyone allows everyone to share… We’ve asked that they sign a waiver of liability in exchange for permission of using the ramp, since this is our 2nd home and we cannot maintain the ramp non-stop. We’ve been indirectly threatened that an easement by prescription will be placed on our ramp… What are our rights? My husband and I purchased a piece of land 17 years ago which consisted of a working commercial fish hatchery, buildings and 3 homes. There is a piece of property between us and the county road on which we have “a non-exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and under a piece of land 20 feet in width”. We now have a new owner of the property on which we have the easement who is claiming that we don’t have the right to have this business as the easement is for a single family residence access only. Can he stop us from having this business which has been in existence since 2004? I own an undeveloped 5 ac parcel in California. Upon having it surveyed, I learned that my neighbor’s driveway falls as much as 20′ outside of the easement. The easement is 60′ (30′ of which is on my property) for a one lane gravel road. Can I insist the road be moved to regain my property? Is it my responsibility to rebuild it, or the responsibility of the neighbor? I recently purchased 9 acres of land that has an easement attached to it. There is a 40 foot public road easement that was granted back in the 70’s on the property and has never been used. We want to build a new house on the property. The only access is a driveway tile installed right on this 40′ easement. We have been told that if we build there and use this drive as our access we could possibly be sued or the owner of the easement could put a lien on our property. Is this true? If we are not blocking his access in any way, are we not entitled to use this drive to get to our house? My home is landlocked but has a road easement for access purposes. I know want to subdivide the property into 4 parcels. Do I need additional easements for all the new properties? I live in a home with a 20 ft easement driveway from the main road to a semi public lake. Home owners have been granted ingress & egress to the lake. There are 3 houses and 1 duplex on the easement driveway. About 20 years ago the owner of our home built and maintained a dock that sits just off the natural water line of the lake and it meets all state codes and is legally there. We bought the home 7 years ago and we have maintained the dock and keep our boat anchor during the summer. Can the owners of the duplex give their tenants the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Can the tenants of the duplex give anyone (i.e., friends, neighbors, relatives, etc.,) the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Do we have the right to prohibit the tenants from the dock even though we have no paperwork showing ownership of the dock? Can the Board of a HOA enter a private property within the community that happens to have the waterfall circuit board and the sprinkler system control panel located on their property? We can’t find anywhere in the documents or bylaws where the board was given a utility easement or access easement to get to these panels. Do we have a right to enter a backyard to access the control panels without a documented easement? Can this homeowner forbid us access to the panels? My neighbor has planted a hedge that is growing across my property. I asked him to trim it back so it would still look nice, but be on his property. He not only has let it grown further (he claims he’s using the easement, which half happens to be over MY boundary line). He called the police on me, and they said I could be arrested if I touched his plants Why can he cut my bushes on MY property, yet he can continue to encroach on mine? Does he have the right to let his plants grow over the easement that is on my property? We own a property on a private road with 14 homes. We all have septic and wells. We have an irreparable septic problem. We have been denied a permit for a new on-lot septic option. Our neighbors have reported us to county and local government. Thus causing us to enter into the legal system to fight it. We have a developer who is ready to put in a private line to a sewer main. All that we need is for the neighbors to sign giving us an easement to put it in along the private road. They are giving us a hard time about it and will not sign. Is there anyway to force the easement through so that we can fix our problem? There is an access easement on my property so that my neighbor can access his yard (they use my driveway). I am wanting to build a fence on my property line which would cross a small portion at the end of the easement. I would not be hindering his access to his backyard, but he is against my building the fence. Would I legally be able to build the fence as long as I am not keeping him from getting into his backyard (egress and ingress)? We have allowed our neighbors to use the back portion of our yard for almost five years in exchange for the landscaping they did for us. Their house is directly behind ours, and they did not have room for their son and daughter to play. They have paid the water bill, but no insurance, property taxes, mortgage, etc. Do we need to have a formal easement agreement? Can they take over our property and assume ownership after a prescribed length of time? The Dominant tenant has a right to cross my backyard to access her own backyard. The easement is 6 feet wide. Am I allowed to develop this area of land at all (low wood deck, asphalt, concrete etc). I do not intend to impede her access at all. The original property owner gave an easement and “right-of-way for the purpose of ingress & egress and to run with said land and to be transferable therewith; reserving unto the grantor the right to use said road & grant others a like easement and right-of-way.” I am putting an underground sprinkler system in the front yard but the neighbor insists that it will be in the easement area. The sprinkler heads will be flush with the ground and will not impede traffic flow. Is this allowed? There is very little likelihood that the road will ever be paved or taken over by the state. What are my rights? Three homes drive over our properties this easement . On the deed its state non exclusive easement for ingress and egress. I been having a bad time with a neighbor that drives over my land and the neighbors land, his dogs attacked me on my property and I find him. Now he wont stop driving past my house fast and he will come to a complete stop and peel out right in front of my house on this easement road. Is there any law that will help me on private easement roads with endangerment or damages. The dog attack is on record .the police wont touch private roads in Washington state. They told me that he has to go out onto the public road. Is this right? I have speed limit signs and a speed pump on a gravel road which we all agreed on even him, so I want to know what I can do by law to stop him, is this harassment? An easement through an unincorporated HOA community in Yavapai County, AZ allows access through the community to landlocked abutting Property. Easement metes and bounds describe a route somewhat different from existing roads. Owner has unfettered access. Adherence to the described easement would require demo of some existing construction and construction of new roads. What are respective rights of community and easement grantee (Property owner)? For example, does the law allow the Property owner unrestricted rights to treat the route of his described easement however he deems necessary irrespective of the current use of that property? I have recently purchased 20 acres of land in Indiana that was considered landlocked and was given a proper easement to said land for ingress and egress and utilities. The problem we have run into after residing here for 1 year is there is no signage or notification of where our easement begins off of a private drive. Am I allowed to put signage (my family name, private drive, no trespassing, etc…) at the beginning of our easement to recognize what the easements intent is and to deter unwanted traffic? The owner of the land has forbade us to place any signage on their property (our easement) at this time. My house (primary residence) is on a lot without well defined borders to my neighbors. The grassy yard flows right into my neighbor property and there are some trees that act as a division but according to the plot plan my property runs well past them. Her lawn service cleans part of my lot (the part after the trees) and I worried she might think her yard is bigger than it is. How do I make sure after time she does not claim rights to the part of the yard she cleans? I recently purchased property that the driveway goes through my land, and continues to my new neighbors property. The “neighbor” is already giving me a hard time about keeping up with the driveway such as plowing snow up to the end of my property, not just where my family needs to park. She also stated that the “right of way” was in their deed. My deed has no information pertaining to giving them “right of way” through my property. If I have to give them access, shouldn’t it be stated in my deed also? I am wanting to know if we had allowed an easement across our property for another property owner to have access to their property behind us and now they are selling their property and the buyer is an adjoining property owner that will now have access to the property from his own property will be still have to allow access or use of the easement that is running through our property? We have given a 60 foot road easement for the purpose of ingress and egress to an adjacent property which is landlocked. The easement is situated on a steep sand hill which washes out easily. Previous owners have maintained the road and did not destroy the 60 foot easement. The current owner had not maintained the road and now are driving from side to side of the 60 feet to avoid the ruts that they have created. We have placed barriers on the side, leaving the previously maintained road clear. We have been told by one source that we could place gates at each side of the easement as long as we do not lock them without giving the adjacent property owner a key. Do we have the right to do this or do we have to allow these owners to destroy our land. I live in Texas, the property that I bought had an unrecorded easement. I would like to know if it is possible for the people using this easement to legally have the width of it extended from about 12ft. to 20ft.? I have an Easement on my land that specifically states for ingress and egress purpose to a land locked piece of land. The location of the easement lies in an area that one can only access the land locked land by foot. My question is, what can I do and what can I not do with that land that belongs to me? Can I erect a building, On the Easement, that dose not hinder the travel to and from the land locked land or can I not? A Real Estate Developer wants an Easement to my property. The Developer wants an easement to install a sewer line. Since, the Developer stands to gain capital from the installation of the sewer lines. Shouldn’t I be compensated at a commercial rate? Do I have to allow this easement? Two neighbors and I went together and put in a well for the purpose of irrigating our yards. We equally divided the cost of the well, pump, etc. Now the neighbor on whose property the well is located is selling her home. How can my other neighbor and I retain the legal right to use the well after the property is sold? I live in Maine and have house with a deeded right of way through someone’s property to get to my house. My deeded right of way is stated as 50 ft. My driveway is very narrow, only about 8 ft. wide. Could I tar the rest of the 50 ft. if I want? What are my rights? Right across the road from my property are my and one neighbor’s mailboxes. They turn come from their home and turn around in my driveway when they get their mail because it is more convenient for them to do that. Recently, they accused me of some things and I told them to not come on my property anymore. I have a number of questions concerning a private road easement which goes through our property along the floor of a steep valley. A mid portion stretch of the road goes through our property. I would like to access the property at the bottom of the hill for recreational activities and for maintenance (i.e. removing debris that periodically gets washed down, or dead trees that may have fallen). I have verbally asked the neighbors if it was OK for me to use of the road and they have declined. The easement in question was recorded in 1983. This is all news to us. We never were asked or notified. We bought property in 1977 and title search at that time showed no easements. I have a drainage easement (swale)running the back 20 feet of my property. Because of the overwhelming water we have been recieving, the “swale” is causing the water to pond, and as a result, my backyard is collapsing rapidly, and my basement is flooding during heavy rain. I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. This is for the purpose of developing his property and he is requesting three separate easements across our property. We share a reciprocal driveway easement with our neighbors, they park on our property and we drive across theirs. The easement documentation provides that we share in the costs of paving the easement. Some of our trees hanging over the area where they park have old, thick branches that could fall and damage their cars. Who is responsible for trimming the trees and keeping them safe? We have painted our remodeled home on three sides and our neighbor is denying us access to use the area beyond the 12 inches (which is on his property) to paint the wall. My neighbor has recently erected a barrier preventing us from driving across that portion of “her” driveway. It’s almost impossible to drive in 1 of 2 cars into the 2 car garage with this barrier. We have the deed and have had our property surveyed which clearly show our property line, however the property line is adjacent to an easement for a driveway. Our neighbor decided to pave the driveway which is on our property. Our deed has nothing in it about an easement being on our property. We were recently sent a letter from the local sewer authority requesting that we sign the attached right-of-way agreement and grant of right-of-way for an existing sewer line on our property for the sum of $1.00. Should we do it? After this new owner had his land surveyed he realized that I, and my neighbor, drove across a ~ 250 sq. ft piece of land in the nethermost corner of his 93 acre holding. This small piece of his adjoining property has been used continuously as a driveway entrance to our properties since their development 40 years ago. We have a 10 foot easement on the back end of our land as likewise do the owners of the field in the back. They would have to cut down 2 30 (foot) trees that are in our yard to do this. They told me at a meeting that if I did not give them the right of this easement through my property that they would condem that part of my yard and use it anyway. Our sewer line goes across our neighbor’s property. It was that way when each of us bought our properties. Now I need to replace the sewer line, and we can’t find any recorded easement. If our neighbor tries to keep us from replacing our sewer line, will we be able to prevail based on a prescriptive easement? In California, who is required to maintain an existing roadway easement across my neighbor’s land that allows access to my house? We recently acquired a piece of property that has an easement running on one side of it for 2 property owners to pass to get to their houses. Now a third person wants us to sign an agreement for an easement. We want to know what is the normal procedure for an easement? Our neighbor has an easement across our land, which he has permission to use. However, we just found out that all along he has been using property which is 5 feet outside of the permitted easement area. Now he wants to pave it. Does he have a prescriptive easement for the area which he was using which was outside of the original permitted easemenet area? Our property has an easement to the adjacent land to allow for farming. Now they are selling that land and intend to convert it to residential with “road” access down our easement. My neighbor’s chickens are constantly on my land. Is there any kind of easement that they could acquire over time on my property if I continue to allow this? How can we get someone who inherited our right of way (ROW) easement to deal with us? I want to move soon and rent out my house. Would I reduce my chances for keeping an easement I have on a neighboring lot if the other owner decides to bring a lawsuit to disclaim the easement and I don’t live here? The easement across our land is unusable. If I cut a road for my needs on my property (not on the easement) do the easement owners have the right to use my new road? I live in the Texas and want to know what size easement is required for an electrical line? What is an easement in gross? If you have paid a neighbor for use of a strip of land can they put a 4 foot high post at the corner of it, even though you were very clear that you were going to use it for a drive for your cars? Someone has built a house down the block from us and has decided to put a dock 20 feet from us, and instead of making his own access to his dock he has decided to use ours. What can we do? My wife and I recently bought a house on 80 acres that has an easement. The easement owner wants to use it to cross cattle; can we keep him from doing so? We want to change an existing easement by moving it 3 feet. This will not fundamentally change the easement owner’s access. The easement owner does not want us to make the change. Can we change the location of the easement under the circumstances described? Does an Implied Eastment of Necessity exist? I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. Is a prescriptive easement through notorious use automatic? The small town where I’ve lived for 15 years is now telling me that the “city mainâ€? is really a private service line. Over the years I have replaced all my outside sewer lines – this was before I realized the line ran across neighbors’ yards and where the actual problem lays. How do I go about getting an easement that would provide my home future protection? I feel like I’m being forced into giving the county a drainage easement. Can the county force me to give them a drainage easement? I would like to know if I can fight an easement that is already in place on the land I purchased An agreement between a townhome homeowners association and a neighboring condo homeowners association includes financial contributions for upkeep of property easements. Can one demand financial accountability from the other? An easement is a right-of-way you grant to someone to cross your land whenever they need to. Governments can force easements through the use of eminent domain law. Private groups have no such power.
How Do I Know Which Kind of Easement I Have?
I am one of a group of property owners that owns land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. This is all dirt road and these owners say that we will be responsible for maintaining it. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by peoples backyards with no access to it unless you enter through our property. My and my neighbor’s property lines run across the same pond and back to land on the other side, splitting the pond in 3 sections. Questions exist as to if property lines exist within water, and thus required to stay within property lines, or does entire pond become available for full use of all 3 owners? I am a homeowner. My property has a transformer unit/box on my ground property. On June 2, 2012 an unknown auto hit the box and caused a power outage. The outage was repaired and now the utility company is billing me for the damages because the transformer is on my property. Can they hold me liable to it if it was not me or any family member who caused the damage? The person who did the damage is unknown because it happened overnight while the entire street was asleep. What steps do I have to take to stop my neighbor from using our private driveway? My neighbors next to us pull into their driveway to enter their premisses but use our driveway to enter the main road. They have at times even pulled into our driveway to be able to go to the back of their house. We have asked them many times to stop doing this because we are afraid one day that we might have an accident. When they use our driveway, they fly out their very fast so we don’t see them using it. We live in New Jersey and have a 40-foot deeded necessary easement type right-of-way through a neighbor’s property. Lately he has begun parking large tractor-trailer size vehicles for long periods of time to one side of the easement. Although it’s an eyesore, it doesn’t impede our ability to get to our home as our driveway is much narrower than 40 feet. Is this permitted by law, and if so, will it have any effect on the conditions of the easement? Our HOA’s common area is subject to an equestrian easement. The city wants to use the easement and build a 10 feet wide bike trail. This would require that many of the trees on that part of the property to be cut down. We are afraid that this will cause a reduction in our property value. Is there any way we can fight the easement? We are located in Goleta, County of Santa Barbara, California. I am a resident of Louisiana and have purchased a property with easement issues. This property was once part of a larger tract. The original landowner used the house and an area of land around the house as collateral for a building loan. There was an easement included that went from the road to the house. After this, the landowner dug a very large pond across the easement. He built a limestone driveway that went around the pond to get to the house. This was never stated to be a legal easement. Our house was built in a development in the State of New York in 2008 that connected our road to another in the development. There is a 10′ drainage easement on the WEST side of the property (our side lot). Now, the Town wants to put SWALES through 4 feet of our front yard. Our question is: The Town has no drainage easement on the front of our property, I have thoroughly researched the Deed. I live in Tiburon, CA. I own a swimming pool and have a legal easement, with my next-door neighbor, that his tenants can use the pool. If one of his tenants were injured, on my property where the pool is located, would I be legally responsible? I have a house on a lake, and next to the lot is an easement. The people across the street say that the easement is a deeded easement and it is on all of their titles so they have a right to put a dock on the easement. I would not have a problem with that, except that the dock is only about half a foot away from my property line. Are they able to put the dock on the easement legally? I’m trying to work out an exchange of easements with a neighbor who owns property on both sides of me. I need an easement across one of their properties in order to reach an otherwise inaccessible part of my property, and they want an easement across my property to get from one to the other of theirs. My deed states that the nonexclusive right of way, which is the driveway to my property was bought, paid for and is transferred with the property to future owners. My question: Do I have to share the driveway with the property owner? The property adjoining the driveway was bought by another person who lays claim to the driveway, or right of way, of access. Do I have to maintain the road at my total expense if other property owners are using it? “I am having an issue with the utility company in NYS. The title was searched, and there was no recorded ROW or Easement with the Town or County. I contacted the company to have them remove the pole and now they are saying they have a notarized unrecorded document granting them easement dating back to 1967. Is this a legal easement, and am I now out of luck with them moving it? Thank you for your assistance.” What rights do I have to compel neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. What rights do I have to compel a neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. Prior to selling me the property, the neighbor owned both my lot and the adjacent lot, where he built his home. I just bought a foreclosed home and my neighbor has told me the previous owner gave him easement for his septic. You can see where it was put in as the ground has been freshly dug. It is about five feet from my pole barn. We live in a small town in northern Michigan where it is not uncommon for people to dig a whole and drop a fuel oil tank to hold their sewage. Recently, we erected a fence on our property and about 1 foot of it extends onto the conservation easement. Do we need to be concerned? We did get a permit but have not yet been visited by a township inspector. If/when the inspector comes by, will he or she look to see where the easement is and, if so, will we be required to move the fence? I am one of a group of property owner that own land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by the backyards of others with no access to it unless you enter through our property. I’ve been cleaning since 1984 when I purchased the property. My house and my neighbors house share a common sewer line; that is, my sewer line crosses over into their property and then connects with their sewer line. The combined line connects with the main sewer running underneath the city street. The neighbor has started doing major renovations and has broken the sewer lines as part of their foundation work. I received an “Unauthorized use of Easement” letter from the electric company notarized and signed by an attorney. The electric company is recording the unauthorized use of the easement in Real Property Records in our state of Texas. A residential developer, who wanted to develop a tract of property adjacent to ours, has approached my sister and me about placing a detention pond and easement, which the city required his development to have, across our property in exchange for the purchase of our property within a specified future date and price per acre. We agreed to allow the easement and detention pond subject to the execution of 2 agreements drawn up by the developer: (1) Option to Purchase Real Estate with a scheduled execution date of Sept. 2005, and (2) Agreement of Intent to Develop Real Estate which specified a scheduled execution date of Feb. 2006, and which he signed. My neighbor bought an overgrown wooded lot (about an acre) which has two water run off easements running through it and has since the subdivision was built in the 1960’s. This property they bought borders our property. One of the easements runs through our backyard, through their property and then into an agricultural pond not owned by them. I have a Swimming Pool easement with my next-door neighbor. The easement includes a bathroom with a toilet. My next-door neighbor hired a plumber to unclog the toilet, however he did not contact me about this toilet problem. He wants me to pay for part of the $680.00 bill. I live in Tiburon, CA. Am I responsible for this bill? I have sprinklers near the road which are continually run over or damaged. Is it legal for me to put up stakes or blocks to protect them? I have a private easement pole in my yard and my neighbor has tapped it with lines that run across my property, directly where I want to install a pool. What can I do? We live in a lake front community and own docks. Our HOA is now demanding a lease payment for these docks, some of which are over 25 years old. Can they do that? I’ve just discovered that my gas meter was servicing my neighbor’s utility room. The electric company told me it was my responsibility to correct it, which I’ve done. Does my neighbor have any obligation for part of the repair bill? My property has a water easement on it. Recently, I have had three pipes fixed and my monthly bill has been approximately $1800. Could the leaks I’m experiencing be a result of the easement? Our HOA is using our driveway, designated as a utility easement for the local water company, to check the status of a water tower several times a day. Do they have the right to do this? My property has a utility easement, of which the city has completely restricted access. Can they do this, since it affects a large area of my property? My neighbor, who has access to a joint easement “right of way” is building property that requires access through another homeowner’s right of way. That neighbor does not want to extend his access for this new property. We are hoping to avoid litigation. Do you have any advice? My neighbor’s property has a mineral right easement on it. A gas company, in order to easily access their new well, want to use a road on my property. Can I deny them? We were unaware of a 20 foot easement when we purchased our property and are now having trouble selling the home because of the easement. Do we have any recourse? We need to move an easement line over about 10 feet. How do we legally do this? Our road association is making changes that have not been approved by all homeowners and seem to be exceeding their authority. How can we find out whether they are within their legal rights? My neighbor won’t grant me a utility easement, in order for me to get electricity to the home I am building, unless I sell him another lot at half price. Do I have any recourse? I have a utility easement in my backyard. What rights do I have regarding getting the utility company to inform me when they will be accessing my yard and can I request they bury the four cables, currently above ground, running through my yard? We share a driveway, from which we access our horses, with other property owners. One neighbor wants to put in an electric gate, which would impede our ability to ride our horses out of our property safely. Do we have a position to argue the fact that we do not want the gate? A municipality sold land, that actually belonged to me, to my neighbor. Although my neighbor is willing to quit-claim the property back to me, who is responsible for the correcting the excavating that was done? My attorney failed to disclose, at closing, that there was an easement across my property. Can I sue him? Do I have an automatic easement if I own a property that has always used the well and septic system from an adjoining property? My Easement runs along my entire North Property Line where 1 of the subdivision road is now, which I utilize until the road takes a hard right and I go straight onto my easement (which we have solely maintained since 1978) down to my property to access my driveway/property, at the end on the left (straight ahead is the Corps Property/Lake). The problem is the relatively new neighbor (2001). Over the last 7 years, he rarely came up and if he did was not a nuisance but over the last 6 months or so, has come up more often and utilizing my Easement. I tried to politely explain that the Easement is not for parking and to utilize his property only; however, he got belligerent and insisted that I had no authority to tell him were to park or not and that he’d soon own it!!! Short of a Civil Suit, who has the Authority to tell him he can’t park on it??? I bought a an acre and a half with a 30 foot easement with a ditch on my side of the property line that goes from the road to a canal. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. She has no easements on her side. The developer plans to build a concrete driveway on the easement (Easement “A”), and place his utility lines along side, on the our- property side of the driveway. In addition to laying out the concrete drive, he plans to create a large entryway where the easement joins the public road and landscape to further (visually) associate the entire easement, as well as his untouched and unused 15 ft. wide, 200 ft. long flag pole, with his property, thus expanding his property footprint and increasing its market value while significantly diminishing ours. I have contacted the law office of the attorneys who drafted the document, and they refuse to clarify the intent of their language. Do the words “ingress and egress” mean that my neighbor can pour a driveway on the easement? My neighbors have begun building a locking auto mated gate with an alarm system and security cameras at the street- side- end of the driveway. Can the benefactors of an express easement for only “driveway and utility purposes” build a gate on what is, save for the easement, my property? If not, can I stop them without the hassle and expense of a survey and lawsuit? At some point in time a previous lot owner cleared a path along this easement and now it is used by the neighborhood as a road. Our association has notified the current property owners that they will no longer provide snow removal as this is private property and not an established road (county assessor confirmed). Now, if the county assessors records show there is no established road and only two lots with a utility easement then can the current property owners claim a grandfather clause and demand continued snow service as they have received in previous years?” I want to build a fence across my property line which would result in me building a retaining wall and filling in my part of the pond. Do I need to file some sort of easement with the property owner to be able to build a retaining wall even if the said wall would be solely within my property line?” We have been in several disagreements with the next door neighbor and he is the president of the HOA for our section of the community, but not for the whole governing community. What are my options, I have even offered to obtain the permits from the city and install a 12 inch pipe. This seems like a vendetta and not justice.” The City has recently developed upstream and the State has widened the road in front of my property and added drainage that runs through this ditch. Since flow has increased, should either entity have obtained an easement? We are in the process of selling our land and want to make sure the new owners have access to the water shut offs and sewer lines if neccessary. The lawyer won’t write up the easement with out the city noting where the water and sewer line lay. So is it legal for us to write up an agreement and have it notorized and signed by our neighbor? The city decided to clean out a old ditch and used my property for access, telling me there was an easement. All of the privacy trees and shrubs were removed and some property was destroyed in the process. My deed shows that there is not an easement on my property. What can I do about the damage which was caused? “I have a contract to buy a piece of property. During the survey, it was determined that a portion of the driveway is on “the brothers” (referred to as 2B’s from here on) land next door. And does the gas company have any rights to my land even though there is no pipe on it, a large (90′ pines with other tall vegetation under them) vegetative buffer barring the use of it, and no recorded easement (there is one on the 2B’s land and the previous owner was compensated for it; the 2B’s purchased their land with the easement already there)? Currently, the only people who use the easement are neighborhood children, many of whom ride their bicycles (and on one occasion, a gasoline-powered motorized scooter) through our front yard, past our house, through the backyard, and into the trees beyond. Our lawn is suffering serious damage because of this. Is it possible to vacate the pedestrian easement, and if so, how? The language of the easement grants the servient estate owner the right to relocate the easement. Does this allow the servient estate owner to create a separate right-of-way for each easement holder; thus requiring each easement holder to construct and maintain a separate roadway? I bought my property in October 2008 and I was told at signing that I had lot 14 and 14a. I have the lot 14a on my deed and then when i was putting up a fence on the opposing side of my ditch I ran into a conflict with my neigboor about this. I called the deeds office in the county and they say that the deed shows 14 and 14a as mine but it is an easement. What does this mean? Is this portion of land of 14a mine? We have been contacted by one of the family members of the person who once owned both plots of land. They believe that they own the 50 foot easement even though our deed says that it is part of our property. Do they really “own” this property? We recently purchased a 5 acre piece of property. Unfortunately we did not have access to the language of the document when we purchased the property. This is what was “told” to us about the easement when we purchased the property. Our neighbors have recently brought to our attention that we were mistaken about the extent of the length of the easement. They have stated that they intend to put a road the entire length of the easement– nearly 400 feet. Do they have the “right” to do all of these things? They removed the easement from the property, I have letters from the HOA and township validating this. The problem is that the water issue was not mitigated. My question is, since we were misinformed about the easement and the necessity of it, and since we have a major water issue and would not have purchased this home had that been disclosed to us, can we hold the HOA responsible to resolve this issue at their cost. In addition, if an easement is required on this property, can we hold the HOA liable for the dimished value of the home as a result? I have a property in the Hollywood Hills that is landlocked. Does anyone know if this is the right course? If so, how do I apply for an easement? Which department in the county do I need to contact? To get into our property we have to cross two other properties. Last fall when we paved our part of the driveway and the man in the middles driveway the contractor had some extra material and asked us if he could put it on the top of the driveway, of course we liked the idea of getting in and out easier but warned the contractor that the man on the top is very unreasonable and he would have to get his permission. Several months later we received a letter from his attorney who is also his nephew saying we had to remove the asphalt and take it back to dirt and gravel. Please give me some feedback on the situation. Can government entities explicitly grant Easement by Necessity to private landowners, particularly if the government entity may have created a landlock situation? How do we now establish access/egress to our lot? Do we stand a chance of convincing the Bureau of Reclamation to explicitly grant us use of the easement, which should satisfy the permitting requirement for the other bridge? My neighbor has an ingress and egress easement through my property. Can I have the neighbor sign a liability waiver? Would it be possible to have waiver written up to protect myself in California? We are a townhome community with a private road that connects to public streets on each end. Though we are responsible for all repairs to that private road, probably 90% of the traffic is cut-through traffic between the public streets. Could we legally close one end of this road permanently? Years ago a Water District acquired a residential parcel for construction of a water tank. The residential property has an easement for ingress/egress to an private road shared by over twenty other residential properties. The Water District (public utility) now is permitting a cellular company (private business) to apply for County permits to construct a cellular antenna facility on the property. Can the Water District give permission to the cellular company to use the private road to install and maintain the cellular facility when all of the other easement holders are in opposition? We bought a house/land 6 years ago and signed an ingress/egress easement with the previous owners to allow them the use of our driveway to access their property that adjoins ours. We are having major problems with the renters (& parents of the daycare children) speeding up and down our driveway and forcing us to get out of their way when we are on it. In an effort to slow down the traffic we have put up a nonlocking gate at the end of the driveway where it joins their property. The property owners are now saying we have no legal right to install the gate. The parish of Iberia were I live was going to build a road that would have gone between our lots and the easement was 60 foot but they decide to do away with that easement and went with the 30 foot drainage easement on my side of the boundry line. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. What should I watch out for? My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. It seems that I would be giving up substantial property rights were I to grant the easement, and that the unrecorded quality of the easement seems sneaky. What should I watch out for? We and our adjacent neighbors are in a dispute over a 4 foot high concrete retaining wall that straddles both of our property lines. We’ve had large clay terra-cotta pots sitting on top of retaining wall with lattice in the pots to obscure the neighbors privacy fence, which is few feet back from the retaining wall. Recently (last week), they decided to start objecting to the clay pots (which are on their property, according to their survey). Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? The easement borders my entire property line, I have a private driveway off the easement to my house. The neighbor who lives directly behind me says that when I pull off the paved part of the easement over the grass part of the easement (approx. 10 ft) to get to my front yard, I am tresspassing over his property. He has called the police 4 times in the past 6 months accusing me of trespassing when I park my car in my yard. Do I have the right to access my property from the easement? Does he have the right to call the state police to my house everytime I park in my yard? I have a 1 acre peice of property in a gated community. There is a 14 ft utility easement at the front of my property as there is a transformer there. The HOA came in on my property and installed Electrical power panels to service a gate for back entry/ exit to the sub division. They did not have my permission. They also dug a trench completely across my property about 2 feet wide to reach the transformer for power to the gate and when finished left my property in a mess. My question is, did the HOA have the right to do what they did without my permission? I purchased a commercial building in Maryland and attempted to get an occupancy permit for a tenant. The town conditioned approval with a request for me to grant easements to the town for the maintenance of sewer lines running under my property and to enter my property to inspect them. These easements, if granted, would severely limit my ability to add on to my building and park in my lot. If they don’t agree to negotiate more favorable terms (to me) can I cap off the sewer lines with impunity? May they condition an occupancy permit on an unrelated grant of an easement to them? Have access to irrigation water via a pipeline across neighbors property. Helped to pay for pipeline that supplies water to their parcel, and to our pipeline. New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? I recently discovered that a contractor has run a water line to the house that he is building on property adjacent to ours. The contractor has placed this line inside the 10′ easement on our property rather than disturb the paving that covers the 10′ easement on the adjacent property. Is this legal? City wants a pipeline easement across a small section of the backside of the property. Now heres the question – if I take their ca$h, and later after the work is done , water or gas line leaks show up, say in my yard, is the city liable? What is a “non-assignable and exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and across the following described lands:…” New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? Because we’ve lived in the house (for 12 years) and maintained the retaining wall before and after it was rebuilt, and paid entirely for the reconstruction of the wall, does this give us a right to a prescriptive easement (i.e. right to own the wall completely) overriding the neighbor’s survey, which they claim gives them exclusive ownership rights? Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? My deed states that an adjacent landowner has a strip beside my property that is “as wide as a road”….their deed says a 60 foot wide strip. In 1924 the two deeds said the same thing, but the next time the land changed hands, the 60 ft. was specified. Since it was not recorded on both deeds, can this be legal? The electric and cable companies apparently have an easement on our property although I am unable to find proof of this in our deed and abstract. We do not subscribe to cable and our electric is fed to the property from another line (not on our property) have asked the companies to please fix the cables/wires that they are encroaching on my ability to use my own property and it poses a safety risk. What can I do? Recently there has been a change of ownership on one of the properties. The new owner has a teenage son. The parents leave town often and leave the son alone. While the parents are away the son has been throwing parties where there is teenage drinking. We are concerned that at some point one of these underage drunk children will cause and/or have an accident that will result in death or injury while crossing our property. Can we be held liable if something like this should occur? Other than calling law enforcement to alert them to the party is there any thing else we can do to protect ourselves? As a small Home Owners Association in Washington state, we have a plated 60 foot access & egress easement which has existed for over 20 years. The easement in question passes across a tiny segment of the 5 acres of a single member’s property but they are exceedingly resistant to expanding the margin of the easement though the expansion will be into a completely unused area of their property and out of sight and will fully address their and our membership’s concerns of liability/risk. Given the facts above, within reason, and without damaging in any way the associate member’s property or its value does our Homeowner’s association have a right to demand the expansion of the easement margin? I purchased a narrow lot two houses from my house in 2005. My neighbor whose house next to my narrow lot bought his house in 1998. He constructed sliding iron front gates on track in front of his house sometime after which I am not sure. But it is very likely that was more than 5 years ago. About 8-10 feet of the track is on my property(I have a survey done). Now my question is would it still work if I give notice of permission for him to continue to use it to park his cars in order to prevent a potential claim of prescriptive easement? This family has settled this land 100 years ago. At the turn of the century loggers started this road to reach the top of this ridge which crossed thier land as will as someone elses. When the second generation owner sold 30 acres next to this 500 feet she recorded an easement back in 1968. So that they could still use this pathway. Now the current owner of the 30 acres complained to the forest service and the have recently de-constructed the pathway, and put up concrete barriers. The question is does the national forest have to recognize perscriptive easements? A piece of land I am thinking of buying is land locked but has a deeded Right of way that is 10ft wide and 50 feet long in PA. Can I pave or lay gravel down on this section to help my vehicle get thru. I Live on a Busy Street and my Neighbor with Easement Access Leaves my Gate Unlocked and Open, What can I do? My neighbor wants an easement on my property for his proposed sewer line. We will be selling our property within the next nine months. Are there any legal, physical or real estate sales issues if we grant the easement? What is the value of this easement? I own a building with another company and there is an easement on the property. There is a restrictive covenant which states I am to provide “reasonable permanent access” to this easement. What is meant by reasonable permanent access? The owners of the land over which our easement runs is in the process of having a home built on the second parcel and one of the conditions of their building permit is that they must run sewer lines back to the house (we are on septic) and the only place where the sewer lines can run is up the middle of the 150′ easement road. The builders informed us that when the sewer company puts in the sewer, that we will not have access to our property for three days. The sewer installers have further said that they will not put down the steel plates common to such an installation as the expense is too great. Can the owner of the easement and/or their contractors deny us access during this process? For past few months, My neighbors (12 people) are now constantly using their basement door and my driveway as their main door, even their guest use it as a entrance door even though they have their front door and it is becoming extremely difficult to use my driveway where I park my cars(because of their constant presence, sitting in the driveway, children playing in the driveway etc), when I ask them to stop sitting or playing, they apologize, but keep repeating, them blocking my driveway with their cars is also becoming a problem. How to solve this problem, Is their a legal way? Can I stop them from using my driveway? I live in the state of NY and I have a right of way on a piece of property from 1970. This was used for a turn around and a place for the kids to play. It is 50-100ft, we are at the end of a dead end street. The town just abandoned this piece for a neighbor to have a driveway to get to there new house. Can this be legally done? My right of way was also included with the deed given to the town when they took over the road in 1992. Is a verbal easement legal and binding? We are planning on building a home with our frontage being on a private road that has five homes on it. We have a written easement with our neighbor right across from us. But we have had a verbal easement with our neighbor that sits at the start of the private road for about three years now. Dose a verbal easement eventually become legal or our we going to be having problems? Do we even need a written easement from him with us all ready having a easement to our frontage? We live in a site built condominium association. We share a drainage/walkway easement with our next door neighbors according to our plat map which is what our township considers. A state park trail runs along the east side of our development. We have always invited the homes in the development to access the trail by walking through our yard. A few in the association now want to put a sidewalk through to make the walkway more official. Do we have to go by what the township says about where the easement is or by the Master Deed? Do we have to allow a sidewalk through our yards? Does a Condo Association have the legal right to build a sidewalk on a walk-way easement? An easement was approved by the township to allow residents access to a public walking trail, this easement was defined as a 20ft area between two adjoining lots. Does a Condo Association have the right to make such improvements; even if the owners of the lots do not agree with this (assuming it properly approved by a majority of residents)? I am buying a home on 1.34 acres of land and should be closing on it in about a month. The owner of another acre directly behind my land would like to sell the land to me the land is currently landlocked. What would I have to do to purchase this land? I’m assuming this means that I need to have an easement? If so, is this costly? What is the difference between an easement for INGRESS AND EGRESS (not exclusive) as opposed to an easement “OVER AND ACROSS” lands? The easements run through a gated community to a river. We are not a part of the HOA. WE recently bought a 2nd home on the river. The property has a boat ramp on it. The latest Platte chart, only shows the outline of our property, no indication of a boat ramp. AND there are no easements recorded to date. BUT, everyone allows everyone to share… We’ve asked that they sign a waiver of liability in exchange for permission of using the ramp, since this is our 2nd home and we cannot maintain the ramp non-stop. We’ve been indirectly threatened that an easement by prescription will be placed on our ramp… What are our rights? My husband and I purchased a piece of land 17 years ago which consisted of a working commercial fish hatchery, buildings and 3 homes. There is a piece of property between us and the county road on which we have “a non-exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and under a piece of land 20 feet in width”. We now have a new owner of the property on which we have the easement who is claiming that we don’t have the right to have this business as the easement is for a single family residence access only. Can he stop us from having this business which has been in existence since 2004? I own an undeveloped 5 ac parcel in California. Upon having it surveyed, I learned that my neighbor’s driveway falls as much as 20′ outside of the easement. The easement is 60′ (30′ of which is on my property) for a one lane gravel road. Can I insist the road be moved to regain my property? Is it my responsibility to rebuild it, or the responsibility of the neighbor? I recently purchased 9 acres of land that has an easement attached to it. There is a 40 foot public road easement that was granted back in the 70’s on the property and has never been used. We want to build a new house on the property. The only access is a driveway tile installed right on this 40′ easement. We have been told that if we build there and use this drive as our access we could possibly be sued or the owner of the easement could put a lien on our property. Is this true? If we are not blocking his access in any way, are we not entitled to use this drive to get to our house? My home is landlocked but has a road easement for access purposes. I know want to subdivide the property into 4 parcels. Do I need additional easements for all the new properties? I live in a home with a 20 ft easement driveway from the main road to a semi public lake. Home owners have been granted ingress & egress to the lake. There are 3 houses and 1 duplex on the easement driveway. About 20 years ago the owner of our home built and maintained a dock that sits just off the natural water line of the lake and it meets all state codes and is legally there. We bought the home 7 years ago and we have maintained the dock and keep our boat anchor during the summer. Can the owners of the duplex give their tenants the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Can the tenants of the duplex give anyone (i.e., friends, neighbors, relatives, etc.,) the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Do we have the right to prohibit the tenants from the dock even though we have no paperwork showing ownership of the dock? Can the Board of a HOA enter a private property within the community that happens to have the waterfall circuit board and the sprinkler system control panel located on their property? We can’t find anywhere in the documents or bylaws where the board was given a utility easement or access easement to get to these panels. Do we have a right to enter a backyard to access the control panels without a documented easement? Can this homeowner forbid us access to the panels? My neighbor has planted a hedge that is growing across my property. I asked him to trim it back so it would still look nice, but be on his property. He not only has let it grown further (he claims he’s using the easement, which half happens to be over MY boundary line). He called the police on me, and they said I could be arrested if I touched his plants Why can he cut my bushes on MY property, yet he can continue to encroach on mine? Does he have the right to let his plants grow over the easement that is on my property? We own a property on a private road with 14 homes. We all have septic and wells. We have an irreparable septic problem. We have been denied a permit for a new on-lot septic option. Our neighbors have reported us to county and local government. Thus causing us to enter into the legal system to fight it. We have a developer who is ready to put in a private line to a sewer main. All that we need is for the neighbors to sign giving us an easement to put it in along the private road. They are giving us a hard time about it and will not sign. Is there anyway to force the easement through so that we can fix our problem? There is an access easement on my property so that my neighbor can access his yard (they use my driveway). I am wanting to build a fence on my property line which would cross a small portion at the end of the easement. I would not be hindering his access to his backyard, but he is against my building the fence. Would I legally be able to build the fence as long as I am not keeping him from getting into his backyard (egress and ingress)? We have allowed our neighbors to use the back portion of our yard for almost five years in exchange for the landscaping they did for us. Their house is directly behind ours, and they did not have room for their son and daughter to play. They have paid the water bill, but no insurance, property taxes, mortgage, etc. Do we need to have a formal easement agreement? Can they take over our property and assume ownership after a prescribed length of time? The Dominant tenant has a right to cross my backyard to access her own backyard. The easement is 6 feet wide. Am I allowed to develop this area of land at all (low wood deck, asphalt, concrete etc). I do not intend to impede her access at all. The original property owner gave an easement and “right-of-way for the purpose of ingress & egress and to run with said land and to be transferable therewith; reserving unto the grantor the right to use said road & grant others a like easement and right-of-way.” I am putting an underground sprinkler system in the front yard but the neighbor insists that it will be in the easement area. The sprinkler heads will be flush with the ground and will not impede traffic flow. Is this allowed? There is very little likelihood that the road will ever be paved or taken over by the state. What are my rights? Three homes drive over our properties this easement . On the deed its state non exclusive easement for ingress and egress. I been having a bad time with a neighbor that drives over my land and the neighbors land, his dogs attacked me on my property and I find him. Now he wont stop driving past my house fast and he will come to a complete stop and peel out right in front of my house on this easement road. Is there any law that will help me on private easement roads with endangerment or damages. The dog attack is on record .the police wont touch private roads in Washington state. They told me that he has to go out onto the public road. Is this right? I have speed limit signs and a speed pump on a gravel road which we all agreed on even him, so I want to know what I can do by law to stop him, is this harassment? An easement through an unincorporated HOA community in Yavapai County, AZ allows access through the community to landlocked abutting Property. Easement metes and bounds describe a route somewhat different from existing roads. Owner has unfettered access. Adherence to the described easement would require demo of some existing construction and construction of new roads. What are respective rights of community and easement grantee (Property owner)? For example, does the law allow the Property owner unrestricted rights to treat the route of his described easement however he deems necessary irrespective of the current use of that property? I have recently purchased 20 acres of land in Indiana that was considered landlocked and was given a proper easement to said land for ingress and egress and utilities. The problem we have run into after residing here for 1 year is there is no signage or notification of where our easement begins off of a private drive. Am I allowed to put signage (my family name, private drive, no trespassing, etc…) at the beginning of our easement to recognize what the easements intent is and to deter unwanted traffic? The owner of the land has forbade us to place any signage on their property (our easement) at this time. My house (primary residence) is on a lot without well defined borders to my neighbors. The grassy yard flows right into my neighbor property and there are some trees that act as a division but according to the plot plan my property runs well past them. Her lawn service cleans part of my lot (the part after the trees) and I worried she might think her yard is bigger than it is. How do I make sure after time she does not claim rights to the part of the yard she cleans? I recently purchased property that the driveway goes through my land, and continues to my new neighbors property. The “neighbor” is already giving me a hard time about keeping up with the driveway such as plowing snow up to the end of my property, not just where my family needs to park. She also stated that the “right of way” was in their deed. My deed has no information pertaining to giving them “right of way” through my property. If I have to give them access, shouldn’t it be stated in my deed also? I am wanting to know if we had allowed an easement across our property for another property owner to have access to their property behind us and now they are selling their property and the buyer is an adjoining property owner that will now have access to the property from his own property will be still have to allow access or use of the easement that is running through our property? We have given a 60 foot road easement for the purpose of ingress and egress to an adjacent property which is landlocked. The easement is situated on a steep sand hill which washes out easily. Previous owners have maintained the road and did not destroy the 60 foot easement. The current owner had not maintained the road and now are driving from side to side of the 60 feet to avoid the ruts that they have created. We have placed barriers on the side, leaving the previously maintained road clear. We have been told by one source that we could place gates at each side of the easement as long as we do not lock them without giving the adjacent property owner a key. Do we have the right to do this or do we have to allow these owners to destroy our land. I live in Texas, the property that I bought had an unrecorded easement. I would like to know if it is possible for the people using this easement to legally have the width of it extended from about 12ft. to 20ft.? I have an Easement on my land that specifically states for ingress and egress purpose to a land locked piece of land. The location of the easement lies in an area that one can only access the land locked land by foot. My question is, what can I do and what can I not do with that land that belongs to me? Can I erect a building, On the Easement, that dose not hinder the travel to and from the land locked land or can I not? A Real Estate Developer wants an Easement to my property. The Developer wants an easement to install a sewer line. Since, the Developer stands to gain capital from the installation of the sewer lines. Shouldn’t I be compensated at a commercial rate? Do I have to allow this easement? Two neighbors and I went together and put in a well for the purpose of irrigating our yards. We equally divided the cost of the well, pump, etc. Now the neighbor on whose property the well is located is selling her home. How can my other neighbor and I retain the legal right to use the well after the property is sold? I live in Maine and have house with a deeded right of way through someone’s property to get to my house. My deeded right of way is stated as 50 ft. My driveway is very narrow, only about 8 ft. wide. Could I tar the rest of the 50 ft. if I want? What are my rights? Right across the road from my property are my and one neighbor’s mailboxes. They turn come from their home and turn around in my driveway when they get their mail because it is more convenient for them to do that. Recently, they accused me of some things and I told them to not come on my property anymore. I have a number of questions concerning a private road easement which goes through our property along the floor of a steep valley. A mid portion stretch of the road goes through our property. I would like to access the property at the bottom of the hill for recreational activities and for maintenance (i.e. removing debris that periodically gets washed down, or dead trees that may have fallen). I have verbally asked the neighbors if it was OK for me to use of the road and they have declined. The easement in question was recorded in 1983. This is all news to us. We never were asked or notified. We bought property in 1977 and title search at that time showed no easements. I have a drainage easement (swale)running the back 20 feet of my property. Because of the overwhelming water we have been recieving, the “swale” is causing the water to pond, and as a result, my backyard is collapsing rapidly, and my basement is flooding during heavy rain. I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. This is for the purpose of developing his property and he is requesting three separate easements across our property. We share a reciprocal driveway easement with our neighbors, they park on our property and we drive across theirs. The easement documentation provides that we share in the costs of paving the easement. Some of our trees hanging over the area where they park have old, thick branches that could fall and damage their cars. Who is responsible for trimming the trees and keeping them safe? We have painted our remodeled home on three sides and our neighbor is denying us access to use the area beyond the 12 inches (which is on his property) to paint the wall. My neighbor has recently erected a barrier preventing us from driving across that portion of “her” driveway. It’s almost impossible to drive in 1 of 2 cars into the 2 car garage with this barrier. We have the deed and have had our property surveyed which clearly show our property line, however the property line is adjacent to an easement for a driveway. Our neighbor decided to pave the driveway which is on our property. Our deed has nothing in it about an easement being on our property. We were recently sent a letter from the local sewer authority requesting that we sign the attached right-of-way agreement and grant of right-of-way for an existing sewer line on our property for the sum of $1.00. Should we do it? After this new owner had his land surveyed he realized that I, and my neighbor, drove across a ~ 250 sq. ft piece of land in the nethermost corner of his 93 acre holding. This small piece of his adjoining property has been used continuously as a driveway entrance to our properties since their development 40 years ago. We have a 10 foot easement on the back end of our land as likewise do the owners of the field in the back. They would have to cut down 2 30 (foot) trees that are in our yard to do this. They told me at a meeting that if I did not give them the right of this easement through my property that they would condem that part of my yard and use it anyway. Our sewer line goes across our neighbor’s property. It was that way when each of us bought our properties. Now I need to replace the sewer line, and we can’t find any recorded easement. If our neighbor tries to keep us from replacing our sewer line, will we be able to prevail based on a prescriptive easement? In California, who is required to maintain an existing roadway easement across my neighbor’s land that allows access to my house? We recently acquired a piece of property that has an easement running on one side of it for 2 property owners to pass to get to their houses. Now a third person wants us to sign an agreement for an easement. We want to know what is the normal procedure for an easement? Our neighbor has an easement across our land, which he has permission to use. However, we just found out that all along he has been using property which is 5 feet outside of the permitted easement area. Now he wants to pave it. Does he have a prescriptive easement for the area which he was using which was outside of the original permitted easemenet area? Our property has an easement to the adjacent land to allow for farming. Now they are selling that land and intend to convert it to residential with “road” access down our easement. My neighbor’s chickens are constantly on my land. Is there any kind of easement that they could acquire over time on my property if I continue to allow this? How can we get someone who inherited our right of way (ROW) easement to deal with us? I want to move soon and rent out my house. Would I reduce my chances for keeping an easement I have on a neighboring lot if the other owner decides to bring a lawsuit to disclaim the easement and I don’t live here? The easement across our land is unusable. If I cut a road for my needs on my property (not on the easement) do the easement owners have the right to use my new road? I live in the Texas and want to know what size easement is required for an electrical line? What is an easement in gross? If you have paid a neighbor for use of a strip of land can they put a 4 foot high post at the corner of it, even though you were very clear that you were going to use it for a drive for your cars? Someone has built a house down the block from us and has decided to put a dock 20 feet from us, and instead of making his own access to his dock he has decided to use ours. What can we do? My wife and I recently bought a house on 80 acres that has an easement. The easement owner wants to use it to cross cattle; can we keep him from doing so? We want to change an existing easement by moving it 3 feet. This will not fundamentally change the easement owner’s access. The easement owner does not want us to make the change. Can we change the location of the easement under the circumstances described? Does an Implied Eastment of Necessity exist? I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. Is a prescriptive easement through notorious use automatic? The small town where I’ve lived for 15 years is now telling me that the “city mainâ€? is really a private service line. Over the years I have replaced all my outside sewer lines – this was before I realized the line ran across neighbors’ yards and where the actual problem lays. How do I go about getting an easement that would provide my home future protection? I feel like I’m being forced into giving the county a drainage easement. Can the county force me to give them a drainage easement? I would like to know if I can fight an easement that is already in place on the land I purchased An agreement between a townhome homeowners association and a neighboring condo homeowners association includes financial contributions for upkeep of property easements. Can one demand financial accountability from the other? An easement is a right-of-way you grant to someone to cross your land whenever they need to. Governments can force easements through the use of eminent domain law. Private groups have no such power.
How Do I Know Which Kind of Easement I Have?
I am one of a group of property owners that owns land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. This is all dirt road and these owners say that we will be responsible for maintaining it. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by peoples backyards with no access to it unless you enter through our property. My and my neighbor’s property lines run across the same pond and back to land on the other side, splitting the pond in 3 sections. Questions exist as to if property lines exist within water, and thus required to stay within property lines, or does entire pond become available for full use of all 3 owners? I am a homeowner. My property has a transformer unit/box on my ground property. On June 2, 2012 an unknown auto hit the box and caused a power outage. The outage was repaired and now the utility company is billing me for the damages because the transformer is on my property. Can they hold me liable to it if it was not me or any family member who caused the damage? The person who did the damage is unknown because it happened overnight while the entire street was asleep. What steps do I have to take to stop my neighbor from using our private driveway? My neighbors next to us pull into their driveway to enter their premisses but use our driveway to enter the main road. They have at times even pulled into our driveway to be able to go to the back of their house. We have asked them many times to stop doing this because we are afraid one day that we might have an accident. When they use our driveway, they fly out their very fast so we don’t see them using it. We live in New Jersey and have a 40-foot deeded necessary easement type right-of-way through a neighbor’s property. Lately he has begun parking large tractor-trailer size vehicles for long periods of time to one side of the easement. Although it’s an eyesore, it doesn’t impede our ability to get to our home as our driveway is much narrower than 40 feet. Is this permitted by law, and if so, will it have any effect on the conditions of the easement? Our HOA’s common area is subject to an equestrian easement. The city wants to use the easement and build a 10 feet wide bike trail. This would require that many of the trees on that part of the property to be cut down. We are afraid that this will cause a reduction in our property value. Is there any way we can fight the easement? We are located in Goleta, County of Santa Barbara, California. I am a resident of Louisiana and have purchased a property with easement issues. This property was once part of a larger tract. The original landowner used the house and an area of land around the house as collateral for a building loan. There was an easement included that went from the road to the house. After this, the landowner dug a very large pond across the easement. He built a limestone driveway that went around the pond to get to the house. This was never stated to be a legal easement. Our house was built in a development in the State of New York in 2008 that connected our road to another in the development. There is a 10′ drainage easement on the WEST side of the property (our side lot). Now, the Town wants to put SWALES through 4 feet of our front yard. Our question is: The Town has no drainage easement on the front of our property, I have thoroughly researched the Deed. I live in Tiburon, CA. I own a swimming pool and have a legal easement, with my next-door neighbor, that his tenants can use the pool. If one of his tenants were injured, on my property where the pool is located, would I be legally responsible? I have a house on a lake, and next to the lot is an easement. The people across the street say that the easement is a deeded easement and it is on all of their titles so they have a right to put a dock on the easement. I would not have a problem with that, except that the dock is only about half a foot away from my property line. Are they able to put the dock on the easement legally? I’m trying to work out an exchange of easements with a neighbor who owns property on both sides of me. I need an easement across one of their properties in order to reach an otherwise inaccessible part of my property, and they want an easement across my property to get from one to the other of theirs. My deed states that the nonexclusive right of way, which is the driveway to my property was bought, paid for and is transferred with the property to future owners. My question: Do I have to share the driveway with the property owner? The property adjoining the driveway was bought by another person who lays claim to the driveway, or right of way, of access. Do I have to maintain the road at my total expense if other property owners are using it? “I am having an issue with the utility company in NYS. The title was searched, and there was no recorded ROW or Easement with the Town or County. I contacted the company to have them remove the pole and now they are saying they have a notarized unrecorded document granting them easement dating back to 1967. Is this a legal easement, and am I now out of luck with them moving it? Thank you for your assistance.” What rights do I have to compel neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. What rights do I have to compel a neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. Prior to selling me the property, the neighbor owned both my lot and the adjacent lot, where he built his home. I just bought a foreclosed home and my neighbor has told me the previous owner gave him easement for his septic. You can see where it was put in as the ground has been freshly dug. It is about five feet from my pole barn. We live in a small town in northern Michigan where it is not uncommon for people to dig a whole and drop a fuel oil tank to hold their sewage. Recently, we erected a fence on our property and about 1 foot of it extends onto the conservation easement. Do we need to be concerned? We did get a permit but have not yet been visited by a township inspector. If/when the inspector comes by, will he or she look to see where the easement is and, if so, will we be required to move the fence? I am one of a group of property owner that own land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by the backyards of others with no access to it unless you enter through our property. I’ve been cleaning since 1984 when I purchased the property. My house and my neighbors house share a common sewer line; that is, my sewer line crosses over into their property and then connects with their sewer line. The combined line connects with the main sewer running underneath the city street. The neighbor has started doing major renovations and has broken the sewer lines as part of their foundation work. I received an “Unauthorized use of Easement” letter from the electric company notarized and signed by an attorney. The electric company is recording the unauthorized use of the easement in Real Property Records in our state of Texas. A residential developer, who wanted to develop a tract of property adjacent to ours, has approached my sister and me about placing a detention pond and easement, which the city required his development to have, across our property in exchange for the purchase of our property within a specified future date and price per acre. We agreed to allow the easement and detention pond subject to the execution of 2 agreements drawn up by the developer: (1) Option to Purchase Real Estate with a scheduled execution date of Sept. 2005, and (2) Agreement of Intent to Develop Real Estate which specified a scheduled execution date of Feb. 2006, and which he signed. My neighbor bought an overgrown wooded lot (about an acre) which has two water run off easements running through it and has since the subdivision was built in the 1960’s. This property they bought borders our property. One of the easements runs through our backyard, through their property and then into an agricultural pond not owned by them. I have a Swimming Pool easement with my next-door neighbor. The easement includes a bathroom with a toilet. My next-door neighbor hired a plumber to unclog the toilet, however he did not contact me about this toilet problem. He wants me to pay for part of the $680.00 bill. I live in Tiburon, CA. Am I responsible for this bill? I have sprinklers near the road which are continually run over or damaged. Is it legal for me to put up stakes or blocks to protect them? I have a private easement pole in my yard and my neighbor has tapped it with lines that run across my property, directly where I want to install a pool. What can I do? We live in a lake front community and own docks. Our HOA is now demanding a lease payment for these docks, some of which are over 25 years old. Can they do that? I’ve just discovered that my gas meter was servicing my neighbor’s utility room. The electric company told me it was my responsibility to correct it, which I’ve done. Does my neighbor have any obligation for part of the repair bill? My property has a water easement on it. Recently, I have had three pipes fixed and my monthly bill has been approximately $1800. Could the leaks I’m experiencing be a result of the easement? Our HOA is using our driveway, designated as a utility easement for the local water company, to check the status of a water tower several times a day. Do they have the right to do this? My property has a utility easement, of which the city has completely restricted access. Can they do this, since it affects a large area of my property? My neighbor, who has access to a joint easement “right of way” is building property that requires access through another homeowner’s right of way. That neighbor does not want to extend his access for this new property. We are hoping to avoid litigation. Do you have any advice? My neighbor’s property has a mineral right easement on it. A gas company, in order to easily access their new well, want to use a road on my property. Can I deny them? We were unaware of a 20 foot easement when we purchased our property and are now having trouble selling the home because of the easement. Do we have any recourse? We need to move an easement line over about 10 feet. How do we legally do this? Our road association is making changes that have not been approved by all homeowners and seem to be exceeding their authority. How can we find out whether they are within their legal rights? My neighbor won’t grant me a utility easement, in order for me to get electricity to the home I am building, unless I sell him another lot at half price. Do I have any recourse? I have a utility easement in my backyard. What rights do I have regarding getting the utility company to inform me when they will be accessing my yard and can I request they bury the four cables, currently above ground, running through my yard? We share a driveway, from which we access our horses, with other property owners. One neighbor wants to put in an electric gate, which would impede our ability to ride our horses out of our property safely. Do we have a position to argue the fact that we do not want the gate? A municipality sold land, that actually belonged to me, to my neighbor. Although my neighbor is willing to quit-claim the property back to me, who is responsible for the correcting the excavating that was done? My attorney failed to disclose, at closing, that there was an easement across my property. Can I sue him? Do I have an automatic easement if I own a property that has always used the well and septic system from an adjoining property? My Easement runs along my entire North Property Line where 1 of the subdivision road is now, which I utilize until the road takes a hard right and I go straight onto my easement (which we have solely maintained since 1978) down to my property to access my driveway/property, at the end on the left (straight ahead is the Corps Property/Lake). The problem is the relatively new neighbor (2001). Over the last 7 years, he rarely came up and if he did was not a nuisance but over the last 6 months or so, has come up more often and utilizing my Easement. I tried to politely explain that the Easement is not for parking and to utilize his property only; however, he got belligerent and insisted that I had no authority to tell him were to park or not and that he’d soon own it!!! Short of a Civil Suit, who has the Authority to tell him he can’t park on it??? I bought a an acre and a half with a 30 foot easement with a ditch on my side of the property line that goes from the road to a canal. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. She has no easements on her side. The developer plans to build a concrete driveway on the easement (Easement “A”), and place his utility lines along side, on the our- property side of the driveway. In addition to laying out the concrete drive, he plans to create a large entryway where the easement joins the public road and landscape to further (visually) associate the entire easement, as well as his untouched and unused 15 ft. wide, 200 ft. long flag pole, with his property, thus expanding his property footprint and increasing its market value while significantly diminishing ours. I have contacted the law office of the attorneys who drafted the document, and they refuse to clarify the intent of their language. Do the words “ingress and egress” mean that my neighbor can pour a driveway on the easement? My neighbors have begun building a locking auto mated gate with an alarm system and security cameras at the street- side- end of the driveway. Can the benefactors of an express easement for only “driveway and utility purposes” build a gate on what is, save for the easement, my property? If not, can I stop them without the hassle and expense of a survey and lawsuit? At some point in time a previous lot owner cleared a path along this easement and now it is used by the neighborhood as a road. Our association has notified the current property owners that they will no longer provide snow removal as this is private property and not an established road (county assessor confirmed). Now, if the county assessors records show there is no established road and only two lots with a utility easement then can the current property owners claim a grandfather clause and demand continued snow service as they have received in previous years?” I want to build a fence across my property line which would result in me building a retaining wall and filling in my part of the pond. Do I need to file some sort of easement with the property owner to be able to build a retaining wall even if the said wall would be solely within my property line?” We have been in several disagreements with the next door neighbor and he is the president of the HOA for our section of the community, but not for the whole governing community. What are my options, I have even offered to obtain the permits from the city and install a 12 inch pipe. This seems like a vendetta and not justice.” The City has recently developed upstream and the State has widened the road in front of my property and added drainage that runs through this ditch. Since flow has increased, should either entity have obtained an easement? We are in the process of selling our land and want to make sure the new owners have access to the water shut offs and sewer lines if neccessary. The lawyer won’t write up the easement with out the city noting where the water and sewer line lay. So is it legal for us to write up an agreement and have it notorized and signed by our neighbor? The city decided to clean out a old ditch and used my property for access, telling me there was an easement. All of the privacy trees and shrubs were removed and some property was destroyed in the process. My deed shows that there is not an easement on my property. What can I do about the damage which was caused? “I have a contract to buy a piece of property. During the survey, it was determined that a portion of the driveway is on “the brothers” (referred to as 2B’s from here on) land next door. And does the gas company have any rights to my land even though there is no pipe on it, a large (90′ pines with other tall vegetation under them) vegetative buffer barring the use of it, and no recorded easement (there is one on the 2B’s land and the previous owner was compensated for it; the 2B’s purchased their land with the easement already there)? Currently, the only people who use the easement are neighborhood children, many of whom ride their bicycles (and on one occasion, a gasoline-powered motorized scooter) through our front yard, past our house, through the backyard, and into the trees beyond. Our lawn is suffering serious damage because of this. Is it possible to vacate the pedestrian easement, and if so, how? The language of the easement grants the servient estate owner the right to relocate the easement. Does this allow the servient estate owner to create a separate right-of-way for each easement holder; thus requiring each easement holder to construct and maintain a separate roadway? I bought my property in October 2008 and I was told at signing that I had lot 14 and 14a. I have the lot 14a on my deed and then when i was putting up a fence on the opposing side of my ditch I ran into a conflict with my neigboor about this. I called the deeds office in the county and they say that the deed shows 14 and 14a as mine but it is an easement. What does this mean? Is this portion of land of 14a mine? We have been contacted by one of the family members of the person who once owned both plots of land. They believe that they own the 50 foot easement even though our deed says that it is part of our property. Do they really “own” this property? We recently purchased a 5 acre piece of property. Unfortunately we did not have access to the language of the document when we purchased the property. This is what was “told” to us about the easement when we purchased the property. Our neighbors have recently brought to our attention that we were mistaken about the extent of the length of the easement. They have stated that they intend to put a road the entire length of the easement– nearly 400 feet. Do they have the “right” to do all of these things? They removed the easement from the property, I have letters from the HOA and township validating this. The problem is that the water issue was not mitigated. My question is, since we were misinformed about the easement and the necessity of it, and since we have a major water issue and would not have purchased this home had that been disclosed to us, can we hold the HOA responsible to resolve this issue at their cost. In addition, if an easement is required on this property, can we hold the HOA liable for the dimished value of the home as a result? I have a property in the Hollywood Hills that is landlocked. Does anyone know if this is the right course? If so, how do I apply for an easement? Which department in the county do I need to contact? To get into our property we have to cross two other properties. Last fall when we paved our part of the driveway and the man in the middles driveway the contractor had some extra material and asked us if he could put it on the top of the driveway, of course we liked the idea of getting in and out easier but warned the contractor that the man on the top is very unreasonable and he would have to get his permission. Several months later we received a letter from his attorney who is also his nephew saying we had to remove the asphalt and take it back to dirt and gravel. Please give me some feedback on the situation. Can government entities explicitly grant Easement by Necessity to private landowners, particularly if the government entity may have created a landlock situation? How do we now establish access/egress to our lot? Do we stand a chance of convincing the Bureau of Reclamation to explicitly grant us use of the easement, which should satisfy the permitting requirement for the other bridge? My neighbor has an ingress and egress easement through my property. Can I have the neighbor sign a liability waiver? Would it be possible to have waiver written up to protect myself in California? We are a townhome community with a private road that connects to public streets on each end. Though we are responsible for all repairs to that private road, probably 90% of the traffic is cut-through traffic between the public streets. Could we legally close one end of this road permanently? Years ago a Water District acquired a residential parcel for construction of a water tank. The residential property has an easement for ingress/egress to an private road shared by over twenty other residential properties. The Water District (public utility) now is permitting a cellular company (private business) to apply for County permits to construct a cellular antenna facility on the property. Can the Water District give permission to the cellular company to use the private road to install and maintain the cellular facility when all of the other easement holders are in opposition? We bought a house/land 6 years ago and signed an ingress/egress easement with the previous owners to allow them the use of our driveway to access their property that adjoins ours. We are having major problems with the renters (& parents of the daycare children) speeding up and down our driveway and forcing us to get out of their way when we are on it. In an effort to slow down the traffic we have put up a nonlocking gate at the end of the driveway where it joins their property. The property owners are now saying we have no legal right to install the gate. The parish of Iberia were I live was going to build a road that would have gone between our lots and the easement was 60 foot but they decide to do away with that easement and went with the 30 foot drainage easement on my side of the boundry line. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. What should I watch out for? My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. It seems that I would be giving up substantial property rights were I to grant the easement, and that the unrecorded quality of the easement seems sneaky. What should I watch out for? We and our adjacent neighbors are in a dispute over a 4 foot high concrete retaining wall that straddles both of our property lines. We’ve had large clay terra-cotta pots sitting on top of retaining wall with lattice in the pots to obscure the neighbors privacy fence, which is few feet back from the retaining wall. Recently (last week), they decided to start objecting to the clay pots (which are on their property, according to their survey). Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? The easement borders my entire property line, I have a private driveway off the easement to my house. The neighbor who lives directly behind me says that when I pull off the paved part of the easement over the grass part of the easement (approx. 10 ft) to get to my front yard, I am tresspassing over his property. He has called the police 4 times in the past 6 months accusing me of trespassing when I park my car in my yard. Do I have the right to access my property from the easement? Does he have the right to call the state police to my house everytime I park in my yard? I have a 1 acre peice of property in a gated community. There is a 14 ft utility easement at the front of my property as there is a transformer there. The HOA came in on my property and installed Electrical power panels to service a gate for back entry/ exit to the sub division. They did not have my permission. They also dug a trench completely across my property about 2 feet wide to reach the transformer for power to the gate and when finished left my property in a mess. My question is, did the HOA have the right to do what they did without my permission? I purchased a commercial building in Maryland and attempted to get an occupancy permit for a tenant. The town conditioned approval with a request for me to grant easements to the town for the maintenance of sewer lines running under my property and to enter my property to inspect them. These easements, if granted, would severely limit my ability to add on to my building and park in my lot. If they don’t agree to negotiate more favorable terms (to me) can I cap off the sewer lines with impunity? May they condition an occupancy permit on an unrelated grant of an easement to them? Have access to irrigation water via a pipeline across neighbors property. Helped to pay for pipeline that supplies water to their parcel, and to our pipeline. New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? I recently discovered that a contractor has run a water line to the house that he is building on property adjacent to ours. The contractor has placed this line inside the 10′ easement on our property rather than disturb the paving that covers the 10′ easement on the adjacent property. Is this legal? City wants a pipeline easement across a small section of the backside of the property. Now heres the question – if I take their ca$h, and later after the work is done , water or gas line leaks show up, say in my yard, is the city liable? What is a “non-assignable and exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and across the following described lands:…” New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? Because we’ve lived in the house (for 12 years) and maintained the retaining wall before and after it was rebuilt, and paid entirely for the reconstruction of the wall, does this give us a right to a prescriptive easement (i.e. right to own the wall completely) overriding the neighbor’s survey, which they claim gives them exclusive ownership rights? Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? My deed states that an adjacent landowner has a strip beside my property that is “as wide as a road”….their deed says a 60 foot wide strip. In 1924 the two deeds said the same thing, but the next time the land changed hands, the 60 ft. was specified. Since it was not recorded on both deeds, can this be legal? The electric and cable companies apparently have an easement on our property although I am unable to find proof of this in our deed and abstract. We do not subscribe to cable and our electric is fed to the property from another line (not on our property) have asked the companies to please fix the cables/wires that they are encroaching on my ability to use my own property and it poses a safety risk. What can I do? Recently there has been a change of ownership on one of the properties. The new owner has a teenage son. The parents leave town often and leave the son alone. While the parents are away the son has been throwing parties where there is teenage drinking. We are concerned that at some point one of these underage drunk children will cause and/or have an accident that will result in death or injury while crossing our property. Can we be held liable if something like this should occur? Other than calling law enforcement to alert them to the party is there any thing else we can do to protect ourselves? As a small Home Owners Association in Washington state, we have a plated 60 foot access & egress easement which has existed for over 20 years. The easement in question passes across a tiny segment of the 5 acres of a single member’s property but they are exceedingly resistant to expanding the margin of the easement though the expansion will be into a completely unused area of their property and out of sight and will fully address their and our membership’s concerns of liability/risk. Given the facts above, within reason, and without damaging in any way the associate member’s property or its value does our Homeowner’s association have a right to demand the expansion of the easement margin? I purchased a narrow lot two houses from my house in 2005. My neighbor whose house next to my narrow lot bought his house in 1998. He constructed sliding iron front gates on track in front of his house sometime after which I am not sure. But it is very likely that was more than 5 years ago. About 8-10 feet of the track is on my property(I have a survey done). Now my question is would it still work if I give notice of permission for him to continue to use it to park his cars in order to prevent a potential claim of prescriptive easement? This family has settled this land 100 years ago. At the turn of the century loggers started this road to reach the top of this ridge which crossed thier land as will as someone elses. When the second generation owner sold 30 acres next to this 500 feet she recorded an easement back in 1968. So that they could still use this pathway. Now the current owner of the 30 acres complained to the forest service and the have recently de-constructed the pathway, and put up concrete barriers. The question is does the national forest have to recognize perscriptive easements? A piece of land I am thinking of buying is land locked but has a deeded Right of way that is 10ft wide and 50 feet long in PA. Can I pave or lay gravel down on this section to help my vehicle get thru. I Live on a Busy Street and my Neighbor with Easement Access Leaves my Gate Unlocked and Open, What can I do? My neighbor wants an easement on my property for his proposed sewer line. We will be selling our property within the next nine months. Are there any legal, physical or real estate sales issues if we grant the easement? What is the value of this easement? I own a building with another company and there is an easement on the property. There is a restrictive covenant which states I am to provide “reasonable permanent access” to this easement. What is meant by reasonable permanent access? The owners of the land over which our easement runs is in the process of having a home built on the second parcel and one of the conditions of their building permit is that they must run sewer lines back to the house (we are on septic) and the only place where the sewer lines can run is up the middle of the 150′ easement road. The builders informed us that when the sewer company puts in the sewer, that we will not have access to our property for three days. The sewer installers have further said that they will not put down the steel plates common to such an installation as the expense is too great. Can the owner of the easement and/or their contractors deny us access during this process? For past few months, My neighbors (12 people) are now constantly using their basement door and my driveway as their main door, even their guest use it as a entrance door even though they have their front door and it is becoming extremely difficult to use my driveway where I park my cars(because of their constant presence, sitting in the driveway, children playing in the driveway etc), when I ask them to stop sitting or playing, they apologize, but keep repeating, them blocking my driveway with their cars is also becoming a problem. How to solve this problem, Is their a legal way? Can I stop them from using my driveway? I live in the state of NY and I have a right of way on a piece of property from 1970. This was used for a turn around and a place for the kids to play. It is 50-100ft, we are at the end of a dead end street. The town just abandoned this piece for a neighbor to have a driveway to get to there new house. Can this be legally done? My right of way was also included with the deed given to the town when they took over the road in 1992. Is a verbal easement legal and binding? We are planning on building a home with our frontage being on a private road that has five homes on it. We have a written easement with our neighbor right across from us. But we have had a verbal easement with our neighbor that sits at the start of the private road for about three years now. Dose a verbal easement eventually become legal or our we going to be having problems? Do we even need a written easement from him with us all ready having a easement to our frontage? We live in a site built condominium association. We share a drainage/walkway easement with our next door neighbors according to our plat map which is what our township considers. A state park trail runs along the east side of our development. We have always invited the homes in the development to access the trail by walking through our yard. A few in the association now want to put a sidewalk through to make the walkway more official. Do we have to go by what the township says about where the easement is or by the Master Deed? Do we have to allow a sidewalk through our yards? Does a Condo Association have the legal right to build a sidewalk on a walk-way easement? An easement was approved by the township to allow residents access to a public walking trail, this easement was defined as a 20ft area between two adjoining lots. Does a Condo Association have the right to make such improvements; even if the owners of the lots do not agree with this (assuming it properly approved by a majority of residents)? I am buying a home on 1.34 acres of land and should be closing on it in about a month. The owner of another acre directly behind my land would like to sell the land to me the land is currently landlocked. What would I have to do to purchase this land? I’m assuming this means that I need to have an easement? If so, is this costly? What is the difference between an easement for INGRESS AND EGRESS (not exclusive) as opposed to an easement “OVER AND ACROSS” lands? The easements run through a gated community to a river. We are not a part of the HOA. WE recently bought a 2nd home on the river. The property has a boat ramp on it. The latest Platte chart, only shows the outline of our property, no indication of a boat ramp. AND there are no easements recorded to date. BUT, everyone allows everyone to share… We’ve asked that they sign a waiver of liability in exchange for permission of using the ramp, since this is our 2nd home and we cannot maintain the ramp non-stop. We’ve been indirectly threatened that an easement by prescription will be placed on our ramp… What are our rights? My husband and I purchased a piece of land 17 years ago which consisted of a working commercial fish hatchery, buildings and 3 homes. There is a piece of property between us and the county road on which we have “a non-exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and under a piece of land 20 feet in width”. We now have a new owner of the property on which we have the easement who is claiming that we don’t have the right to have this business as the easement is for a single family residence access only. Can he stop us from having this business which has been in existence since 2004? I own an undeveloped 5 ac parcel in California. Upon having it surveyed, I learned that my neighbor’s driveway falls as much as 20′ outside of the easement. The easement is 60′ (30′ of which is on my property) for a one lane gravel road. Can I insist the road be moved to regain my property? Is it my responsibility to rebuild it, or the responsibility of the neighbor? I recently purchased 9 acres of land that has an easement attached to it. There is a 40 foot public road easement that was granted back in the 70’s on the property and has never been used. We want to build a new house on the property. The only access is a driveway tile installed right on this 40′ easement. We have been told that if we build there and use this drive as our access we could possibly be sued or the owner of the easement could put a lien on our property. Is this true? If we are not blocking his access in any way, are we not entitled to use this drive to get to our house? My home is landlocked but has a road easement for access purposes. I know want to subdivide the property into 4 parcels. Do I need additional easements for all the new properties? I live in a home with a 20 ft easement driveway from the main road to a semi public lake. Home owners have been granted ingress & egress to the lake. There are 3 houses and 1 duplex on the easement driveway. About 20 years ago the owner of our home built and maintained a dock that sits just off the natural water line of the lake and it meets all state codes and is legally there. We bought the home 7 years ago and we have maintained the dock and keep our boat anchor during the summer. Can the owners of the duplex give their tenants the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Can the tenants of the duplex give anyone (i.e., friends, neighbors, relatives, etc.,) the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Do we have the right to prohibit the tenants from the dock even though we have no paperwork showing ownership of the dock? Can the Board of a HOA enter a private property within the community that happens to have the waterfall circuit board and the sprinkler system control panel located on their property? We can’t find anywhere in the documents or bylaws where the board was given a utility easement or access easement to get to these panels. Do we have a right to enter a backyard to access the control panels without a documented easement? Can this homeowner forbid us access to the panels? My neighbor has planted a hedge that is growing across my property. I asked him to trim it back so it would still look nice, but be on his property. He not only has let it grown further (he claims he’s using the easement, which half happens to be over MY boundary line). He called the police on me, and they said I could be arrested if I touched his plants Why can he cut my bushes on MY property, yet he can continue to encroach on mine? Does he have the right to let his plants grow over the easement that is on my property? We own a property on a private road with 14 homes. We all have septic and wells. We have an irreparable septic problem. We have been denied a permit for a new on-lot septic option. Our neighbors have reported us to county and local government. Thus causing us to enter into the legal system to fight it. We have a developer who is ready to put in a private line to a sewer main. All that we need is for the neighbors to sign giving us an easement to put it in along the private road. They are giving us a hard time about it and will not sign. Is there anyway to force the easement through so that we can fix our problem? There is an access easement on my property so that my neighbor can access his yard (they use my driveway). I am wanting to build a fence on my property line which would cross a small portion at the end of the easement. I would not be hindering his access to his backyard, but he is against my building the fence. Would I legally be able to build the fence as long as I am not keeping him from getting into his backyard (egress and ingress)? We have allowed our neighbors to use the back portion of our yard for almost five years in exchange for the landscaping they did for us. Their house is directly behind ours, and they did not have room for their son and daughter to play. They have paid the water bill, but no insurance, property taxes, mortgage, etc. Do we need to have a formal easement agreement? Can they take over our property and assume ownership after a prescribed length of time? The Dominant tenant has a right to cross my backyard to access her own backyard. The easement is 6 feet wide. Am I allowed to develop this area of land at all (low wood deck, asphalt, concrete etc). I do not intend to impede her access at all. The original property owner gave an easement and “right-of-way for the purpose of ingress & egress and to run with said land and to be transferable therewith; reserving unto the grantor the right to use said road & grant others a like easement and right-of-way.” I am putting an underground sprinkler system in the front yard but the neighbor insists that it will be in the easement area. The sprinkler heads will be flush with the ground and will not impede traffic flow. Is this allowed? There is very little likelihood that the road will ever be paved or taken over by the state. What are my rights? Three homes drive over our properties this easement . On the deed its state non exclusive easement for ingress and egress. I been having a bad time with a neighbor that drives over my land and the neighbors land, his dogs attacked me on my property and I find him. Now he wont stop driving past my house fast and he will come to a complete stop and peel out right in front of my house on this easement road. Is there any law that will help me on private easement roads with endangerment or damages. The dog attack is on record .the police wont touch private roads in Washington state. They told me that he has to go out onto the public road. Is this right? I have speed limit signs and a speed pump on a gravel road which we all agreed on even him, so I want to know what I can do by law to stop him, is this harassment? An easement through an unincorporated HOA community in Yavapai County, AZ allows access through the community to landlocked abutting Property. Easement metes and bounds describe a route somewhat different from existing roads. Owner has unfettered access. Adherence to the described easement would require demo of some existing construction and construction of new roads. What are respective rights of community and easement grantee (Property owner)? For example, does the law allow the Property owner unrestricted rights to treat the route of his described easement however he deems necessary irrespective of the current use of that property? I have recently purchased 20 acres of land in Indiana that was considered landlocked and was given a proper easement to said land for ingress and egress and utilities. The problem we have run into after residing here for 1 year is there is no signage or notification of where our easement begins off of a private drive. Am I allowed to put signage (my family name, private drive, no trespassing, etc…) at the beginning of our easement to recognize what the easements intent is and to deter unwanted traffic? The owner of the land has forbade us to place any signage on their property (our easement) at this time. My house (primary residence) is on a lot without well defined borders to my neighbors. The grassy yard flows right into my neighbor property and there are some trees that act as a division but according to the plot plan my property runs well past them. Her lawn service cleans part of my lot (the part after the trees) and I worried she might think her yard is bigger than it is. How do I make sure after time she does not claim rights to the part of the yard she cleans? I recently purchased property that the driveway goes through my land, and continues to my new neighbors property. The “neighbor” is already giving me a hard time about keeping up with the driveway such as plowing snow up to the end of my property, not just where my family needs to park. She also stated that the “right of way” was in their deed. My deed has no information pertaining to giving them “right of way” through my property. If I have to give them access, shouldn’t it be stated in my deed also? I am wanting to know if we had allowed an easement across our property for another property owner to have access to their property behind us and now they are selling their property and the buyer is an adjoining property owner that will now have access to the property from his own property will be still have to allow access or use of the easement that is running through our property? We have given a 60 foot road easement for the purpose of ingress and egress to an adjacent property which is landlocked. The easement is situated on a steep sand hill which washes out easily. Previous owners have maintained the road and did not destroy the 60 foot easement. The current owner had not maintained the road and now are driving from side to side of the 60 feet to avoid the ruts that they have created. We have placed barriers on the side, leaving the previously maintained road clear. We have been told by one source that we could place gates at each side of the easement as long as we do not lock them without giving the adjacent property owner a key. Do we have the right to do this or do we have to allow these owners to destroy our land. I live in Texas, the property that I bought had an unrecorded easement. I would like to know if it is possible for the people using this easement to legally have the width of it extended from about 12ft. to 20ft.? I have an Easement on my land that specifically states for ingress and egress purpose to a land locked piece of land. The location of the easement lies in an area that one can only access the land locked land by foot. My question is, what can I do and what can I not do with that land that belongs to me? Can I erect a building, On the Easement, that dose not hinder the travel to and from the land locked land or can I not? A Real Estate Developer wants an Easement to my property. The Developer wants an easement to install a sewer line. Since, the Developer stands to gain capital from the installation of the sewer lines. Shouldn’t I be compensated at a commercial rate? Do I have to allow this easement? Two neighbors and I went together and put in a well for the purpose of irrigating our yards. We equally divided the cost of the well, pump, etc. Now the neighbor on whose property the well is located is selling her home. How can my other neighbor and I retain the legal right to use the well after the property is sold? I live in Maine and have house with a deeded right of way through someone’s property to get to my house. My deeded right of way is stated as 50 ft. My driveway is very narrow, only about 8 ft. wide. Could I tar the rest of the 50 ft. if I want? What are my rights? Right across the road from my property are my and one neighbor’s mailboxes. They turn come from their home and turn around in my driveway when they get their mail because it is more convenient for them to do that. Recently, they accused me of some things and I told them to not come on my property anymore. I have a number of questions concerning a private road easement which goes through our property along the floor of a steep valley. A mid portion stretch of the road goes through our property. I would like to access the property at the bottom of the hill for recreational activities and for maintenance (i.e. removing debris that periodically gets washed down, or dead trees that may have fallen). I have verbally asked the neighbors if it was OK for me to use of the road and they have declined. The easement in question was recorded in 1983. This is all news to us. We never were asked or notified. We bought property in 1977 and title search at that time showed no easements. I have a drainage easement (swale)running the back 20 feet of my property. Because of the overwhelming water we have been recieving, the “swale” is causing the water to pond, and as a result, my backyard is collapsing rapidly, and my basement is flooding during heavy rain. I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. This is for the purpose of developing his property and he is requesting three separate easements across our property. We share a reciprocal driveway easement with our neighbors, they park on our property and we drive across theirs. The easement documentation provides that we share in the costs of paving the easement. Some of our trees hanging over the area where they park have old, thick branches that could fall and damage their cars. Who is responsible for trimming the trees and keeping them safe? We have painted our remodeled home on three sides and our neighbor is denying us access to use the area beyond the 12 inches (which is on his property) to paint the wall. My neighbor has recently erected a barrier preventing us from driving across that portion of “her” driveway. It’s almost impossible to drive in 1 of 2 cars into the 2 car garage with this barrier. We have the deed and have had our property surveyed which clearly show our property line, however the property line is adjacent to an easement for a driveway. Our neighbor decided to pave the driveway which is on our property. Our deed has nothing in it about an easement being on our property. We were recently sent a letter from the local sewer authority requesting that we sign the attached right-of-way agreement and grant of right-of-way for an existing sewer line on our property for the sum of $1.00. Should we do it? After this new owner had his land surveyed he realized that I, and my neighbor, drove across a ~ 250 sq. ft piece of land in the nethermost corner of his 93 acre holding. This small piece of his adjoining property has been used continuously as a driveway entrance to our properties since their development 40 years ago. We have a 10 foot easement on the back end of our land as likewise do the owners of the field in the back. They would have to cut down 2 30 (foot) trees that are in our yard to do this. They told me at a meeting that if I did not give them the right of this easement through my property that they would condem that part of my yard and use it anyway. Our sewer line goes across our neighbor’s property. It was that way when each of us bought our properties. Now I need to replace the sewer line, and we can’t find any recorded easement. If our neighbor tries to keep us from replacing our sewer line, will we be able to prevail based on a prescriptive easement? In California, who is required to maintain an existing roadway easement across my neighbor’s land that allows access to my house? We recently acquired a piece of property that has an easement running on one side of it for 2 property owners to pass to get to their houses. Now a third person wants us to sign an agreement for an easement. We want to know what is the normal procedure for an easement? Our neighbor has an easement across our land, which he has permission to use. However, we just found out that all along he has been using property which is 5 feet outside of the permitted easement area. Now he wants to pave it. Does he have a prescriptive easement for the area which he was using which was outside of the original permitted easemenet area? Our property has an easement to the adjacent land to allow for farming. Now they are selling that land and intend to convert it to residential with “road” access down our easement. My neighbor’s chickens are constantly on my land. Is there any kind of easement that they could acquire over time on my property if I continue to allow this? How can we get someone who inherited our right of way (ROW) easement to deal with us? I want to move soon and rent out my house. Would I reduce my chances for keeping an easement I have on a neighboring lot if the other owner decides to bring a lawsuit to disclaim the easement and I don’t live here? The easement across our land is unusable. If I cut a road for my needs on my property (not on the easement) do the easement owners have the right to use my new road? I live in the Texas and want to know what size easement is required for an electrical line? What is an easement in gross? If you have paid a neighbor for use of a strip of land can they put a 4 foot high post at the corner of it, even though you were very clear that you were going to use it for a drive for your cars? Someone has built a house down the block from us and has decided to put a dock 20 feet from us, and instead of making his own access to his dock he has decided to use ours. What can we do? My wife and I recently bought a house on 80 acres that has an easement. The easement owner wants to use it to cross cattle; can we keep him from doing so? We want to change an existing easement by moving it 3 feet. This will not fundamentally change the easement owner’s access. The easement owner does not want us to make the change. Can we change the location of the easement under the circumstances described? Does an Implied Eastment of Necessity exist? I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. Is a prescriptive easement through notorious use automatic? The small town where I’ve lived for 15 years is now telling me that the “city mainâ€? is really a private service line. Over the years I have replaced all my outside sewer lines – this was before I realized the line ran across neighbors’ yards and where the actual problem lays. How do I go about getting an easement that would provide my home future protection? I feel like I’m being forced into giving the county a drainage easement. Can the county force me to give them a drainage easement? I would like to know if I can fight an easement that is already in place on the land I purchased An agreement between a townhome homeowners association and a neighboring condo homeowners association includes financial contributions for upkeep of property easements. Can one demand financial accountability from the other? An easement is a right-of-way you grant to someone to cross your land whenever they need to. Governments can force easements through the use of eminent domain law. Private groups have no such power.
How Do I Know Which Kind of Easement I Have?
I am one of a group of property owners that owns land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. This is all dirt road and these owners say that we will be responsible for maintaining it. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by peoples backyards with no access to it unless you enter through our property. My and my neighbor’s property lines run across the same pond and back to land on the other side, splitting the pond in 3 sections. Questions exist as to if property lines exist within water, and thus required to stay within property lines, or does entire pond become available for full use of all 3 owners? I am a homeowner. My property has a transformer unit/box on my ground property. On June 2, 2012 an unknown auto hit the box and caused a power outage. The outage was repaired and now the utility company is billing me for the damages because the transformer is on my property. Can they hold me liable to it if it was not me or any family member who caused the damage? The person who did the damage is unknown because it happened overnight while the entire street was asleep. What steps do I have to take to stop my neighbor from using our private driveway? My neighbors next to us pull into their driveway to enter their premisses but use our driveway to enter the main road. They have at times even pulled into our driveway to be able to go to the back of their house. We have asked them many times to stop doing this because we are afraid one day that we might have an accident. When they use our driveway, they fly out their very fast so we don’t see them using it. We live in New Jersey and have a 40-foot deeded necessary easement type right-of-way through a neighbor’s property. Lately he has begun parking large tractor-trailer size vehicles for long periods of time to one side of the easement. Although it’s an eyesore, it doesn’t impede our ability to get to our home as our driveway is much narrower than 40 feet. Is this permitted by law, and if so, will it have any effect on the conditions of the easement? Our HOA’s common area is subject to an equestrian easement. The city wants to use the easement and build a 10 feet wide bike trail. This would require that many of the trees on that part of the property to be cut down. We are afraid that this will cause a reduction in our property value. Is there any way we can fight the easement? We are located in Goleta, County of Santa Barbara, California. I am a resident of Louisiana and have purchased a property with easement issues. This property was once part of a larger tract. The original landowner used the house and an area of land around the house as collateral for a building loan. There was an easement included that went from the road to the house. After this, the landowner dug a very large pond across the easement. He built a limestone driveway that went around the pond to get to the house. This was never stated to be a legal easement. Our house was built in a development in the State of New York in 2008 that connected our road to another in the development. There is a 10′ drainage easement on the WEST side of the property (our side lot). Now, the Town wants to put SWALES through 4 feet of our front yard. Our question is: The Town has no drainage easement on the front of our property, I have thoroughly researched the Deed. I live in Tiburon, CA. I own a swimming pool and have a legal easement, with my next-door neighbor, that his tenants can use the pool. If one of his tenants were injured, on my property where the pool is located, would I be legally responsible? I have a house on a lake, and next to the lot is an easement. The people across the street say that the easement is a deeded easement and it is on all of their titles so they have a right to put a dock on the easement. I would not have a problem with that, except that the dock is only about half a foot away from my property line. Are they able to put the dock on the easement legally? I’m trying to work out an exchange of easements with a neighbor who owns property on both sides of me. I need an easement across one of their properties in order to reach an otherwise inaccessible part of my property, and they want an easement across my property to get from one to the other of theirs. My deed states that the nonexclusive right of way, which is the driveway to my property was bought, paid for and is transferred with the property to future owners. My question: Do I have to share the driveway with the property owner? The property adjoining the driveway was bought by another person who lays claim to the driveway, or right of way, of access. Do I have to maintain the road at my total expense if other property owners are using it? “I am having an issue with the utility company in NYS. The title was searched, and there was no recorded ROW or Easement with the Town or County. I contacted the company to have them remove the pole and now they are saying they have a notarized unrecorded document granting them easement dating back to 1967. Is this a legal easement, and am I now out of luck with them moving it? Thank you for your assistance.” What rights do I have to compel neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. What rights do I have to compel a neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. Prior to selling me the property, the neighbor owned both my lot and the adjacent lot, where he built his home. I just bought a foreclosed home and my neighbor has told me the previous owner gave him easement for his septic. You can see where it was put in as the ground has been freshly dug. It is about five feet from my pole barn. We live in a small town in northern Michigan where it is not uncommon for people to dig a whole and drop a fuel oil tank to hold their sewage. Recently, we erected a fence on our property and about 1 foot of it extends onto the conservation easement. Do we need to be concerned? We did get a permit but have not yet been visited by a township inspector. If/when the inspector comes by, will he or she look to see where the easement is and, if so, will we be required to move the fence? I am one of a group of property owner that own land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by the backyards of others with no access to it unless you enter through our property. I’ve been cleaning since 1984 when I purchased the property. My house and my neighbors house share a common sewer line; that is, my sewer line crosses over into their property and then connects with their sewer line. The combined line connects with the main sewer running underneath the city street. The neighbor has started doing major renovations and has broken the sewer lines as part of their foundation work. I received an “Unauthorized use of Easement” letter from the electric company notarized and signed by an attorney. The electric company is recording the unauthorized use of the easement in Real Property Records in our state of Texas. A residential developer, who wanted to develop a tract of property adjacent to ours, has approached my sister and me about placing a detention pond and easement, which the city required his development to have, across our property in exchange for the purchase of our property within a specified future date and price per acre. We agreed to allow the easement and detention pond subject to the execution of 2 agreements drawn up by the developer: (1) Option to Purchase Real Estate with a scheduled execution date of Sept. 2005, and (2) Agreement of Intent to Develop Real Estate which specified a scheduled execution date of Feb. 2006, and which he signed. My neighbor bought an overgrown wooded lot (about an acre) which has two water run off easements running through it and has since the subdivision was built in the 1960’s. This property they bought borders our property. One of the easements runs through our backyard, through their property and then into an agricultural pond not owned by them. I have a Swimming Pool easement with my next-door neighbor. The easement includes a bathroom with a toilet. My next-door neighbor hired a plumber to unclog the toilet, however he did not contact me about this toilet problem. He wants me to pay for part of the $680.00 bill. I live in Tiburon, CA. Am I responsible for this bill? I have sprinklers near the road which are continually run over or damaged. Is it legal for me to put up stakes or blocks to protect them? I have a private easement pole in my yard and my neighbor has tapped it with lines that run across my property, directly where I want to install a pool. What can I do? We live in a lake front community and own docks. Our HOA is now demanding a lease payment for these docks, some of which are over 25 years old. Can they do that? I’ve just discovered that my gas meter was servicing my neighbor’s utility room. The electric company told me it was my responsibility to correct it, which I’ve done. Does my neighbor have any obligation for part of the repair bill? My property has a water easement on it. Recently, I have had three pipes fixed and my monthly bill has been approximately $1800. Could the leaks I’m experiencing be a result of the easement? Our HOA is using our driveway, designated as a utility easement for the local water company, to check the status of a water tower several times a day. Do they have the right to do this? My property has a utility easement, of which the city has completely restricted access. Can they do this, since it affects a large area of my property? My neighbor, who has access to a joint easement “right of way” is building property that requires access through another homeowner’s right of way. That neighbor does not want to extend his access for this new property. We are hoping to avoid litigation. Do you have any advice? My neighbor’s property has a mineral right easement on it. A gas company, in order to easily access their new well, want to use a road on my property. Can I deny them? We were unaware of a 20 foot easement when we purchased our property and are now having trouble selling the home because of the easement. Do we have any recourse? We need to move an easement line over about 10 feet. How do we legally do this? Our road association is making changes that have not been approved by all homeowners and seem to be exceeding their authority. How can we find out whether they are within their legal rights? My neighbor won’t grant me a utility easement, in order for me to get electricity to the home I am building, unless I sell him another lot at half price. Do I have any recourse? I have a utility easement in my backyard. What rights do I have regarding getting the utility company to inform me when they will be accessing my yard and can I request they bury the four cables, currently above ground, running through my yard? We share a driveway, from which we access our horses, with other property owners. One neighbor wants to put in an electric gate, which would impede our ability to ride our horses out of our property safely. Do we have a position to argue the fact that we do not want the gate? A municipality sold land, that actually belonged to me, to my neighbor. Although my neighbor is willing to quit-claim the property back to me, who is responsible for the correcting the excavating that was done? My attorney failed to disclose, at closing, that there was an easement across my property. Can I sue him? Do I have an automatic easement if I own a property that has always used the well and septic system from an adjoining property? My Easement runs along my entire North Property Line where 1 of the subdivision road is now, which I utilize until the road takes a hard right and I go straight onto my easement (which we have solely maintained since 1978) down to my property to access my driveway/property, at the end on the left (straight ahead is the Corps Property/Lake). The problem is the relatively new neighbor (2001). Over the last 7 years, he rarely came up and if he did was not a nuisance but over the last 6 months or so, has come up more often and utilizing my Easement. I tried to politely explain that the Easement is not for parking and to utilize his property only; however, he got belligerent and insisted that I had no authority to tell him were to park or not and that he’d soon own it!!! Short of a Civil Suit, who has the Authority to tell him he can’t park on it??? I bought a an acre and a half with a 30 foot easement with a ditch on my side of the property line that goes from the road to a canal. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. She has no easements on her side. The developer plans to build a concrete driveway on the easement (Easement “A”), and place his utility lines along side, on the our- property side of the driveway. In addition to laying out the concrete drive, he plans to create a large entryway where the easement joins the public road and landscape to further (visually) associate the entire easement, as well as his untouched and unused 15 ft. wide, 200 ft. long flag pole, with his property, thus expanding his property footprint and increasing its market value while significantly diminishing ours. I have contacted the law office of the attorneys who drafted the document, and they refuse to clarify the intent of their language. Do the words “ingress and egress” mean that my neighbor can pour a driveway on the easement? My neighbors have begun building a locking auto mated gate with an alarm system and security cameras at the street- side- end of the driveway. Can the benefactors of an express easement for only “driveway and utility purposes” build a gate on what is, save for the easement, my property? If not, can I stop them without the hassle and expense of a survey and lawsuit? At some point in time a previous lot owner cleared a path along this easement and now it is used by the neighborhood as a road. Our association has notified the current property owners that they will no longer provide snow removal as this is private property and not an established road (county assessor confirmed). Now, if the county assessors records show there is no established road and only two lots with a utility easement then can the current property owners claim a grandfather clause and demand continued snow service as they have received in previous years?” I want to build a fence across my property line which would result in me building a retaining wall and filling in my part of the pond. Do I need to file some sort of easement with the property owner to be able to build a retaining wall even if the said wall would be solely within my property line?” We have been in several disagreements with the next door neighbor and he is the president of the HOA for our section of the community, but not for the whole governing community. What are my options, I have even offered to obtain the permits from the city and install a 12 inch pipe. This seems like a vendetta and not justice.” The City has recently developed upstream and the State has widened the road in front of my property and added drainage that runs through this ditch. Since flow has increased, should either entity have obtained an easement? We are in the process of selling our land and want to make sure the new owners have access to the water shut offs and sewer lines if neccessary. The lawyer won’t write up the easement with out the city noting where the water and sewer line lay. So is it legal for us to write up an agreement and have it notorized and signed by our neighbor? The city decided to clean out a old ditch and used my property for access, telling me there was an easement. All of the privacy trees and shrubs were removed and some property was destroyed in the process. My deed shows that there is not an easement on my property. What can I do about the damage which was caused? “I have a contract to buy a piece of property. During the survey, it was determined that a portion of the driveway is on “the brothers” (referred to as 2B’s from here on) land next door. And does the gas company have any rights to my land even though there is no pipe on it, a large (90′ pines with other tall vegetation under them) vegetative buffer barring the use of it, and no recorded easement (there is one on the 2B’s land and the previous owner was compensated for it; the 2B’s purchased their land with the easement already there)? Currently, the only people who use the easement are neighborhood children, many of whom ride their bicycles (and on one occasion, a gasoline-powered motorized scooter) through our front yard, past our house, through the backyard, and into the trees beyond. Our lawn is suffering serious damage because of this. Is it possible to vacate the pedestrian easement, and if so, how? The language of the easement grants the servient estate owner the right to relocate the easement. Does this allow the servient estate owner to create a separate right-of-way for each easement holder; thus requiring each easement holder to construct and maintain a separate roadway? I bought my property in October 2008 and I was told at signing that I had lot 14 and 14a. I have the lot 14a on my deed and then when i was putting up a fence on the opposing side of my ditch I ran into a conflict with my neigboor about this. I called the deeds office in the county and they say that the deed shows 14 and 14a as mine but it is an easement. What does this mean? Is this portion of land of 14a mine? We have been contacted by one of the family members of the person who once owned both plots of land. They believe that they own the 50 foot easement even though our deed says that it is part of our property. Do they really “own” this property? We recently purchased a 5 acre piece of property. Unfortunately we did not have access to the language of the document when we purchased the property. This is what was “told” to us about the easement when we purchased the property. Our neighbors have recently brought to our attention that we were mistaken about the extent of the length of the easement. They have stated that they intend to put a road the entire length of the easement– nearly 400 feet. Do they have the “right” to do all of these things? They removed the easement from the property, I have letters from the HOA and township validating this. The problem is that the water issue was not mitigated. My question is, since we were misinformed about the easement and the necessity of it, and since we have a major water issue and would not have purchased this home had that been disclosed to us, can we hold the HOA responsible to resolve this issue at their cost. In addition, if an easement is required on this property, can we hold the HOA liable for the dimished value of the home as a result? I have a property in the Hollywood Hills that is landlocked. Does anyone know if this is the right course? If so, how do I apply for an easement? Which department in the county do I need to contact? To get into our property we have to cross two other properties. Last fall when we paved our part of the driveway and the man in the middles driveway the contractor had some extra material and asked us if he could put it on the top of the driveway, of course we liked the idea of getting in and out easier but warned the contractor that the man on the top is very unreasonable and he would have to get his permission. Several months later we received a letter from his attorney who is also his nephew saying we had to remove the asphalt and take it back to dirt and gravel. Please give me some feedback on the situation. Can government entities explicitly grant Easement by Necessity to private landowners, particularly if the government entity may have created a landlock situation? How do we now establish access/egress to our lot? Do we stand a chance of convincing the Bureau of Reclamation to explicitly grant us use of the easement, which should satisfy the permitting requirement for the other bridge? My neighbor has an ingress and egress easement through my property. Can I have the neighbor sign a liability waiver? Would it be possible to have waiver written up to protect myself in California? We are a townhome community with a private road that connects to public streets on each end. Though we are responsible for all repairs to that private road, probably 90% of the traffic is cut-through traffic between the public streets. Could we legally close one end of this road permanently? Years ago a Water District acquired a residential parcel for construction of a water tank. The residential property has an easement for ingress/egress to an private road shared by over twenty other residential properties. The Water District (public utility) now is permitting a cellular company (private business) to apply for County permits to construct a cellular antenna facility on the property. Can the Water District give permission to the cellular company to use the private road to install and maintain the cellular facility when all of the other easement holders are in opposition? We bought a house/land 6 years ago and signed an ingress/egress easement with the previous owners to allow them the use of our driveway to access their property that adjoins ours. We are having major problems with the renters (& parents of the daycare children) speeding up and down our driveway and forcing us to get out of their way when we are on it. In an effort to slow down the traffic we have put up a nonlocking gate at the end of the driveway where it joins their property. The property owners are now saying we have no legal right to install the gate. The parish of Iberia were I live was going to build a road that would have gone between our lots and the easement was 60 foot but they decide to do away with that easement and went with the 30 foot drainage easement on my side of the boundry line. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. What should I watch out for? My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. It seems that I would be giving up substantial property rights were I to grant the easement, and that the unrecorded quality of the easement seems sneaky. What should I watch out for? We and our adjacent neighbors are in a dispute over a 4 foot high concrete retaining wall that straddles both of our property lines. We’ve had large clay terra-cotta pots sitting on top of retaining wall with lattice in the pots to obscure the neighbors privacy fence, which is few feet back from the retaining wall. Recently (last week), they decided to start objecting to the clay pots (which are on their property, according to their survey). Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? The easement borders my entire property line, I have a private driveway off the easement to my house. The neighbor who lives directly behind me says that when I pull off the paved part of the easement over the grass part of the easement (approx. 10 ft) to get to my front yard, I am tresspassing over his property. He has called the police 4 times in the past 6 months accusing me of trespassing when I park my car in my yard. Do I have the right to access my property from the easement? Does he have the right to call the state police to my house everytime I park in my yard? I have a 1 acre peice of property in a gated community. There is a 14 ft utility easement at the front of my property as there is a transformer there. The HOA came in on my property and installed Electrical power panels to service a gate for back entry/ exit to the sub division. They did not have my permission. They also dug a trench completely across my property about 2 feet wide to reach the transformer for power to the gate and when finished left my property in a mess. My question is, did the HOA have the right to do what they did without my permission? I purchased a commercial building in Maryland and attempted to get an occupancy permit for a tenant. The town conditioned approval with a request for me to grant easements to the town for the maintenance of sewer lines running under my property and to enter my property to inspect them. These easements, if granted, would severely limit my ability to add on to my building and park in my lot. If they don’t agree to negotiate more favorable terms (to me) can I cap off the sewer lines with impunity? May they condition an occupancy permit on an unrelated grant of an easement to them? Have access to irrigation water via a pipeline across neighbors property. Helped to pay for pipeline that supplies water to their parcel, and to our pipeline. New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? I recently discovered that a contractor has run a water line to the house that he is building on property adjacent to ours. The contractor has placed this line inside the 10′ easement on our property rather than disturb the paving that covers the 10′ easement on the adjacent property. Is this legal? City wants a pipeline easement across a small section of the backside of the property. Now heres the question – if I take their ca$h, and later after the work is done , water or gas line leaks show up, say in my yard, is the city liable? What is a “non-assignable and exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and across the following described lands:…” New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? Because we’ve lived in the house (for 12 years) and maintained the retaining wall before and after it was rebuilt, and paid entirely for the reconstruction of the wall, does this give us a right to a prescriptive easement (i.e. right to own the wall completely) overriding the neighbor’s survey, which they claim gives them exclusive ownership rights? Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? My deed states that an adjacent landowner has a strip beside my property that is “as wide as a road”….their deed says a 60 foot wide strip. In 1924 the two deeds said the same thing, but the next time the land changed hands, the 60 ft. was specified. Since it was not recorded on both deeds, can this be legal? The electric and cable companies apparently have an easement on our property although I am unable to find proof of this in our deed and abstract. We do not subscribe to cable and our electric is fed to the property from another line (not on our property) have asked the companies to please fix the cables/wires that they are encroaching on my ability to use my own property and it poses a safety risk. What can I do? Recently there has been a change of ownership on one of the properties. The new owner has a teenage son. The parents leave town often and leave the son alone. While the parents are away the son has been throwing parties where there is teenage drinking. We are concerned that at some point one of these underage drunk children will cause and/or have an accident that will result in death or injury while crossing our property. Can we be held liable if something like this should occur? Other than calling law enforcement to alert them to the party is there any thing else we can do to protect ourselves? As a small Home Owners Association in Washington state, we have a plated 60 foot access & egress easement which has existed for over 20 years. The easement in question passes across a tiny segment of the 5 acres of a single member’s property but they are exceedingly resistant to expanding the margin of the easement though the expansion will be into a completely unused area of their property and out of sight and will fully address their and our membership’s concerns of liability/risk. Given the facts above, within reason, and without damaging in any way the associate member’s property or its value does our Homeowner’s association have a right to demand the expansion of the easement margin? I purchased a narrow lot two houses from my house in 2005. My neighbor whose house next to my narrow lot bought his house in 1998. He constructed sliding iron front gates on track in front of his house sometime after which I am not sure. But it is very likely that was more than 5 years ago. About 8-10 feet of the track is on my property(I have a survey done). Now my question is would it still work if I give notice of permission for him to continue to use it to park his cars in order to prevent a potential claim of prescriptive easement? This family has settled this land 100 years ago. At the turn of the century loggers started this road to reach the top of this ridge which crossed thier land as will as someone elses. When the second generation owner sold 30 acres next to this 500 feet she recorded an easement back in 1968. So that they could still use this pathway. Now the current owner of the 30 acres complained to the forest service and the have recently de-constructed the pathway, and put up concrete barriers. The question is does the national forest have to recognize perscriptive easements? A piece of land I am thinking of buying is land locked but has a deeded Right of way that is 10ft wide and 50 feet long in PA. Can I pave or lay gravel down on this section to help my vehicle get thru. I Live on a Busy Street and my Neighbor with Easement Access Leaves my Gate Unlocked and Open, What can I do? My neighbor wants an easement on my property for his proposed sewer line. We will be selling our property within the next nine months. Are there any legal, physical or real estate sales issues if we grant the easement? What is the value of this easement? I own a building with another company and there is an easement on the property. There is a restrictive covenant which states I am to provide “reasonable permanent access” to this easement. What is meant by reasonable permanent access? The owners of the land over which our easement runs is in the process of having a home built on the second parcel and one of the conditions of their building permit is that they must run sewer lines back to the house (we are on septic) and the only place where the sewer lines can run is up the middle of the 150′ easement road. The builders informed us that when the sewer company puts in the sewer, that we will not have access to our property for three days. The sewer installers have further said that they will not put down the steel plates common to such an installation as the expense is too great. Can the owner of the easement and/or their contractors deny us access during this process? For past few months, My neighbors (12 people) are now constantly using their basement door and my driveway as their main door, even their guest use it as a entrance door even though they have their front door and it is becoming extremely difficult to use my driveway where I park my cars(because of their constant presence, sitting in the driveway, children playing in the driveway etc), when I ask them to stop sitting or playing, they apologize, but keep repeating, them blocking my driveway with their cars is also becoming a problem. How to solve this problem, Is their a legal way? Can I stop them from using my driveway? I live in the state of NY and I have a right of way on a piece of property from 1970. This was used for a turn around and a place for the kids to play. It is 50-100ft, we are at the end of a dead end street. The town just abandoned this piece for a neighbor to have a driveway to get to there new house. Can this be legally done? My right of way was also included with the deed given to the town when they took over the road in 1992. Is a verbal easement legal and binding? We are planning on building a home with our frontage being on a private road that has five homes on it. We have a written easement with our neighbor right across from us. But we have had a verbal easement with our neighbor that sits at the start of the private road for about three years now. Dose a verbal easement eventually become legal or our we going to be having problems? Do we even need a written easement from him with us all ready having a easement to our frontage? We live in a site built condominium association. We share a drainage/walkway easement with our next door neighbors according to our plat map which is what our township considers. A state park trail runs along the east side of our development. We have always invited the homes in the development to access the trail by walking through our yard. A few in the association now want to put a sidewalk through to make the walkway more official. Do we have to go by what the township says about where the easement is or by the Master Deed? Do we have to allow a sidewalk through our yards? Does a Condo Association have the legal right to build a sidewalk on a walk-way easement? An easement was approved by the township to allow residents access to a public walking trail, this easement was defined as a 20ft area between two adjoining lots. Does a Condo Association have the right to make such improvements; even if the owners of the lots do not agree with this (assuming it properly approved by a majority of residents)? I am buying a home on 1.34 acres of land and should be closing on it in about a month. The owner of another acre directly behind my land would like to sell the land to me the land is currently landlocked. What would I have to do to purchase this land? I’m assuming this means that I need to have an easement? If so, is this costly? What is the difference between an easement for INGRESS AND EGRESS (not exclusive) as opposed to an easement “OVER AND ACROSS” lands? The easements run through a gated community to a river. We are not a part of the HOA. WE recently bought a 2nd home on the river. The property has a boat ramp on it. The latest Platte chart, only shows the outline of our property, no indication of a boat ramp. AND there are no easements recorded to date. BUT, everyone allows everyone to share… We’ve asked that they sign a waiver of liability in exchange for permission of using the ramp, since this is our 2nd home and we cannot maintain the ramp non-stop. We’ve been indirectly threatened that an easement by prescription will be placed on our ramp… What are our rights? My husband and I purchased a piece of land 17 years ago which consisted of a working commercial fish hatchery, buildings and 3 homes. There is a piece of property between us and the county road on which we have “a non-exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and under a piece of land 20 feet in width”. We now have a new owner of the property on which we have the easement who is claiming that we don’t have the right to have this business as the easement is for a single family residence access only. Can he stop us from having this business which has been in existence since 2004? I own an undeveloped 5 ac parcel in California. Upon having it surveyed, I learned that my neighbor’s driveway falls as much as 20′ outside of the easement. The easement is 60′ (30′ of which is on my property) for a one lane gravel road. Can I insist the road be moved to regain my property? Is it my responsibility to rebuild it, or the responsibility of the neighbor? I recently purchased 9 acres of land that has an easement attached to it. There is a 40 foot public road easement that was granted back in the 70’s on the property and has never been used. We want to build a new house on the property. The only access is a driveway tile installed right on this 40′ easement. We have been told that if we build there and use this drive as our access we could possibly be sued or the owner of the easement could put a lien on our property. Is this true? If we are not blocking his access in any way, are we not entitled to use this drive to get to our house? My home is landlocked but has a road easement for access purposes. I know want to subdivide the property into 4 parcels. Do I need additional easements for all the new properties? I live in a home with a 20 ft easement driveway from the main road to a semi public lake. Home owners have been granted ingress & egress to the lake. There are 3 houses and 1 duplex on the easement driveway. About 20 years ago the owner of our home built and maintained a dock that sits just off the natural water line of the lake and it meets all state codes and is legally there. We bought the home 7 years ago and we have maintained the dock and keep our boat anchor during the summer. Can the owners of the duplex give their tenants the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Can the tenants of the duplex give anyone (i.e., friends, neighbors, relatives, etc.,) the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Do we have the right to prohibit the tenants from the dock even though we have no paperwork showing ownership of the dock? Can the Board of a HOA enter a private property within the community that happens to have the waterfall circuit board and the sprinkler system control panel located on their property? We can’t find anywhere in the documents or bylaws where the board was given a utility easement or access easement to get to these panels. Do we have a right to enter a backyard to access the control panels without a documented easement? Can this homeowner forbid us access to the panels? My neighbor has planted a hedge that is growing across my property. I asked him to trim it back so it would still look nice, but be on his property. He not only has let it grown further (he claims he’s using the easement, which half happens to be over MY boundary line). He called the police on me, and they said I could be arrested if I touched his plants Why can he cut my bushes on MY property, yet he can continue to encroach on mine? Does he have the right to let his plants grow over the easement that is on my property? We own a property on a private road with 14 homes. We all have septic and wells. We have an irreparable septic problem. We have been denied a permit for a new on-lot septic option. Our neighbors have reported us to county and local government. Thus causing us to enter into the legal system to fight it. We have a developer who is ready to put in a private line to a sewer main. All that we need is for the neighbors to sign giving us an easement to put it in along the private road. They are giving us a hard time about it and will not sign. Is there anyway to force the easement through so that we can fix our problem? There is an access easement on my property so that my neighbor can access his yard (they use my driveway). I am wanting to build a fence on my property line which would cross a small portion at the end of the easement. I would not be hindering his access to his backyard, but he is against my building the fence. Would I legally be able to build the fence as long as I am not keeping him from getting into his backyard (egress and ingress)? We have allowed our neighbors to use the back portion of our yard for almost five years in exchange for the landscaping they did for us. Their house is directly behind ours, and they did not have room for their son and daughter to play. They have paid the water bill, but no insurance, property taxes, mortgage, etc. Do we need to have a formal easement agreement? Can they take over our property and assume ownership after a prescribed length of time? The Dominant tenant has a right to cross my backyard to access her own backyard. The easement is 6 feet wide. Am I allowed to develop this area of land at all (low wood deck, asphalt, concrete etc). I do not intend to impede her access at all. The original property owner gave an easement and “right-of-way for the purpose of ingress & egress and to run with said land and to be transferable therewith; reserving unto the grantor the right to use said road & grant others a like easement and right-of-way.” I am putting an underground sprinkler system in the front yard but the neighbor insists that it will be in the easement area. The sprinkler heads will be flush with the ground and will not impede traffic flow. Is this allowed? There is very little likelihood that the road will ever be paved or taken over by the state. What are my rights? Three homes drive over our properties this easement . On the deed its state non exclusive easement for ingress and egress. I been having a bad time with a neighbor that drives over my land and the neighbors land, his dogs attacked me on my property and I find him. Now he wont stop driving past my house fast and he will come to a complete stop and peel out right in front of my house on this easement road. Is there any law that will help me on private easement roads with endangerment or damages. The dog attack is on record .the police wont touch private roads in Washington state. They told me that he has to go out onto the public road. Is this right? I have speed limit signs and a speed pump on a gravel road which we all agreed on even him, so I want to know what I can do by law to stop him, is this harassment? An easement through an unincorporated HOA community in Yavapai County, AZ allows access through the community to landlocked abutting Property. Easement metes and bounds describe a route somewhat different from existing roads. Owner has unfettered access. Adherence to the described easement would require demo of some existing construction and construction of new roads. What are respective rights of community and easement grantee (Property owner)? For example, does the law allow the Property owner unrestricted rights to treat the route of his described easement however he deems necessary irrespective of the current use of that property? I have recently purchased 20 acres of land in Indiana that was considered landlocked and was given a proper easement to said land for ingress and egress and utilities. The problem we have run into after residing here for 1 year is there is no signage or notification of where our easement begins off of a private drive. Am I allowed to put signage (my family name, private drive, no trespassing, etc…) at the beginning of our easement to recognize what the easements intent is and to deter unwanted traffic? The owner of the land has forbade us to place any signage on their property (our easement) at this time. My house (primary residence) is on a lot without well defined borders to my neighbors. The grassy yard flows right into my neighbor property and there are some trees that act as a division but according to the plot plan my property runs well past them. Her lawn service cleans part of my lot (the part after the trees) and I worried she might think her yard is bigger than it is. How do I make sure after time she does not claim rights to the part of the yard she cleans? I recently purchased property that the driveway goes through my land, and continues to my new neighbors property. The “neighbor” is already giving me a hard time about keeping up with the driveway such as plowing snow up to the end of my property, not just where my family needs to park. She also stated that the “right of way” was in their deed. My deed has no information pertaining to giving them “right of way” through my property. If I have to give them access, shouldn’t it be stated in my deed also? I am wanting to know if we had allowed an easement across our property for another property owner to have access to their property behind us and now they are selling their property and the buyer is an adjoining property owner that will now have access to the property from his own property will be still have to allow access or use of the easement that is running through our property? We have given a 60 foot road easement for the purpose of ingress and egress to an adjacent property which is landlocked. The easement is situated on a steep sand hill which washes out easily. Previous owners have maintained the road and did not destroy the 60 foot easement. The current owner had not maintained the road and now are driving from side to side of the 60 feet to avoid the ruts that they have created. We have placed barriers on the side, leaving the previously maintained road clear. We have been told by one source that we could place gates at each side of the easement as long as we do not lock them without giving the adjacent property owner a key. Do we have the right to do this or do we have to allow these owners to destroy our land. I live in Texas, the property that I bought had an unrecorded easement. I would like to know if it is possible for the people using this easement to legally have the width of it extended from about 12ft. to 20ft.? I have an Easement on my land that specifically states for ingress and egress purpose to a land locked piece of land. The location of the easement lies in an area that one can only access the land locked land by foot. My question is, what can I do and what can I not do with that land that belongs to me? Can I erect a building, On the Easement, that dose not hinder the travel to and from the land locked land or can I not? A Real Estate Developer wants an Easement to my property. The Developer wants an easement to install a sewer line. Since, the Developer stands to gain capital from the installation of the sewer lines. Shouldn’t I be compensated at a commercial rate? Do I have to allow this easement? Two neighbors and I went together and put in a well for the purpose of irrigating our yards. We equally divided the cost of the well, pump, etc. Now the neighbor on whose property the well is located is selling her home. How can my other neighbor and I retain the legal right to use the well after the property is sold? I live in Maine and have house with a deeded right of way through someone’s property to get to my house. My deeded right of way is stated as 50 ft. My driveway is very narrow, only about 8 ft. wide. Could I tar the rest of the 50 ft. if I want? What are my rights? Right across the road from my property are my and one neighbor’s mailboxes. They turn come from their home and turn around in my driveway when they get their mail because it is more convenient for them to do that. Recently, they accused me of some things and I told them to not come on my property anymore. I have a number of questions concerning a private road easement which goes through our property along the floor of a steep valley. A mid portion stretch of the road goes through our property. I would like to access the property at the bottom of the hill for recreational activities and for maintenance (i.e. removing debris that periodically gets washed down, or dead trees that may have fallen). I have verbally asked the neighbors if it was OK for me to use of the road and they have declined. The easement in question was recorded in 1983. This is all news to us. We never were asked or notified. We bought property in 1977 and title search at that time showed no easements. I have a drainage easement (swale)running the back 20 feet of my property. Because of the overwhelming water we have been recieving, the “swale” is causing the water to pond, and as a result, my backyard is collapsing rapidly, and my basement is flooding during heavy rain. I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. This is for the purpose of developing his property and he is requesting three separate easements across our property. We share a reciprocal driveway easement with our neighbors, they park on our property and we drive across theirs. The easement documentation provides that we share in the costs of paving the easement. Some of our trees hanging over the area where they park have old, thick branches that could fall and damage their cars. Who is responsible for trimming the trees and keeping them safe? We have painted our remodeled home on three sides and our neighbor is denying us access to use the area beyond the 12 inches (which is on his property) to paint the wall. My neighbor has recently erected a barrier preventing us from driving across that portion of “her” driveway. It’s almost impossible to drive in 1 of 2 cars into the 2 car garage with this barrier. We have the deed and have had our property surveyed which clearly show our property line, however the property line is adjacent to an easement for a driveway. Our neighbor decided to pave the driveway which is on our property. Our deed has nothing in it about an easement being on our property. We were recently sent a letter from the local sewer authority requesting that we sign the attached right-of-way agreement and grant of right-of-way for an existing sewer line on our property for the sum of $1.00. Should we do it? After this new owner had his land surveyed he realized that I, and my neighbor, drove across a ~ 250 sq. ft piece of land in the nethermost corner of his 93 acre holding. This small piece of his adjoining property has been used continuously as a driveway entrance to our properties since their development 40 years ago. We have a 10 foot easement on the back end of our land as likewise do the owners of the field in the back. They would have to cut down 2 30 (foot) trees that are in our yard to do this. They told me at a meeting that if I did not give them the right of this easement through my property that they would condem that part of my yard and use it anyway. Our sewer line goes across our neighbor’s property. It was that way when each of us bought our properties. Now I need to replace the sewer line, and we can’t find any recorded easement. If our neighbor tries to keep us from replacing our sewer line, will we be able to prevail based on a prescriptive easement? In California, who is required to maintain an existing roadway easement across my neighbor’s land that allows access to my house? We recently acquired a piece of property that has an easement running on one side of it for 2 property owners to pass to get to their houses. Now a third person wants us to sign an agreement for an easement. We want to know what is the normal procedure for an easement? Our neighbor has an easement across our land, which he has permission to use. However, we just found out that all along he has been using property which is 5 feet outside of the permitted easement area. Now he wants to pave it. Does he have a prescriptive easement for the area which he was using which was outside of the original permitted easemenet area? Our property has an easement to the adjacent land to allow for farming. Now they are selling that land and intend to convert it to residential with “road” access down our easement. My neighbor’s chickens are constantly on my land. Is there any kind of easement that they could acquire over time on my property if I continue to allow this? How can we get someone who inherited our right of way (ROW) easement to deal with us? I want to move soon and rent out my house. Would I reduce my chances for keeping an easement I have on a neighboring lot if the other owner decides to bring a lawsuit to disclaim the easement and I don’t live here? The easement across our land is unusable. If I cut a road for my needs on my property (not on the easement) do the easement owners have the right to use my new road? I live in the Texas and want to know what size easement is required for an electrical line? What is an easement in gross? If you have paid a neighbor for use of a strip of land can they put a 4 foot high post at the corner of it, even though you were very clear that you were going to use it for a drive for your cars? Someone has built a house down the block from us and has decided to put a dock 20 feet from us, and instead of making his own access to his dock he has decided to use ours. What can we do? My wife and I recently bought a house on 80 acres that has an easement. The easement owner wants to use it to cross cattle; can we keep him from doing so? We want to change an existing easement by moving it 3 feet. This will not fundamentally change the easement owner’s access. The easement owner does not want us to make the change. Can we change the location of the easement under the circumstances described? Does an Implied Eastment of Necessity exist? I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. Is a prescriptive easement through notorious use automatic? The small town where I’ve lived for 15 years is now telling me that the “city mainâ€? is really a private service line. Over the years I have replaced all my outside sewer lines – this was before I realized the line ran across neighbors’ yards and where the actual problem lays. How do I go about getting an easement that would provide my home future protection? I feel like I’m being forced into giving the county a drainage easement. Can the county force me to give them a drainage easement? I would like to know if I can fight an easement that is already in place on the land I purchased An agreement between a townhome homeowners association and a neighboring condo homeowners association includes financial contributions for upkeep of property easements. Can one demand financial accountability from the other? An easement is a right-of-way you grant to someone to cross your land whenever they need to. Governments can force easements through the use of eminent domain law. Private groups have no such power.
How Do I Know Which Kind of Easement I Have?
I am one of a group of property owners that owns land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. This is all dirt road and these owners say that we will be responsible for maintaining it. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by peoples backyards with no access to it unless you enter through our property. My and my neighbor’s property lines run across the same pond and back to land on the other side, splitting the pond in 3 sections. Questions exist as to if property lines exist within water, and thus required to stay within property lines, or does entire pond become available for full use of all 3 owners? I am a homeowner. My property has a transformer unit/box on my ground property. On June 2, 2012 an unknown auto hit the box and caused a power outage. The outage was repaired and now the utility company is billing me for the damages because the transformer is on my property. Can they hold me liable to it if it was not me or any family member who caused the damage? The person who did the damage is unknown because it happened overnight while the entire street was asleep. What steps do I have to take to stop my neighbor from using our private driveway? My neighbors next to us pull into their driveway to enter their premisses but use our driveway to enter the main road. They have at times even pulled into our driveway to be able to go to the back of their house. We have asked them many times to stop doing this because we are afraid one day that we might have an accident. When they use our driveway, they fly out their very fast so we don’t see them using it. We live in New Jersey and have a 40-foot deeded necessary easement type right-of-way through a neighbor’s property. Lately he has begun parking large tractor-trailer size vehicles for long periods of time to one side of the easement. Although it’s an eyesore, it doesn’t impede our ability to get to our home as our driveway is much narrower than 40 feet. Is this permitted by law, and if so, will it have any effect on the conditions of the easement? Our HOA’s common area is subject to an equestrian easement. The city wants to use the easement and build a 10 feet wide bike trail. This would require that many of the trees on that part of the property to be cut down. We are afraid that this will cause a reduction in our property value. Is there any way we can fight the easement? We are located in Goleta, County of Santa Barbara, California. I am a resident of Louisiana and have purchased a property with easement issues. This property was once part of a larger tract. The original landowner used the house and an area of land around the house as collateral for a building loan. There was an easement included that went from the road to the house. After this, the landowner dug a very large pond across the easement. He built a limestone driveway that went around the pond to get to the house. This was never stated to be a legal easement. Our house was built in a development in the State of New York in 2008 that connected our road to another in the development. There is a 10′ drainage easement on the WEST side of the property (our side lot). Now, the Town wants to put SWALES through 4 feet of our front yard. Our question is: The Town has no drainage easement on the front of our property, I have thoroughly researched the Deed. I live in Tiburon, CA. I own a swimming pool and have a legal easement, with my next-door neighbor, that his tenants can use the pool. If one of his tenants were injured, on my property where the pool is located, would I be legally responsible? I have a house on a lake, and next to the lot is an easement. The people across the street say that the easement is a deeded easement and it is on all of their titles so they have a right to put a dock on the easement. I would not have a problem with that, except that the dock is only about half a foot away from my property line. Are they able to put the dock on the easement legally? I’m trying to work out an exchange of easements with a neighbor who owns property on both sides of me. I need an easement across one of their properties in order to reach an otherwise inaccessible part of my property, and they want an easement across my property to get from one to the other of theirs. My deed states that the nonexclusive right of way, which is the driveway to my property was bought, paid for and is transferred with the property to future owners. My question: Do I have to share the driveway with the property owner? The property adjoining the driveway was bought by another person who lays claim to the driveway, or right of way, of access. Do I have to maintain the road at my total expense if other property owners are using it? “I am having an issue with the utility company in NYS. The title was searched, and there was no recorded ROW or Easement with the Town or County. I contacted the company to have them remove the pole and now they are saying they have a notarized unrecorded document granting them easement dating back to 1967. Is this a legal easement, and am I now out of luck with them moving it? Thank you for your assistance.” What rights do I have to compel neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. What rights do I have to compel a neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. Prior to selling me the property, the neighbor owned both my lot and the adjacent lot, where he built his home. I just bought a foreclosed home and my neighbor has told me the previous owner gave him easement for his septic. You can see where it was put in as the ground has been freshly dug. It is about five feet from my pole barn. We live in a small town in northern Michigan where it is not uncommon for people to dig a whole and drop a fuel oil tank to hold their sewage. Recently, we erected a fence on our property and about 1 foot of it extends onto the conservation easement. Do we need to be concerned? We did get a permit but have not yet been visited by a township inspector. If/when the inspector comes by, will he or she look to see where the easement is and, if so, will we be required to move the fence? I am one of a group of property owner that own land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by the backyards of others with no access to it unless you enter through our property. I’ve been cleaning since 1984 when I purchased the property. My house and my neighbors house share a common sewer line; that is, my sewer line crosses over into their property and then connects with their sewer line. The combined line connects with the main sewer running underneath the city street. The neighbor has started doing major renovations and has broken the sewer lines as part of their foundation work. I received an “Unauthorized use of Easement” letter from the electric company notarized and signed by an attorney. The electric company is recording the unauthorized use of the easement in Real Property Records in our state of Texas. A residential developer, who wanted to develop a tract of property adjacent to ours, has approached my sister and me about placing a detention pond and easement, which the city required his development to have, across our property in exchange for the purchase of our property within a specified future date and price per acre. We agreed to allow the easement and detention pond subject to the execution of 2 agreements drawn up by the developer: (1) Option to Purchase Real Estate with a scheduled execution date of Sept. 2005, and (2) Agreement of Intent to Develop Real Estate which specified a scheduled execution date of Feb. 2006, and which he signed. My neighbor bought an overgrown wooded lot (about an acre) which has two water run off easements running through it and has since the subdivision was built in the 1960’s. This property they bought borders our property. One of the easements runs through our backyard, through their property and then into an agricultural pond not owned by them. I have a Swimming Pool easement with my next-door neighbor. The easement includes a bathroom with a toilet. My next-door neighbor hired a plumber to unclog the toilet, however he did not contact me about this toilet problem. He wants me to pay for part of the $680.00 bill. I live in Tiburon, CA. Am I responsible for this bill? I have sprinklers near the road which are continually run over or damaged. Is it legal for me to put up stakes or blocks to protect them? I have a private easement pole in my yard and my neighbor has tapped it with lines that run across my property, directly where I want to install a pool. What can I do? We live in a lake front community and own docks. Our HOA is now demanding a lease payment for these docks, some of which are over 25 years old. Can they do that? I’ve just discovered that my gas meter was servicing my neighbor’s utility room. The electric company told me it was my responsibility to correct it, which I’ve done. Does my neighbor have any obligation for part of the repair bill? My property has a water easement on it. Recently, I have had three pipes fixed and my monthly bill has been approximately $1800. Could the leaks I’m experiencing be a result of the easement? Our HOA is using our driveway, designated as a utility easement for the local water company, to check the status of a water tower several times a day. Do they have the right to do this? My property has a utility easement, of which the city has completely restricted access. Can they do this, since it affects a large area of my property? My neighbor, who has access to a joint easement “right of way” is building property that requires access through another homeowner’s right of way. That neighbor does not want to extend his access for this new property. We are hoping to avoid litigation. Do you have any advice? My neighbor’s property has a mineral right easement on it. A gas company, in order to easily access their new well, want to use a road on my property. Can I deny them? We were unaware of a 20 foot easement when we purchased our property and are now having trouble selling the home because of the easement. Do we have any recourse? We need to move an easement line over about 10 feet. How do we legally do this? Our road association is making changes that have not been approved by all homeowners and seem to be exceeding their authority. How can we find out whether they are within their legal rights? My neighbor won’t grant me a utility easement, in order for me to get electricity to the home I am building, unless I sell him another lot at half price. Do I have any recourse? I have a utility easement in my backyard. What rights do I have regarding getting the utility company to inform me when they will be accessing my yard and can I request they bury the four cables, currently above ground, running through my yard? We share a driveway, from which we access our horses, with other property owners. One neighbor wants to put in an electric gate, which would impede our ability to ride our horses out of our property safely. Do we have a position to argue the fact that we do not want the gate? A municipality sold land, that actually belonged to me, to my neighbor. Although my neighbor is willing to quit-claim the property back to me, who is responsible for the correcting the excavating that was done? My attorney failed to disclose, at closing, that there was an easement across my property. Can I sue him? Do I have an automatic easement if I own a property that has always used the well and septic system from an adjoining property? My Easement runs along my entire North Property Line where 1 of the subdivision road is now, which I utilize until the road takes a hard right and I go straight onto my easement (which we have solely maintained since 1978) down to my property to access my driveway/property, at the end on the left (straight ahead is the Corps Property/Lake). The problem is the relatively new neighbor (2001). Over the last 7 years, he rarely came up and if he did was not a nuisance but over the last 6 months or so, has come up more often and utilizing my Easement. I tried to politely explain that the Easement is not for parking and to utilize his property only; however, he got belligerent and insisted that I had no authority to tell him were to park or not and that he’d soon own it!!! Short of a Civil Suit, who has the Authority to tell him he can’t park on it??? I bought a an acre and a half with a 30 foot easement with a ditch on my side of the property line that goes from the road to a canal. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. She has no easements on her side. The developer plans to build a concrete driveway on the easement (Easement “A”), and place his utility lines along side, on the our- property side of the driveway. In addition to laying out the concrete drive, he plans to create a large entryway where the easement joins the public road and landscape to further (visually) associate the entire easement, as well as his untouched and unused 15 ft. wide, 200 ft. long flag pole, with his property, thus expanding his property footprint and increasing its market value while significantly diminishing ours. I have contacted the law office of the attorneys who drafted the document, and they refuse to clarify the intent of their language. Do the words “ingress and egress” mean that my neighbor can pour a driveway on the easement? My neighbors have begun building a locking auto mated gate with an alarm system and security cameras at the street- side- end of the driveway. Can the benefactors of an express easement for only “driveway and utility purposes” build a gate on what is, save for the easement, my property? If not, can I stop them without the hassle and expense of a survey and lawsuit? At some point in time a previous lot owner cleared a path along this easement and now it is used by the neighborhood as a road. Our association has notified the current property owners that they will no longer provide snow removal as this is private property and not an established road (county assessor confirmed). Now, if the county assessors records show there is no established road and only two lots with a utility easement then can the current property owners claim a grandfather clause and demand continued snow service as they have received in previous years?” I want to build a fence across my property line which would result in me building a retaining wall and filling in my part of the pond. Do I need to file some sort of easement with the property owner to be able to build a retaining wall even if the said wall would be solely within my property line?” We have been in several disagreements with the next door neighbor and he is the president of the HOA for our section of the community, but not for the whole governing community. What are my options, I have even offered to obtain the permits from the city and install a 12 inch pipe. This seems like a vendetta and not justice.” The City has recently developed upstream and the State has widened the road in front of my property and added drainage that runs through this ditch. Since flow has increased, should either entity have obtained an easement? We are in the process of selling our land and want to make sure the new owners have access to the water shut offs and sewer lines if neccessary. The lawyer won’t write up the easement with out the city noting where the water and sewer line lay. So is it legal for us to write up an agreement and have it notorized and signed by our neighbor? The city decided to clean out a old ditch and used my property for access, telling me there was an easement. All of the privacy trees and shrubs were removed and some property was destroyed in the process. My deed shows that there is not an easement on my property. What can I do about the damage which was caused? “I have a contract to buy a piece of property. During the survey, it was determined that a portion of the driveway is on “the brothers” (referred to as 2B’s from here on) land next door. And does the gas company have any rights to my land even though there is no pipe on it, a large (90′ pines with other tall vegetation under them) vegetative buffer barring the use of it, and no recorded easement (there is one on the 2B’s land and the previous owner was compensated for it; the 2B’s purchased their land with the easement already there)? Currently, the only people who use the easement are neighborhood children, many of whom ride their bicycles (and on one occasion, a gasoline-powered motorized scooter) through our front yard, past our house, through the backyard, and into the trees beyond. Our lawn is suffering serious damage because of this. Is it possible to vacate the pedestrian easement, and if so, how? The language of the easement grants the servient estate owner the right to relocate the easement. Does this allow the servient estate owner to create a separate right-of-way for each easement holder; thus requiring each easement holder to construct and maintain a separate roadway? I bought my property in October 2008 and I was told at signing that I had lot 14 and 14a. I have the lot 14a on my deed and then when i was putting up a fence on the opposing side of my ditch I ran into a conflict with my neigboor about this. I called the deeds office in the county and they say that the deed shows 14 and 14a as mine but it is an easement. What does this mean? Is this portion of land of 14a mine? We have been contacted by one of the family members of the person who once owned both plots of land. They believe that they own the 50 foot easement even though our deed says that it is part of our property. Do they really “own” this property? We recently purchased a 5 acre piece of property. Unfortunately we did not have access to the language of the document when we purchased the property. This is what was “told” to us about the easement when we purchased the property. Our neighbors have recently brought to our attention that we were mistaken about the extent of the length of the easement. They have stated that they intend to put a road the entire length of the easement– nearly 400 feet. Do they have the “right” to do all of these things? They removed the easement from the property, I have letters from the HOA and township validating this. The problem is that the water issue was not mitigated. My question is, since we were misinformed about the easement and the necessity of it, and since we have a major water issue and would not have purchased this home had that been disclosed to us, can we hold the HOA responsible to resolve this issue at their cost. In addition, if an easement is required on this property, can we hold the HOA liable for the dimished value of the home as a result? I have a property in the Hollywood Hills that is landlocked. Does anyone know if this is the right course? If so, how do I apply for an easement? Which department in the county do I need to contact? To get into our property we have to cross two other properties. Last fall when we paved our part of the driveway and the man in the middles driveway the contractor had some extra material and asked us if he could put it on the top of the driveway, of course we liked the idea of getting in and out easier but warned the contractor that the man on the top is very unreasonable and he would have to get his permission. Several months later we received a letter from his attorney who is also his nephew saying we had to remove the asphalt and take it back to dirt and gravel. Please give me some feedback on the situation. Can government entities explicitly grant Easement by Necessity to private landowners, particularly if the government entity may have created a landlock situation? How do we now establish access/egress to our lot? Do we stand a chance of convincing the Bureau of Reclamation to explicitly grant us use of the easement, which should satisfy the permitting requirement for the other bridge? My neighbor has an ingress and egress easement through my property. Can I have the neighbor sign a liability waiver? Would it be possible to have waiver written up to protect myself in California? We are a townhome community with a private road that connects to public streets on each end. Though we are responsible for all repairs to that private road, probably 90% of the traffic is cut-through traffic between the public streets. Could we legally close one end of this road permanently? Years ago a Water District acquired a residential parcel for construction of a water tank. The residential property has an easement for ingress/egress to an private road shared by over twenty other residential properties. The Water District (public utility) now is permitting a cellular company (private business) to apply for County permits to construct a cellular antenna facility on the property. Can the Water District give permission to the cellular company to use the private road to install and maintain the cellular facility when all of the other easement holders are in opposition? We bought a house/land 6 years ago and signed an ingress/egress easement with the previous owners to allow them the use of our driveway to access their property that adjoins ours. We are having major problems with the renters (& parents of the daycare children) speeding up and down our driveway and forcing us to get out of their way when we are on it. In an effort to slow down the traffic we have put up a nonlocking gate at the end of the driveway where it joins their property. The property owners are now saying we have no legal right to install the gate. The parish of Iberia were I live was going to build a road that would have gone between our lots and the easement was 60 foot but they decide to do away with that easement and went with the 30 foot drainage easement on my side of the boundry line. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. What should I watch out for? My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. It seems that I would be giving up substantial property rights were I to grant the easement, and that the unrecorded quality of the easement seems sneaky. What should I watch out for? We and our adjacent neighbors are in a dispute over a 4 foot high concrete retaining wall that straddles both of our property lines. We’ve had large clay terra-cotta pots sitting on top of retaining wall with lattice in the pots to obscure the neighbors privacy fence, which is few feet back from the retaining wall. Recently (last week), they decided to start objecting to the clay pots (which are on their property, according to their survey). Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? The easement borders my entire property line, I have a private driveway off the easement to my house. The neighbor who lives directly behind me says that when I pull off the paved part of the easement over the grass part of the easement (approx. 10 ft) to get to my front yard, I am tresspassing over his property. He has called the police 4 times in the past 6 months accusing me of trespassing when I park my car in my yard. Do I have the right to access my property from the easement? Does he have the right to call the state police to my house everytime I park in my yard? I have a 1 acre peice of property in a gated community. There is a 14 ft utility easement at the front of my property as there is a transformer there. The HOA came in on my property and installed Electrical power panels to service a gate for back entry/ exit to the sub division. They did not have my permission. They also dug a trench completely across my property about 2 feet wide to reach the transformer for power to the gate and when finished left my property in a mess. My question is, did the HOA have the right to do what they did without my permission? I purchased a commercial building in Maryland and attempted to get an occupancy permit for a tenant. The town conditioned approval with a request for me to grant easements to the town for the maintenance of sewer lines running under my property and to enter my property to inspect them. These easements, if granted, would severely limit my ability to add on to my building and park in my lot. If they don’t agree to negotiate more favorable terms (to me) can I cap off the sewer lines with impunity? May they condition an occupancy permit on an unrelated grant of an easement to them? Have access to irrigation water via a pipeline across neighbors property. Helped to pay for pipeline that supplies water to their parcel, and to our pipeline. New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? I recently discovered that a contractor has run a water line to the house that he is building on property adjacent to ours. The contractor has placed this line inside the 10′ easement on our property rather than disturb the paving that covers the 10′ easement on the adjacent property. Is this legal? City wants a pipeline easement across a small section of the backside of the property. Now heres the question – if I take their ca$h, and later after the work is done , water or gas line leaks show up, say in my yard, is the city liable? What is a “non-assignable and exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and across the following described lands:…” New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? Because we’ve lived in the house (for 12 years) and maintained the retaining wall before and after it was rebuilt, and paid entirely for the reconstruction of the wall, does this give us a right to a prescriptive easement (i.e. right to own the wall completely) overriding the neighbor’s survey, which they claim gives them exclusive ownership rights? Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? My deed states that an adjacent landowner has a strip beside my property that is “as wide as a road”….their deed says a 60 foot wide strip. In 1924 the two deeds said the same thing, but the next time the land changed hands, the 60 ft. was specified. Since it was not recorded on both deeds, can this be legal? The electric and cable companies apparently have an easement on our property although I am unable to find proof of this in our deed and abstract. We do not subscribe to cable and our electric is fed to the property from another line (not on our property) have asked the companies to please fix the cables/wires that they are encroaching on my ability to use my own property and it poses a safety risk. What can I do? Recently there has been a change of ownership on one of the properties. The new owner has a teenage son. The parents leave town often and leave the son alone. While the parents are away the son has been throwing parties where there is teenage drinking. We are concerned that at some point one of these underage drunk children will cause and/or have an accident that will result in death or injury while crossing our property. Can we be held liable if something like this should occur? Other than calling law enforcement to alert them to the party is there any thing else we can do to protect ourselves? As a small Home Owners Association in Washington state, we have a plated 60 foot access & egress easement which has existed for over 20 years. The easement in question passes across a tiny segment of the 5 acres of a single member’s property but they are exceedingly resistant to expanding the margin of the easement though the expansion will be into a completely unused area of their property and out of sight and will fully address their and our membership’s concerns of liability/risk. Given the facts above, within reason, and without damaging in any way the associate member’s property or its value does our Homeowner’s association have a right to demand the expansion of the easement margin? I purchased a narrow lot two houses from my house in 2005. My neighbor whose house next to my narrow lot bought his house in 1998. He constructed sliding iron front gates on track in front of his house sometime after which I am not sure. But it is very likely that was more than 5 years ago. About 8-10 feet of the track is on my property(I have a survey done). Now my question is would it still work if I give notice of permission for him to continue to use it to park his cars in order to prevent a potential claim of prescriptive easement? This family has settled this land 100 years ago. At the turn of the century loggers started this road to reach the top of this ridge which crossed thier land as will as someone elses. When the second generation owner sold 30 acres next to this 500 feet she recorded an easement back in 1968. So that they could still use this pathway. Now the current owner of the 30 acres complained to the forest service and the have recently de-constructed the pathway, and put up concrete barriers. The question is does the national forest have to recognize perscriptive easements? A piece of land I am thinking of buying is land locked but has a deeded Right of way that is 10ft wide and 50 feet long in PA. Can I pave or lay gravel down on this section to help my vehicle get thru. I Live on a Busy Street and my Neighbor with Easement Access Leaves my Gate Unlocked and Open, What can I do? My neighbor wants an easement on my property for his proposed sewer line. We will be selling our property within the next nine months. Are there any legal, physical or real estate sales issues if we grant the easement? What is the value of this easement? I own a building with another company and there is an easement on the property. There is a restrictive covenant which states I am to provide “reasonable permanent access” to this easement. What is meant by reasonable permanent access? The owners of the land over which our easement runs is in the process of having a home built on the second parcel and one of the conditions of their building permit is that they must run sewer lines back to the house (we are on septic) and the only place where the sewer lines can run is up the middle of the 150′ easement road. The builders informed us that when the sewer company puts in the sewer, that we will not have access to our property for three days. The sewer installers have further said that they will not put down the steel plates common to such an installation as the expense is too great. Can the owner of the easement and/or their contractors deny us access during this process? For past few months, My neighbors (12 people) are now constantly using their basement door and my driveway as their main door, even their guest use it as a entrance door even though they have their front door and it is becoming extremely difficult to use my driveway where I park my cars(because of their constant presence, sitting in the driveway, children playing in the driveway etc), when I ask them to stop sitting or playing, they apologize, but keep repeating, them blocking my driveway with their cars is also becoming a problem. How to solve this problem, Is their a legal way? Can I stop them from using my driveway? I live in the state of NY and I have a right of way on a piece of property from 1970. This was used for a turn around and a place for the kids to play. It is 50-100ft, we are at the end of a dead end street. The town just abandoned this piece for a neighbor to have a driveway to get to there new house. Can this be legally done? My right of way was also included with the deed given to the town when they took over the road in 1992. Is a verbal easement legal and binding? We are planning on building a home with our frontage being on a private road that has five homes on it. We have a written easement with our neighbor right across from us. But we have had a verbal easement with our neighbor that sits at the start of the private road for about three years now. Dose a verbal easement eventually become legal or our we going to be having problems? Do we even need a written easement from him with us all ready having a easement to our frontage? We live in a site built condominium association. We share a drainage/walkway easement with our next door neighbors according to our plat map which is what our township considers. A state park trail runs along the east side of our development. We have always invited the homes in the development to access the trail by walking through our yard. A few in the association now want to put a sidewalk through to make the walkway more official. Do we have to go by what the township says about where the easement is or by the Master Deed? Do we have to allow a sidewalk through our yards? Does a Condo Association have the legal right to build a sidewalk on a walk-way easement? An easement was approved by the township to allow residents access to a public walking trail, this easement was defined as a 20ft area between two adjoining lots. Does a Condo Association have the right to make such improvements; even if the owners of the lots do not agree with this (assuming it properly approved by a majority of residents)? I am buying a home on 1.34 acres of land and should be closing on it in about a month. The owner of another acre directly behind my land would like to sell the land to me the land is currently landlocked. What would I have to do to purchase this land? I’m assuming this means that I need to have an easement? If so, is this costly? What is the difference between an easement for INGRESS AND EGRESS (not exclusive) as opposed to an easement “OVER AND ACROSS” lands? The easements run through a gated community to a river. We are not a part of the HOA. WE recently bought a 2nd home on the river. The property has a boat ramp on it. The latest Platte chart, only shows the outline of our property, no indication of a boat ramp. AND there are no easements recorded to date. BUT, everyone allows everyone to share… We’ve asked that they sign a waiver of liability in exchange for permission of using the ramp, since this is our 2nd home and we cannot maintain the ramp non-stop. We’ve been indirectly threatened that an easement by prescription will be placed on our ramp… What are our rights? My husband and I purchased a piece of land 17 years ago which consisted of a working commercial fish hatchery, buildings and 3 homes. There is a piece of property between us and the county road on which we have “a non-exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and under a piece of land 20 feet in width”. We now have a new owner of the property on which we have the easement who is claiming that we don’t have the right to have this business as the easement is for a single family residence access only. Can he stop us from having this business which has been in existence since 2004? I own an undeveloped 5 ac parcel in California. Upon having it surveyed, I learned that my neighbor’s driveway falls as much as 20′ outside of the easement. The easement is 60′ (30′ of which is on my property) for a one lane gravel road. Can I insist the road be moved to regain my property? Is it my responsibility to rebuild it, or the responsibility of the neighbor? I recently purchased 9 acres of land that has an easement attached to it. There is a 40 foot public road easement that was granted back in the 70’s on the property and has never been used. We want to build a new house on the property. The only access is a driveway tile installed right on this 40′ easement. We have been told that if we build there and use this drive as our access we could possibly be sued or the owner of the easement could put a lien on our property. Is this true? If we are not blocking his access in any way, are we not entitled to use this drive to get to our house? My home is landlocked but has a road easement for access purposes. I know want to subdivide the property into 4 parcels. Do I need additional easements for all the new properties? I live in a home with a 20 ft easement driveway from the main road to a semi public lake. Home owners have been granted ingress & egress to the lake. There are 3 houses and 1 duplex on the easement driveway. About 20 years ago the owner of our home built and maintained a dock that sits just off the natural water line of the lake and it meets all state codes and is legally there. We bought the home 7 years ago and we have maintained the dock and keep our boat anchor during the summer. Can the owners of the duplex give their tenants the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Can the tenants of the duplex give anyone (i.e., friends, neighbors, relatives, etc.,) the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Do we have the right to prohibit the tenants from the dock even though we have no paperwork showing ownership of the dock? Can the Board of a HOA enter a private property within the community that happens to have the waterfall circuit board and the sprinkler system control panel located on their property? We can’t find anywhere in the documents or bylaws where the board was given a utility easement or access easement to get to these panels. Do we have a right to enter a backyard to access the control panels without a documented easement? Can this homeowner forbid us access to the panels? My neighbor has planted a hedge that is growing across my property. I asked him to trim it back so it would still look nice, but be on his property. He not only has let it grown further (he claims he’s using the easement, which half happens to be over MY boundary line). He called the police on me, and they said I could be arrested if I touched his plants Why can he cut my bushes on MY property, yet he can continue to encroach on mine? Does he have the right to let his plants grow over the easement that is on my property? We own a property on a private road with 14 homes. We all have septic and wells. We have an irreparable septic problem. We have been denied a permit for a new on-lot septic option. Our neighbors have reported us to county and local government. Thus causing us to enter into the legal system to fight it. We have a developer who is ready to put in a private line to a sewer main. All that we need is for the neighbors to sign giving us an easement to put it in along the private road. They are giving us a hard time about it and will not sign. Is there anyway to force the easement through so that we can fix our problem? There is an access easement on my property so that my neighbor can access his yard (they use my driveway). I am wanting to build a fence on my property line which would cross a small portion at the end of the easement. I would not be hindering his access to his backyard, but he is against my building the fence. Would I legally be able to build the fence as long as I am not keeping him from getting into his backyard (egress and ingress)? We have allowed our neighbors to use the back portion of our yard for almost five years in exchange for the landscaping they did for us. Their house is directly behind ours, and they did not have room for their son and daughter to play. They have paid the water bill, but no insurance, property taxes, mortgage, etc. Do we need to have a formal easement agreement? Can they take over our property and assume ownership after a prescribed length of time? The Dominant tenant has a right to cross my backyard to access her own backyard. The easement is 6 feet wide. Am I allowed to develop this area of land at all (low wood deck, asphalt, concrete etc). I do not intend to impede her access at all. The original property owner gave an easement and “right-of-way for the purpose of ingress & egress and to run with said land and to be transferable therewith; reserving unto the grantor the right to use said road & grant others a like easement and right-of-way.” I am putting an underground sprinkler system in the front yard but the neighbor insists that it will be in the easement area. The sprinkler heads will be flush with the ground and will not impede traffic flow. Is this allowed? There is very little likelihood that the road will ever be paved or taken over by the state. What are my rights? Three homes drive over our properties this easement . On the deed its state non exclusive easement for ingress and egress. I been having a bad time with a neighbor that drives over my land and the neighbors land, his dogs attacked me on my property and I find him. Now he wont stop driving past my house fast and he will come to a complete stop and peel out right in front of my house on this easement road. Is there any law that will help me on private easement roads with endangerment or damages. The dog attack is on record .the police wont touch private roads in Washington state. They told me that he has to go out onto the public road. Is this right? I have speed limit signs and a speed pump on a gravel road which we all agreed on even him, so I want to know what I can do by law to stop him, is this harassment? An easement through an unincorporated HOA community in Yavapai County, AZ allows access through the community to landlocked abutting Property. Easement metes and bounds describe a route somewhat different from existing roads. Owner has unfettered access. Adherence to the described easement would require demo of some existing construction and construction of new roads. What are respective rights of community and easement grantee (Property owner)? For example, does the law allow the Property owner unrestricted rights to treat the route of his described easement however he deems necessary irrespective of the current use of that property? I have recently purchased 20 acres of land in Indiana that was considered landlocked and was given a proper easement to said land for ingress and egress and utilities. The problem we have run into after residing here for 1 year is there is no signage or notification of where our easement begins off of a private drive. Am I allowed to put signage (my family name, private drive, no trespassing, etc…) at the beginning of our easement to recognize what the easements intent is and to deter unwanted traffic? The owner of the land has forbade us to place any signage on their property (our easement) at this time. My house (primary residence) is on a lot without well defined borders to my neighbors. The grassy yard flows right into my neighbor property and there are some trees that act as a division but according to the plot plan my property runs well past them. Her lawn service cleans part of my lot (the part after the trees) and I worried she might think her yard is bigger than it is. How do I make sure after time she does not claim rights to the part of the yard she cleans? I recently purchased property that the driveway goes through my land, and continues to my new neighbors property. The “neighbor” is already giving me a hard time about keeping up with the driveway such as plowing snow up to the end of my property, not just where my family needs to park. She also stated that the “right of way” was in their deed. My deed has no information pertaining to giving them “right of way” through my property. If I have to give them access, shouldn’t it be stated in my deed also? I am wanting to know if we had allowed an easement across our property for another property owner to have access to their property behind us and now they are selling their property and the buyer is an adjoining property owner that will now have access to the property from his own property will be still have to allow access or use of the easement that is running through our property? We have given a 60 foot road easement for the purpose of ingress and egress to an adjacent property which is landlocked. The easement is situated on a steep sand hill which washes out easily. Previous owners have maintained the road and did not destroy the 60 foot easement. The current owner had not maintained the road and now are driving from side to side of the 60 feet to avoid the ruts that they have created. We have placed barriers on the side, leaving the previously maintained road clear. We have been told by one source that we could place gates at each side of the easement as long as we do not lock them without giving the adjacent property owner a key. Do we have the right to do this or do we have to allow these owners to destroy our land. I live in Texas, the property that I bought had an unrecorded easement. I would like to know if it is possible for the people using this easement to legally have the width of it extended from about 12ft. to 20ft.? I have an Easement on my land that specifically states for ingress and egress purpose to a land locked piece of land. The location of the easement lies in an area that one can only access the land locked land by foot. My question is, what can I do and what can I not do with that land that belongs to me? Can I erect a building, On the Easement, that dose not hinder the travel to and from the land locked land or can I not? A Real Estate Developer wants an Easement to my property. The Developer wants an easement to install a sewer line. Since, the Developer stands to gain capital from the installation of the sewer lines. Shouldn’t I be compensated at a commercial rate? Do I have to allow this easement? Two neighbors and I went together and put in a well for the purpose of irrigating our yards. We equally divided the cost of the well, pump, etc. Now the neighbor on whose property the well is located is selling her home. How can my other neighbor and I retain the legal right to use the well after the property is sold? I live in Maine and have house with a deeded right of way through someone’s property to get to my house. My deeded right of way is stated as 50 ft. My driveway is very narrow, only about 8 ft. wide. Could I tar the rest of the 50 ft. if I want? What are my rights? Right across the road from my property are my and one neighbor’s mailboxes. They turn come from their home and turn around in my driveway when they get their mail because it is more convenient for them to do that. Recently, they accused me of some things and I told them to not come on my property anymore. I have a number of questions concerning a private road easement which goes through our property along the floor of a steep valley. A mid portion stretch of the road goes through our property. I would like to access the property at the bottom of the hill for recreational activities and for maintenance (i.e. removing debris that periodically gets washed down, or dead trees that may have fallen). I have verbally asked the neighbors if it was OK for me to use of the road and they have declined. The easement in question was recorded in 1983. This is all news to us. We never were asked or notified. We bought property in 1977 and title search at that time showed no easements. I have a drainage easement (swale)running the back 20 feet of my property. Because of the overwhelming water we have been recieving, the “swale” is causing the water to pond, and as a result, my backyard is collapsing rapidly, and my basement is flooding during heavy rain. I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. This is for the purpose of developing his property and he is requesting three separate easements across our property. We share a reciprocal driveway easement with our neighbors, they park on our property and we drive across theirs. The easement documentation provides that we share in the costs of paving the easement. Some of our trees hanging over the area where they park have old, thick branches that could fall and damage their cars. Who is responsible for trimming the trees and keeping them safe? We have painted our remodeled home on three sides and our neighbor is denying us access to use the area beyond the 12 inches (which is on his property) to paint the wall. My neighbor has recently erected a barrier preventing us from driving across that portion of “her” driveway. It’s almost impossible to drive in 1 of 2 cars into the 2 car garage with this barrier. We have the deed and have had our property surveyed which clearly show our property line, however the property line is adjacent to an easement for a driveway. Our neighbor decided to pave the driveway which is on our property. Our deed has nothing in it about an easement being on our property. We were recently sent a letter from the local sewer authority requesting that we sign the attached right-of-way agreement and grant of right-of-way for an existing sewer line on our property for the sum of $1.00. Should we do it? After this new owner had his land surveyed he realized that I, and my neighbor, drove across a ~ 250 sq. ft piece of land in the nethermost corner of his 93 acre holding. This small piece of his adjoining property has been used continuously as a driveway entrance to our properties since their development 40 years ago. We have a 10 foot easement on the back end of our land as likewise do the owners of the field in the back. They would have to cut down 2 30 (foot) trees that are in our yard to do this. They told me at a meeting that if I did not give them the right of this easement through my property that they would condem that part of my yard and use it anyway. Our sewer line goes across our neighbor’s property. It was that way when each of us bought our properties. Now I need to replace the sewer line, and we can’t find any recorded easement. If our neighbor tries to keep us from replacing our sewer line, will we be able to prevail based on a prescriptive easement? In California, who is required to maintain an existing roadway easement across my neighbor’s land that allows access to my house? We recently acquired a piece of property that has an easement running on one side of it for 2 property owners to pass to get to their houses. Now a third person wants us to sign an agreement for an easement. We want to know what is the normal procedure for an easement? Our neighbor has an easement across our land, which he has permission to use. However, we just found out that all along he has been using property which is 5 feet outside of the permitted easement area. Now he wants to pave it. Does he have a prescriptive easement for the area which he was using which was outside of the original permitted easemenet area? Our property has an easement to the adjacent land to allow for farming. Now they are selling that land and intend to convert it to residential with “road” access down our easement. My neighbor’s chickens are constantly on my land. Is there any kind of easement that they could acquire over time on my property if I continue to allow this? How can we get someone who inherited our right of way (ROW) easement to deal with us? I want to move soon and rent out my house. Would I reduce my chances for keeping an easement I have on a neighboring lot if the other owner decides to bring a lawsuit to disclaim the easement and I don’t live here? The easement across our land is unusable. If I cut a road for my needs on my property (not on the easement) do the easement owners have the right to use my new road? I live in the Texas and want to know what size easement is required for an electrical line? What is an easement in gross? If you have paid a neighbor for use of a strip of land can they put a 4 foot high post at the corner of it, even though you were very clear that you were going to use it for a drive for your cars? Someone has built a house down the block from us and has decided to put a dock 20 feet from us, and instead of making his own access to his dock he has decided to use ours. What can we do? My wife and I recently bought a house on 80 acres that has an easement. The easement owner wants to use it to cross cattle; can we keep him from doing so? We want to change an existing easement by moving it 3 feet. This will not fundamentally change the easement owner’s access. The easement owner does not want us to make the change. Can we change the location of the easement under the circumstances described? Does an Implied Eastment of Necessity exist? I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. Is a prescriptive easement through notorious use automatic? The small town where I’ve lived for 15 years is now telling me that the “city mainâ€? is really a private service line. Over the years I have replaced all my outside sewer lines – this was before I realized the line ran across neighbors’ yards and where the actual problem lays. How do I go about getting an easement that would provide my home future protection? I feel like I’m being forced into giving the county a drainage easement. Can the county force me to give them a drainage easement? I would like to know if I can fight an easement that is already in place on the land I purchased An agreement between a townhome homeowners association and a neighboring condo homeowners association includes financial contributions for upkeep of property easements. Can one demand financial accountability from the other? An easement is a right-of-way you grant to someone to cross your land whenever they need to. Governments can force easements through the use of eminent domain law. Private groups have no such power.
How Do I Know Which Kind of Easement I Have?
I am one of a group of property owners that owns land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. This is all dirt road and these owners say that we will be responsible for maintaining it. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by peoples backyards with no access to it unless you enter through our property. My and my neighbor’s property lines run across the same pond and back to land on the other side, splitting the pond in 3 sections. Questions exist as to if property lines exist within water, and thus required to stay within property lines, or does entire pond become available for full use of all 3 owners? I am a homeowner. My property has a transformer unit/box on my ground property. On June 2, 2012 an unknown auto hit the box and caused a power outage. The outage was repaired and now the utility company is billing me for the damages because the transformer is on my property. Can they hold me liable to it if it was not me or any family member who caused the damage? The person who did the damage is unknown because it happened overnight while the entire street was asleep. What steps do I have to take to stop my neighbor from using our private driveway? My neighbors next to us pull into their driveway to enter their premisses but use our driveway to enter the main road. They have at times even pulled into our driveway to be able to go to the back of their house. We have asked them many times to stop doing this because we are afraid one day that we might have an accident. When they use our driveway, they fly out their very fast so we don’t see them using it. We live in New Jersey and have a 40-foot deeded necessary easement type right-of-way through a neighbor’s property. Lately he has begun parking large tractor-trailer size vehicles for long periods of time to one side of the easement. Although it’s an eyesore, it doesn’t impede our ability to get to our home as our driveway is much narrower than 40 feet. Is this permitted by law, and if so, will it have any effect on the conditions of the easement? Our HOA’s common area is subject to an equestrian easement. The city wants to use the easement and build a 10 feet wide bike trail. This would require that many of the trees on that part of the property to be cut down. We are afraid that this will cause a reduction in our property value. Is there any way we can fight the easement? We are located in Goleta, County of Santa Barbara, California. I am a resident of Louisiana and have purchased a property with easement issues. This property was once part of a larger tract. The original landowner used the house and an area of land around the house as collateral for a building loan. There was an easement included that went from the road to the house. After this, the landowner dug a very large pond across the easement. He built a limestone driveway that went around the pond to get to the house. This was never stated to be a legal easement. Our house was built in a development in the State of New York in 2008 that connected our road to another in the development. There is a 10′ drainage easement on the WEST side of the property (our side lot). Now, the Town wants to put SWALES through 4 feet of our front yard. Our question is: The Town has no drainage easement on the front of our property, I have thoroughly researched the Deed. I live in Tiburon, CA. I own a swimming pool and have a legal easement, with my next-door neighbor, that his tenants can use the pool. If one of his tenants were injured, on my property where the pool is located, would I be legally responsible? I have a house on a lake, and next to the lot is an easement. The people across the street say that the easement is a deeded easement and it is on all of their titles so they have a right to put a dock on the easement. I would not have a problem with that, except that the dock is only about half a foot away from my property line. Are they able to put the dock on the easement legally? I’m trying to work out an exchange of easements with a neighbor who owns property on both sides of me. I need an easement across one of their properties in order to reach an otherwise inaccessible part of my property, and they want an easement across my property to get from one to the other of theirs. My deed states that the nonexclusive right of way, which is the driveway to my property was bought, paid for and is transferred with the property to future owners. My question: Do I have to share the driveway with the property owner? The property adjoining the driveway was bought by another person who lays claim to the driveway, or right of way, of access. Do I have to maintain the road at my total expense if other property owners are using it? “I am having an issue with the utility company in NYS. The title was searched, and there was no recorded ROW or Easement with the Town or County. I contacted the company to have them remove the pole and now they are saying they have a notarized unrecorded document granting them easement dating back to 1967. Is this a legal easement, and am I now out of luck with them moving it? Thank you for your assistance.” What rights do I have to compel neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. What rights do I have to compel a neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. Prior to selling me the property, the neighbor owned both my lot and the adjacent lot, where he built his home. I just bought a foreclosed home and my neighbor has told me the previous owner gave him easement for his septic. You can see where it was put in as the ground has been freshly dug. It is about five feet from my pole barn. We live in a small town in northern Michigan where it is not uncommon for people to dig a whole and drop a fuel oil tank to hold their sewage. Recently, we erected a fence on our property and about 1 foot of it extends onto the conservation easement. Do we need to be concerned? We did get a permit but have not yet been visited by a township inspector. If/when the inspector comes by, will he or she look to see where the easement is and, if so, will we be required to move the fence? I am one of a group of property owner that own land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by the backyards of others with no access to it unless you enter through our property. I’ve been cleaning since 1984 when I purchased the property. My house and my neighbors house share a common sewer line; that is, my sewer line crosses over into their property and then connects with their sewer line. The combined line connects with the main sewer running underneath the city street. The neighbor has started doing major renovations and has broken the sewer lines as part of their foundation work. I received an “Unauthorized use of Easement” letter from the electric company notarized and signed by an attorney. The electric company is recording the unauthorized use of the easement in Real Property Records in our state of Texas. A residential developer, who wanted to develop a tract of property adjacent to ours, has approached my sister and me about placing a detention pond and easement, which the city required his development to have, across our property in exchange for the purchase of our property within a specified future date and price per acre. We agreed to allow the easement and detention pond subject to the execution of 2 agreements drawn up by the developer: (1) Option to Purchase Real Estate with a scheduled execution date of Sept. 2005, and (2) Agreement of Intent to Develop Real Estate which specified a scheduled execution date of Feb. 2006, and which he signed. My neighbor bought an overgrown wooded lot (about an acre) which has two water run off easements running through it and has since the subdivision was built in the 1960’s. This property they bought borders our property. One of the easements runs through our backyard, through their property and then into an agricultural pond not owned by them. I have a Swimming Pool easement with my next-door neighbor. The easement includes a bathroom with a toilet. My next-door neighbor hired a plumber to unclog the toilet, however he did not contact me about this toilet problem. He wants me to pay for part of the $680.00 bill. I live in Tiburon, CA. Am I responsible for this bill? I have sprinklers near the road which are continually run over or damaged. Is it legal for me to put up stakes or blocks to protect them? I have a private easement pole in my yard and my neighbor has tapped it with lines that run across my property, directly where I want to install a pool. What can I do? We live in a lake front community and own docks. Our HOA is now demanding a lease payment for these docks, some of which are over 25 years old. Can they do that? I’ve just discovered that my gas meter was servicing my neighbor’s utility room. The electric company told me it was my responsibility to correct it, which I’ve done. Does my neighbor have any obligation for part of the repair bill? My property has a water easement on it. Recently, I have had three pipes fixed and my monthly bill has been approximately $1800. Could the leaks I’m experiencing be a result of the easement? Our HOA is using our driveway, designated as a utility easement for the local water company, to check the status of a water tower several times a day. Do they have the right to do this? My property has a utility easement, of which the city has completely restricted access. Can they do this, since it affects a large area of my property? My neighbor, who has access to a joint easement “right of way” is building property that requires access through another homeowner’s right of way. That neighbor does not want to extend his access for this new property. We are hoping to avoid litigation. Do you have any advice? My neighbor’s property has a mineral right easement on it. A gas company, in order to easily access their new well, want to use a road on my property. Can I deny them? We were unaware of a 20 foot easement when we purchased our property and are now having trouble selling the home because of the easement. Do we have any recourse? We need to move an easement line over about 10 feet. How do we legally do this? Our road association is making changes that have not been approved by all homeowners and seem to be exceeding their authority. How can we find out whether they are within their legal rights? My neighbor won’t grant me a utility easement, in order for me to get electricity to the home I am building, unless I sell him another lot at half price. Do I have any recourse? I have a utility easement in my backyard. What rights do I have regarding getting the utility company to inform me when they will be accessing my yard and can I request they bury the four cables, currently above ground, running through my yard? We share a driveway, from which we access our horses, with other property owners. One neighbor wants to put in an electric gate, which would impede our ability to ride our horses out of our property safely. Do we have a position to argue the fact that we do not want the gate? A municipality sold land, that actually belonged to me, to my neighbor. Although my neighbor is willing to quit-claim the property back to me, who is responsible for the correcting the excavating that was done? My attorney failed to disclose, at closing, that there was an easement across my property. Can I sue him? Do I have an automatic easement if I own a property that has always used the well and septic system from an adjoining property? My Easement runs along my entire North Property Line where 1 of the subdivision road is now, which I utilize until the road takes a hard right and I go straight onto my easement (which we have solely maintained since 1978) down to my property to access my driveway/property, at the end on the left (straight ahead is the Corps Property/Lake). The problem is the relatively new neighbor (2001). Over the last 7 years, he rarely came up and if he did was not a nuisance but over the last 6 months or so, has come up more often and utilizing my Easement. I tried to politely explain that the Easement is not for parking and to utilize his property only; however, he got belligerent and insisted that I had no authority to tell him were to park or not and that he’d soon own it!!! Short of a Civil Suit, who has the Authority to tell him he can’t park on it??? I bought a an acre and a half with a 30 foot easement with a ditch on my side of the property line that goes from the road to a canal. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. She has no easements on her side. The developer plans to build a concrete driveway on the easement (Easement “A”), and place his utility lines along side, on the our- property side of the driveway. In addition to laying out the concrete drive, he plans to create a large entryway where the easement joins the public road and landscape to further (visually) associate the entire easement, as well as his untouched and unused 15 ft. wide, 200 ft. long flag pole, with his property, thus expanding his property footprint and increasing its market value while significantly diminishing ours. I have contacted the law office of the attorneys who drafted the document, and they refuse to clarify the intent of their language. Do the words “ingress and egress” mean that my neighbor can pour a driveway on the easement? My neighbors have begun building a locking auto mated gate with an alarm system and security cameras at the street- side- end of the driveway. Can the benefactors of an express easement for only “driveway and utility purposes” build a gate on what is, save for the easement, my property? If not, can I stop them without the hassle and expense of a survey and lawsuit? At some point in time a previous lot owner cleared a path along this easement and now it is used by the neighborhood as a road. Our association has notified the current property owners that they will no longer provide snow removal as this is private property and not an established road (county assessor confirmed). Now, if the county assessors records show there is no established road and only two lots with a utility easement then can the current property owners claim a grandfather clause and demand continued snow service as they have received in previous years?” I want to build a fence across my property line which would result in me building a retaining wall and filling in my part of the pond. Do I need to file some sort of easement with the property owner to be able to build a retaining wall even if the said wall would be solely within my property line?” We have been in several disagreements with the next door neighbor and he is the president of the HOA for our section of the community, but not for the whole governing community. What are my options, I have even offered to obtain the permits from the city and install a 12 inch pipe. This seems like a vendetta and not justice.” The City has recently developed upstream and the State has widened the road in front of my property and added drainage that runs through this ditch. Since flow has increased, should either entity have obtained an easement? We are in the process of selling our land and want to make sure the new owners have access to the water shut offs and sewer lines if neccessary. The lawyer won’t write up the easement with out the city noting where the water and sewer line lay. So is it legal for us to write up an agreement and have it notorized and signed by our neighbor? The city decided to clean out a old ditch and used my property for access, telling me there was an easement. All of the privacy trees and shrubs were removed and some property was destroyed in the process. My deed shows that there is not an easement on my property. What can I do about the damage which was caused? “I have a contract to buy a piece of property. During the survey, it was determined that a portion of the driveway is on “the brothers” (referred to as 2B’s from here on) land next door. And does the gas company have any rights to my land even though there is no pipe on it, a large (90′ pines with other tall vegetation under them) vegetative buffer barring the use of it, and no recorded easement (there is one on the 2B’s land and the previous owner was compensated for it; the 2B’s purchased their land with the easement already there)? Currently, the only people who use the easement are neighborhood children, many of whom ride their bicycles (and on one occasion, a gasoline-powered motorized scooter) through our front yard, past our house, through the backyard, and into the trees beyond. Our lawn is suffering serious damage because of this. Is it possible to vacate the pedestrian easement, and if so, how? The language of the easement grants the servient estate owner the right to relocate the easement. Does this allow the servient estate owner to create a separate right-of-way for each easement holder; thus requiring each easement holder to construct and maintain a separate roadway? I bought my property in October 2008 and I was told at signing that I had lot 14 and 14a. I have the lot 14a on my deed and then when i was putting up a fence on the opposing side of my ditch I ran into a conflict with my neigboor about this. I called the deeds office in the county and they say that the deed shows 14 and 14a as mine but it is an easement. What does this mean? Is this portion of land of 14a mine? We have been contacted by one of the family members of the person who once owned both plots of land. They believe that they own the 50 foot easement even though our deed says that it is part of our property. Do they really “own” this property? We recently purchased a 5 acre piece of property. Unfortunately we did not have access to the language of the document when we purchased the property. This is what was “told” to us about the easement when we purchased the property. Our neighbors have recently brought to our attention that we were mistaken about the extent of the length of the easement. They have stated that they intend to put a road the entire length of the easement– nearly 400 feet. Do they have the “right” to do all of these things? They removed the easement from the property, I have letters from the HOA and township validating this. The problem is that the water issue was not mitigated. My question is, since we were misinformed about the easement and the necessity of it, and since we have a major water issue and would not have purchased this home had that been disclosed to us, can we hold the HOA responsible to resolve this issue at their cost. In addition, if an easement is required on this property, can we hold the HOA liable for the dimished value of the home as a result? I have a property in the Hollywood Hills that is landlocked. Does anyone know if this is the right course? If so, how do I apply for an easement? Which department in the county do I need to contact? To get into our property we have to cross two other properties. Last fall when we paved our part of the driveway and the man in the middles driveway the contractor had some extra material and asked us if he could put it on the top of the driveway, of course we liked the idea of getting in and out easier but warned the contractor that the man on the top is very unreasonable and he would have to get his permission. Several months later we received a letter from his attorney who is also his nephew saying we had to remove the asphalt and take it back to dirt and gravel. Please give me some feedback on the situation. Can government entities explicitly grant Easement by Necessity to private landowners, particularly if the government entity may have created a landlock situation? How do we now establish access/egress to our lot? Do we stand a chance of convincing the Bureau of Reclamation to explicitly grant us use of the easement, which should satisfy the permitting requirement for the other bridge? My neighbor has an ingress and egress easement through my property. Can I have the neighbor sign a liability waiver? Would it be possible to have waiver written up to protect myself in California? We are a townhome community with a private road that connects to public streets on each end. Though we are responsible for all repairs to that private road, probably 90% of the traffic is cut-through traffic between the public streets. Could we legally close one end of this road permanently? Years ago a Water District acquired a residential parcel for construction of a water tank. The residential property has an easement for ingress/egress to an private road shared by over twenty other residential properties. The Water District (public utility) now is permitting a cellular company (private business) to apply for County permits to construct a cellular antenna facility on the property. Can the Water District give permission to the cellular company to use the private road to install and maintain the cellular facility when all of the other easement holders are in opposition? We bought a house/land 6 years ago and signed an ingress/egress easement with the previous owners to allow them the use of our driveway to access their property that adjoins ours. We are having major problems with the renters (& parents of the daycare children) speeding up and down our driveway and forcing us to get out of their way when we are on it. In an effort to slow down the traffic we have put up a nonlocking gate at the end of the driveway where it joins their property. The property owners are now saying we have no legal right to install the gate. The parish of Iberia were I live was going to build a road that would have gone between our lots and the easement was 60 foot but they decide to do away with that easement and went with the 30 foot drainage easement on my side of the boundry line. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. What should I watch out for? My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. It seems that I would be giving up substantial property rights were I to grant the easement, and that the unrecorded quality of the easement seems sneaky. What should I watch out for? We and our adjacent neighbors are in a dispute over a 4 foot high concrete retaining wall that straddles both of our property lines. We’ve had large clay terra-cotta pots sitting on top of retaining wall with lattice in the pots to obscure the neighbors privacy fence, which is few feet back from the retaining wall. Recently (last week), they decided to start objecting to the clay pots (which are on their property, according to their survey). Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? The easement borders my entire property line, I have a private driveway off the easement to my house. The neighbor who lives directly behind me says that when I pull off the paved part of the easement over the grass part of the easement (approx. 10 ft) to get to my front yard, I am tresspassing over his property. He has called the police 4 times in the past 6 months accusing me of trespassing when I park my car in my yard. Do I have the right to access my property from the easement? Does he have the right to call the state police to my house everytime I park in my yard? I have a 1 acre peice of property in a gated community. There is a 14 ft utility easement at the front of my property as there is a transformer there. The HOA came in on my property and installed Electrical power panels to service a gate for back entry/ exit to the sub division. They did not have my permission. They also dug a trench completely across my property about 2 feet wide to reach the transformer for power to the gate and when finished left my property in a mess. My question is, did the HOA have the right to do what they did without my permission? I purchased a commercial building in Maryland and attempted to get an occupancy permit for a tenant. The town conditioned approval with a request for me to grant easements to the town for the maintenance of sewer lines running under my property and to enter my property to inspect them. These easements, if granted, would severely limit my ability to add on to my building and park in my lot. If they don’t agree to negotiate more favorable terms (to me) can I cap off the sewer lines with impunity? May they condition an occupancy permit on an unrelated grant of an easement to them? Have access to irrigation water via a pipeline across neighbors property. Helped to pay for pipeline that supplies water to their parcel, and to our pipeline. New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? I recently discovered that a contractor has run a water line to the house that he is building on property adjacent to ours. The contractor has placed this line inside the 10′ easement on our property rather than disturb the paving that covers the 10′ easement on the adjacent property. Is this legal? City wants a pipeline easement across a small section of the backside of the property. Now heres the question – if I take their ca$h, and later after the work is done , water or gas line leaks show up, say in my yard, is the city liable? What is a “non-assignable and exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and across the following described lands:…” New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? Because we’ve lived in the house (for 12 years) and maintained the retaining wall before and after it was rebuilt, and paid entirely for the reconstruction of the wall, does this give us a right to a prescriptive easement (i.e. right to own the wall completely) overriding the neighbor’s survey, which they claim gives them exclusive ownership rights? Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? My deed states that an adjacent landowner has a strip beside my property that is “as wide as a road”….their deed says a 60 foot wide strip. In 1924 the two deeds said the same thing, but the next time the land changed hands, the 60 ft. was specified. Since it was not recorded on both deeds, can this be legal? The electric and cable companies apparently have an easement on our property although I am unable to find proof of this in our deed and abstract. We do not subscribe to cable and our electric is fed to the property from another line (not on our property) have asked the companies to please fix the cables/wires that they are encroaching on my ability to use my own property and it poses a safety risk. What can I do? Recently there has been a change of ownership on one of the properties. The new owner has a teenage son. The parents leave town often and leave the son alone. While the parents are away the son has been throwing parties where there is teenage drinking. We are concerned that at some point one of these underage drunk children will cause and/or have an accident that will result in death or injury while crossing our property. Can we be held liable if something like this should occur? Other than calling law enforcement to alert them to the party is there any thing else we can do to protect ourselves? As a small Home Owners Association in Washington state, we have a plated 60 foot access & egress easement which has existed for over 20 years. The easement in question passes across a tiny segment of the 5 acres of a single member’s property but they are exceedingly resistant to expanding the margin of the easement though the expansion will be into a completely unused area of their property and out of sight and will fully address their and our membership’s concerns of liability/risk. Given the facts above, within reason, and without damaging in any way the associate member’s property or its value does our Homeowner’s association have a right to demand the expansion of the easement margin? I purchased a narrow lot two houses from my house in 2005. My neighbor whose house next to my narrow lot bought his house in 1998. He constructed sliding iron front gates on track in front of his house sometime after which I am not sure. But it is very likely that was more than 5 years ago. About 8-10 feet of the track is on my property(I have a survey done). Now my question is would it still work if I give notice of permission for him to continue to use it to park his cars in order to prevent a potential claim of prescriptive easement? This family has settled this land 100 years ago. At the turn of the century loggers started this road to reach the top of this ridge which crossed thier land as will as someone elses. When the second generation owner sold 30 acres next to this 500 feet she recorded an easement back in 1968. So that they could still use this pathway. Now the current owner of the 30 acres complained to the forest service and the have recently de-constructed the pathway, and put up concrete barriers. The question is does the national forest have to recognize perscriptive easements? A piece of land I am thinking of buying is land locked but has a deeded Right of way that is 10ft wide and 50 feet long in PA. Can I pave or lay gravel down on this section to help my vehicle get thru. I Live on a Busy Street and my Neighbor with Easement Access Leaves my Gate Unlocked and Open, What can I do? My neighbor wants an easement on my property for his proposed sewer line. We will be selling our property within the next nine months. Are there any legal, physical or real estate sales issues if we grant the easement? What is the value of this easement? I own a building with another company and there is an easement on the property. There is a restrictive covenant which states I am to provide “reasonable permanent access” to this easement. What is meant by reasonable permanent access? The owners of the land over which our easement runs is in the process of having a home built on the second parcel and one of the conditions of their building permit is that they must run sewer lines back to the house (we are on septic) and the only place where the sewer lines can run is up the middle of the 150′ easement road. The builders informed us that when the sewer company puts in the sewer, that we will not have access to our property for three days. The sewer installers have further said that they will not put down the steel plates common to such an installation as the expense is too great. Can the owner of the easement and/or their contractors deny us access during this process? For past few months, My neighbors (12 people) are now constantly using their basement door and my driveway as their main door, even their guest use it as a entrance door even though they have their front door and it is becoming extremely difficult to use my driveway where I park my cars(because of their constant presence, sitting in the driveway, children playing in the driveway etc), when I ask them to stop sitting or playing, they apologize, but keep repeating, them blocking my driveway with their cars is also becoming a problem. How to solve this problem, Is their a legal way? Can I stop them from using my driveway? I live in the state of NY and I have a right of way on a piece of property from 1970. This was used for a turn around and a place for the kids to play. It is 50-100ft, we are at the end of a dead end street. The town just abandoned this piece for a neighbor to have a driveway to get to there new house. Can this be legally done? My right of way was also included with the deed given to the town when they took over the road in 1992. Is a verbal easement legal and binding? We are planning on building a home with our frontage being on a private road that has five homes on it. We have a written easement with our neighbor right across from us. But we have had a verbal easement with our neighbor that sits at the start of the private road for about three years now. Dose a verbal easement eventually become legal or our we going to be having problems? Do we even need a written easement from him with us all ready having a easement to our frontage? We live in a site built condominium association. We share a drainage/walkway easement with our next door neighbors according to our plat map which is what our township considers. A state park trail runs along the east side of our development. We have always invited the homes in the development to access the trail by walking through our yard. A few in the association now want to put a sidewalk through to make the walkway more official. Do we have to go by what the township says about where the easement is or by the Master Deed? Do we have to allow a sidewalk through our yards? Does a Condo Association have the legal right to build a sidewalk on a walk-way easement? An easement was approved by the township to allow residents access to a public walking trail, this easement was defined as a 20ft area between two adjoining lots. Does a Condo Association have the right to make such improvements; even if the owners of the lots do not agree with this (assuming it properly approved by a majority of residents)? I am buying a home on 1.34 acres of land and should be closing on it in about a month. The owner of another acre directly behind my land would like to sell the land to me the land is currently landlocked. What would I have to do to purchase this land? I’m assuming this means that I need to have an easement? If so, is this costly? What is the difference between an easement for INGRESS AND EGRESS (not exclusive) as opposed to an easement “OVER AND ACROSS” lands? The easements run through a gated community to a river. We are not a part of the HOA. WE recently bought a 2nd home on the river. The property has a boat ramp on it. The latest Platte chart, only shows the outline of our property, no indication of a boat ramp. AND there are no easements recorded to date. BUT, everyone allows everyone to share… We’ve asked that they sign a waiver of liability in exchange for permission of using the ramp, since this is our 2nd home and we cannot maintain the ramp non-stop. We’ve been indirectly threatened that an easement by prescription will be placed on our ramp… What are our rights? My husband and I purchased a piece of land 17 years ago which consisted of a working commercial fish hatchery, buildings and 3 homes. There is a piece of property between us and the county road on which we have “a non-exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and under a piece of land 20 feet in width”. We now have a new owner of the property on which we have the easement who is claiming that we don’t have the right to have this business as the easement is for a single family residence access only. Can he stop us from having this business which has been in existence since 2004? I own an undeveloped 5 ac parcel in California. Upon having it surveyed, I learned that my neighbor’s driveway falls as much as 20′ outside of the easement. The easement is 60′ (30′ of which is on my property) for a one lane gravel road. Can I insist the road be moved to regain my property? Is it my responsibility to rebuild it, or the responsibility of the neighbor? I recently purchased 9 acres of land that has an easement attached to it. There is a 40 foot public road easement that was granted back in the 70’s on the property and has never been used. We want to build a new house on the property. The only access is a driveway tile installed right on this 40′ easement. We have been told that if we build there and use this drive as our access we could possibly be sued or the owner of the easement could put a lien on our property. Is this true? If we are not blocking his access in any way, are we not entitled to use this drive to get to our house? My home is landlocked but has a road easement for access purposes. I know want to subdivide the property into 4 parcels. Do I need additional easements for all the new properties? I live in a home with a 20 ft easement driveway from the main road to a semi public lake. Home owners have been granted ingress & egress to the lake. There are 3 houses and 1 duplex on the easement driveway. About 20 years ago the owner of our home built and maintained a dock that sits just off the natural water line of the lake and it meets all state codes and is legally there. We bought the home 7 years ago and we have maintained the dock and keep our boat anchor during the summer. Can the owners of the duplex give their tenants the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Can the tenants of the duplex give anyone (i.e., friends, neighbors, relatives, etc.,) the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Do we have the right to prohibit the tenants from the dock even though we have no paperwork showing ownership of the dock? Can the Board of a HOA enter a private property within the community that happens to have the waterfall circuit board and the sprinkler system control panel located on their property? We can’t find anywhere in the documents or bylaws where the board was given a utility easement or access easement to get to these panels. Do we have a right to enter a backyard to access the control panels without a documented easement? Can this homeowner forbid us access to the panels? My neighbor has planted a hedge that is growing across my property. I asked him to trim it back so it would still look nice, but be on his property. He not only has let it grown further (he claims he’s using the easement, which half happens to be over MY boundary line). He called the police on me, and they said I could be arrested if I touched his plants Why can he cut my bushes on MY property, yet he can continue to encroach on mine? Does he have the right to let his plants grow over the easement that is on my property? We own a property on a private road with 14 homes. We all have septic and wells. We have an irreparable septic problem. We have been denied a permit for a new on-lot septic option. Our neighbors have reported us to county and local government. Thus causing us to enter into the legal system to fight it. We have a developer who is ready to put in a private line to a sewer main. All that we need is for the neighbors to sign giving us an easement to put it in along the private road. They are giving us a hard time about it and will not sign. Is there anyway to force the easement through so that we can fix our problem? There is an access easement on my property so that my neighbor can access his yard (they use my driveway). I am wanting to build a fence on my property line which would cross a small portion at the end of the easement. I would not be hindering his access to his backyard, but he is against my building the fence. Would I legally be able to build the fence as long as I am not keeping him from getting into his backyard (egress and ingress)? We have allowed our neighbors to use the back portion of our yard for almost five years in exchange for the landscaping they did for us. Their house is directly behind ours, and they did not have room for their son and daughter to play. They have paid the water bill, but no insurance, property taxes, mortgage, etc. Do we need to have a formal easement agreement? Can they take over our property and assume ownership after a prescribed length of time? The Dominant tenant has a right to cross my backyard to access her own backyard. The easement is 6 feet wide. Am I allowed to develop this area of land at all (low wood deck, asphalt, concrete etc). I do not intend to impede her access at all. The original property owner gave an easement and “right-of-way for the purpose of ingress & egress and to run with said land and to be transferable therewith; reserving unto the grantor the right to use said road & grant others a like easement and right-of-way.” I am putting an underground sprinkler system in the front yard but the neighbor insists that it will be in the easement area. The sprinkler heads will be flush with the ground and will not impede traffic flow. Is this allowed? There is very little likelihood that the road will ever be paved or taken over by the state. What are my rights? Three homes drive over our properties this easement . On the deed its state non exclusive easement for ingress and egress. I been having a bad time with a neighbor that drives over my land and the neighbors land, his dogs attacked me on my property and I find him. Now he wont stop driving past my house fast and he will come to a complete stop and peel out right in front of my house on this easement road. Is there any law that will help me on private easement roads with endangerment or damages. The dog attack is on record .the police wont touch private roads in Washington state. They told me that he has to go out onto the public road. Is this right? I have speed limit signs and a speed pump on a gravel road which we all agreed on even him, so I want to know what I can do by law to stop him, is this harassment? An easement through an unincorporated HOA community in Yavapai County, AZ allows access through the community to landlocked abutting Property. Easement metes and bounds describe a route somewhat different from existing roads. Owner has unfettered access. Adherence to the described easement would require demo of some existing construction and construction of new roads. What are respective rights of community and easement grantee (Property owner)? For example, does the law allow the Property owner unrestricted rights to treat the route of his described easement however he deems necessary irrespective of the current use of that property? I have recently purchased 20 acres of land in Indiana that was considered landlocked and was given a proper easement to said land for ingress and egress and utilities. The problem we have run into after residing here for 1 year is there is no signage or notification of where our easement begins off of a private drive. Am I allowed to put signage (my family name, private drive, no trespassing, etc…) at the beginning of our easement to recognize what the easements intent is and to deter unwanted traffic? The owner of the land has forbade us to place any signage on their property (our easement) at this time. My house (primary residence) is on a lot without well defined borders to my neighbors. The grassy yard flows right into my neighbor property and there are some trees that act as a division but according to the plot plan my property runs well past them. Her lawn service cleans part of my lot (the part after the trees) and I worried she might think her yard is bigger than it is. How do I make sure after time she does not claim rights to the part of the yard she cleans? I recently purchased property that the driveway goes through my land, and continues to my new neighbors property. The “neighbor” is already giving me a hard time about keeping up with the driveway such as plowing snow up to the end of my property, not just where my family needs to park. She also stated that the “right of way” was in their deed. My deed has no information pertaining to giving them “right of way” through my property. If I have to give them access, shouldn’t it be stated in my deed also? I am wanting to know if we had allowed an easement across our property for another property owner to have access to their property behind us and now they are selling their property and the buyer is an adjoining property owner that will now have access to the property from his own property will be still have to allow access or use of the easement that is running through our property? We have given a 60 foot road easement for the purpose of ingress and egress to an adjacent property which is landlocked. The easement is situated on a steep sand hill which washes out easily. Previous owners have maintained the road and did not destroy the 60 foot easement. The current owner had not maintained the road and now are driving from side to side of the 60 feet to avoid the ruts that they have created. We have placed barriers on the side, leaving the previously maintained road clear. We have been told by one source that we could place gates at each side of the easement as long as we do not lock them without giving the adjacent property owner a key. Do we have the right to do this or do we have to allow these owners to destroy our land. I live in Texas, the property that I bought had an unrecorded easement. I would like to know if it is possible for the people using this easement to legally have the width of it extended from about 12ft. to 20ft.? I have an Easement on my land that specifically states for ingress and egress purpose to a land locked piece of land. The location of the easement lies in an area that one can only access the land locked land by foot. My question is, what can I do and what can I not do with that land that belongs to me? Can I erect a building, On the Easement, that dose not hinder the travel to and from the land locked land or can I not? A Real Estate Developer wants an Easement to my property. The Developer wants an easement to install a sewer line. Since, the Developer stands to gain capital from the installation of the sewer lines. Shouldn’t I be compensated at a commercial rate? Do I have to allow this easement? Two neighbors and I went together and put in a well for the purpose of irrigating our yards. We equally divided the cost of the well, pump, etc. Now the neighbor on whose property the well is located is selling her home. How can my other neighbor and I retain the legal right to use the well after the property is sold? I live in Maine and have house with a deeded right of way through someone’s property to get to my house. My deeded right of way is stated as 50 ft. My driveway is very narrow, only about 8 ft. wide. Could I tar the rest of the 50 ft. if I want? What are my rights? Right across the road from my property are my and one neighbor’s mailboxes. They turn come from their home and turn around in my driveway when they get their mail because it is more convenient for them to do that. Recently, they accused me of some things and I told them to not come on my property anymore. I have a number of questions concerning a private road easement which goes through our property along the floor of a steep valley. A mid portion stretch of the road goes through our property. I would like to access the property at the bottom of the hill for recreational activities and for maintenance (i.e. removing debris that periodically gets washed down, or dead trees that may have fallen). I have verbally asked the neighbors if it was OK for me to use of the road and they have declined. The easement in question was recorded in 1983. This is all news to us. We never were asked or notified. We bought property in 1977 and title search at that time showed no easements. I have a drainage easement (swale)running the back 20 feet of my property. Because of the overwhelming water we have been recieving, the “swale” is causing the water to pond, and as a result, my backyard is collapsing rapidly, and my basement is flooding during heavy rain. I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. This is for the purpose of developing his property and he is requesting three separate easements across our property. We share a reciprocal driveway easement with our neighbors, they park on our property and we drive across theirs. The easement documentation provides that we share in the costs of paving the easement. Some of our trees hanging over the area where they park have old, thick branches that could fall and damage their cars. Who is responsible for trimming the trees and keeping them safe? We have painted our remodeled home on three sides and our neighbor is denying us access to use the area beyond the 12 inches (which is on his property) to paint the wall. My neighbor has recently erected a barrier preventing us from driving across that portion of “her” driveway. It’s almost impossible to drive in 1 of 2 cars into the 2 car garage with this barrier. We have the deed and have had our property surveyed which clearly show our property line, however the property line is adjacent to an easement for a driveway. Our neighbor decided to pave the driveway which is on our property. Our deed has nothing in it about an easement being on our property. We were recently sent a letter from the local sewer authority requesting that we sign the attached right-of-way agreement and grant of right-of-way for an existing sewer line on our property for the sum of $1.00. Should we do it? After this new owner had his land surveyed he realized that I, and my neighbor, drove across a ~ 250 sq. ft piece of land in the nethermost corner of his 93 acre holding. This small piece of his adjoining property has been used continuously as a driveway entrance to our properties since their development 40 years ago. We have a 10 foot easement on the back end of our land as likewise do the owners of the field in the back. They would have to cut down 2 30 (foot) trees that are in our yard to do this. They told me at a meeting that if I did not give them the right of this easement through my property that they would condem that part of my yard and use it anyway. Our sewer line goes across our neighbor’s property. It was that way when each of us bought our properties. Now I need to replace the sewer line, and we can’t find any recorded easement. If our neighbor tries to keep us from replacing our sewer line, will we be able to prevail based on a prescriptive easement? In California, who is required to maintain an existing roadway easement across my neighbor’s land that allows access to my house? We recently acquired a piece of property that has an easement running on one side of it for 2 property owners to pass to get to their houses. Now a third person wants us to sign an agreement for an easement. We want to know what is the normal procedure for an easement? Our neighbor has an easement across our land, which he has permission to use. However, we just found out that all along he has been using property which is 5 feet outside of the permitted easement area. Now he wants to pave it. Does he have a prescriptive easement for the area which he was using which was outside of the original permitted easemenet area? Our property has an easement to the adjacent land to allow for farming. Now they are selling that land and intend to convert it to residential with “road” access down our easement. My neighbor’s chickens are constantly on my land. Is there any kind of easement that they could acquire over time on my property if I continue to allow this? How can we get someone who inherited our right of way (ROW) easement to deal with us? I want to move soon and rent out my house. Would I reduce my chances for keeping an easement I have on a neighboring lot if the other owner decides to bring a lawsuit to disclaim the easement and I don’t live here? The easement across our land is unusable. If I cut a road for my needs on my property (not on the easement) do the easement owners have the right to use my new road? I live in the Texas and want to know what size easement is required for an electrical line? What is an easement in gross? If you have paid a neighbor for use of a strip of land can they put a 4 foot high post at the corner of it, even though you were very clear that you were going to use it for a drive for your cars? Someone has built a house down the block from us and has decided to put a dock 20 feet from us, and instead of making his own access to his dock he has decided to use ours. What can we do? My wife and I recently bought a house on 80 acres that has an easement. The easement owner wants to use it to cross cattle; can we keep him from doing so? We want to change an existing easement by moving it 3 feet. This will not fundamentally change the easement owner’s access. The easement owner does not want us to make the change. Can we change the location of the easement under the circumstances described? Does an Implied Eastment of Necessity exist? I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. Is a prescriptive easement through notorious use automatic? The small town where I’ve lived for 15 years is now telling me that the “city mainâ€? is really a private service line. Over the years I have replaced all my outside sewer lines – this was before I realized the line ran across neighbors’ yards and where the actual problem lays. How do I go about getting an easement that would provide my home future protection? I feel like I’m being forced into giving the county a drainage easement. Can the county force me to give them a drainage easement? I would like to know if I can fight an easement that is already in place on the land I purchased An agreement between a townhome homeowners association and a neighboring condo homeowners association includes financial contributions for upkeep of property easements. Can one demand financial accountability from the other? An easement is a right-of-way you grant to someone to cross your land whenever they need to. Governments can force easements through the use of eminent domain law. Private groups have no such power.
How Do I Know Which Kind of Easement I Have?
I am one of a group of property owners that owns land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. This is all dirt road and these owners say that we will be responsible for maintaining it. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by peoples backyards with no access to it unless you enter through our property. My and my neighbor’s property lines run across the same pond and back to land on the other side, splitting the pond in 3 sections. Questions exist as to if property lines exist within water, and thus required to stay within property lines, or does entire pond become available for full use of all 3 owners? I am a homeowner. My property has a transformer unit/box on my ground property. On June 2, 2012 an unknown auto hit the box and caused a power outage. The outage was repaired and now the utility company is billing me for the damages because the transformer is on my property. Can they hold me liable to it if it was not me or any family member who caused the damage? The person who did the damage is unknown because it happened overnight while the entire street was asleep. What steps do I have to take to stop my neighbor from using our private driveway? My neighbors next to us pull into their driveway to enter their premisses but use our driveway to enter the main road. They have at times even pulled into our driveway to be able to go to the back of their house. We have asked them many times to stop doing this because we are afraid one day that we might have an accident. When they use our driveway, they fly out their very fast so we don’t see them using it. We live in New Jersey and have a 40-foot deeded necessary easement type right-of-way through a neighbor’s property. Lately he has begun parking large tractor-trailer size vehicles for long periods of time to one side of the easement. Although it’s an eyesore, it doesn’t impede our ability to get to our home as our driveway is much narrower than 40 feet. Is this permitted by law, and if so, will it have any effect on the conditions of the easement? Our HOA’s common area is subject to an equestrian easement. The city wants to use the easement and build a 10 feet wide bike trail. This would require that many of the trees on that part of the property to be cut down. We are afraid that this will cause a reduction in our property value. Is there any way we can fight the easement? We are located in Goleta, County of Santa Barbara, California. I am a resident of Louisiana and have purchased a property with easement issues. This property was once part of a larger tract. The original landowner used the house and an area of land around the house as collateral for a building loan. There was an easement included that went from the road to the house. After this, the landowner dug a very large pond across the easement. He built a limestone driveway that went around the pond to get to the house. This was never stated to be a legal easement. Our house was built in a development in the State of New York in 2008 that connected our road to another in the development. There is a 10′ drainage easement on the WEST side of the property (our side lot). Now, the Town wants to put SWALES through 4 feet of our front yard. Our question is: The Town has no drainage easement on the front of our property, I have thoroughly researched the Deed. I live in Tiburon, CA. I own a swimming pool and have a legal easement, with my next-door neighbor, that his tenants can use the pool. If one of his tenants were injured, on my property where the pool is located, would I be legally responsible? I have a house on a lake, and next to the lot is an easement. The people across the street say that the easement is a deeded easement and it is on all of their titles so they have a right to put a dock on the easement. I would not have a problem with that, except that the dock is only about half a foot away from my property line. Are they able to put the dock on the easement legally? I’m trying to work out an exchange of easements with a neighbor who owns property on both sides of me. I need an easement across one of their properties in order to reach an otherwise inaccessible part of my property, and they want an easement across my property to get from one to the other of theirs. My deed states that the nonexclusive right of way, which is the driveway to my property was bought, paid for and is transferred with the property to future owners. My question: Do I have to share the driveway with the property owner? The property adjoining the driveway was bought by another person who lays claim to the driveway, or right of way, of access. Do I have to maintain the road at my total expense if other property owners are using it? “I am having an issue with the utility company in NYS. The title was searched, and there was no recorded ROW or Easement with the Town or County. I contacted the company to have them remove the pole and now they are saying they have a notarized unrecorded document granting them easement dating back to 1967. Is this a legal easement, and am I now out of luck with them moving it? Thank you for your assistance.” What rights do I have to compel neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. What rights do I have to compel a neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. Prior to selling me the property, the neighbor owned both my lot and the adjacent lot, where he built his home. I just bought a foreclosed home and my neighbor has told me the previous owner gave him easement for his septic. You can see where it was put in as the ground has been freshly dug. It is about five feet from my pole barn. We live in a small town in northern Michigan where it is not uncommon for people to dig a whole and drop a fuel oil tank to hold their sewage. Recently, we erected a fence on our property and about 1 foot of it extends onto the conservation easement. Do we need to be concerned? We did get a permit but have not yet been visited by a township inspector. If/when the inspector comes by, will he or she look to see where the easement is and, if so, will we be required to move the fence? I am one of a group of property owner that own land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by the backyards of others with no access to it unless you enter through our property. I’ve been cleaning since 1984 when I purchased the property. My house and my neighbors house share a common sewer line; that is, my sewer line crosses over into their property and then connects with their sewer line. The combined line connects with the main sewer running underneath the city street. The neighbor has started doing major renovations and has broken the sewer lines as part of their foundation work. I received an “Unauthorized use of Easement” letter from the electric company notarized and signed by an attorney. The electric company is recording the unauthorized use of the easement in Real Property Records in our state of Texas. A residential developer, who wanted to develop a tract of property adjacent to ours, has approached my sister and me about placing a detention pond and easement, which the city required his development to have, across our property in exchange for the purchase of our property within a specified future date and price per acre. We agreed to allow the easement and detention pond subject to the execution of 2 agreements drawn up by the developer: (1) Option to Purchase Real Estate with a scheduled execution date of Sept. 2005, and (2) Agreement of Intent to Develop Real Estate which specified a scheduled execution date of Feb. 2006, and which he signed. My neighbor bought an overgrown wooded lot (about an acre) which has two water run off easements running through it and has since the subdivision was built in the 1960’s. This property they bought borders our property. One of the easements runs through our backyard, through their property and then into an agricultural pond not owned by them. I have a Swimming Pool easement with my next-door neighbor. The easement includes a bathroom with a toilet. My next-door neighbor hired a plumber to unclog the toilet, however he did not contact me about this toilet problem. He wants me to pay for part of the $680.00 bill. I live in Tiburon, CA. Am I responsible for this bill? I have sprinklers near the road which are continually run over or damaged. Is it legal for me to put up stakes or blocks to protect them? I have a private easement pole in my yard and my neighbor has tapped it with lines that run across my property, directly where I want to install a pool. What can I do? We live in a lake front community and own docks. Our HOA is now demanding a lease payment for these docks, some of which are over 25 years old. Can they do that? I’ve just discovered that my gas meter was servicing my neighbor’s utility room. The electric company told me it was my responsibility to correct it, which I’ve done. Does my neighbor have any obligation for part of the repair bill? My property has a water easement on it. Recently, I have had three pipes fixed and my monthly bill has been approximately $1800. Could the leaks I’m experiencing be a result of the easement? Our HOA is using our driveway, designated as a utility easement for the local water company, to check the status of a water tower several times a day. Do they have the right to do this? My property has a utility easement, of which the city has completely restricted access. Can they do this, since it affects a large area of my property? My neighbor, who has access to a joint easement “right of way” is building property that requires access through another homeowner’s right of way. That neighbor does not want to extend his access for this new property. We are hoping to avoid litigation. Do you have any advice? My neighbor’s property has a mineral right easement on it. A gas company, in order to easily access their new well, want to use a road on my property. Can I deny them? We were unaware of a 20 foot easement when we purchased our property and are now having trouble selling the home because of the easement. Do we have any recourse? We need to move an easement line over about 10 feet. How do we legally do this? Our road association is making changes that have not been approved by all homeowners and seem to be exceeding their authority. How can we find out whether they are within their legal rights? My neighbor won’t grant me a utility easement, in order for me to get electricity to the home I am building, unless I sell him another lot at half price. Do I have any recourse? I have a utility easement in my backyard. What rights do I have regarding getting the utility company to inform me when they will be accessing my yard and can I request they bury the four cables, currently above ground, running through my yard? We share a driveway, from which we access our horses, with other property owners. One neighbor wants to put in an electric gate, which would impede our ability to ride our horses out of our property safely. Do we have a position to argue the fact that we do not want the gate? A municipality sold land, that actually belonged to me, to my neighbor. Although my neighbor is willing to quit-claim the property back to me, who is responsible for the correcting the excavating that was done? My attorney failed to disclose, at closing, that there was an easement across my property. Can I sue him? Do I have an automatic easement if I own a property that has always used the well and septic system from an adjoining property? My Easement runs along my entire North Property Line where 1 of the subdivision road is now, which I utilize until the road takes a hard right and I go straight onto my easement (which we have solely maintained since 1978) down to my property to access my driveway/property, at the end on the left (straight ahead is the Corps Property/Lake). The problem is the relatively new neighbor (2001). Over the last 7 years, he rarely came up and if he did was not a nuisance but over the last 6 months or so, has come up more often and utilizing my Easement. I tried to politely explain that the Easement is not for parking and to utilize his property only; however, he got belligerent and insisted that I had no authority to tell him were to park or not and that he’d soon own it!!! Short of a Civil Suit, who has the Authority to tell him he can’t park on it??? I bought a an acre and a half with a 30 foot easement with a ditch on my side of the property line that goes from the road to a canal. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. She has no easements on her side. The developer plans to build a concrete driveway on the easement (Easement “A”), and place his utility lines along side, on the our- property side of the driveway. In addition to laying out the concrete drive, he plans to create a large entryway where the easement joins the public road and landscape to further (visually) associate the entire easement, as well as his untouched and unused 15 ft. wide, 200 ft. long flag pole, with his property, thus expanding his property footprint and increasing its market value while significantly diminishing ours. I have contacted the law office of the attorneys who drafted the document, and they refuse to clarify the intent of their language. Do the words “ingress and egress” mean that my neighbor can pour a driveway on the easement? My neighbors have begun building a locking auto mated gate with an alarm system and security cameras at the street- side- end of the driveway. Can the benefactors of an express easement for only “driveway and utility purposes” build a gate on what is, save for the easement, my property? If not, can I stop them without the hassle and expense of a survey and lawsuit? At some point in time a previous lot owner cleared a path along this easement and now it is used by the neighborhood as a road. Our association has notified the current property owners that they will no longer provide snow removal as this is private property and not an established road (county assessor confirmed). Now, if the county assessors records show there is no established road and only two lots with a utility easement then can the current property owners claim a grandfather clause and demand continued snow service as they have received in previous years?” I want to build a fence across my property line which would result in me building a retaining wall and filling in my part of the pond. Do I need to file some sort of easement with the property owner to be able to build a retaining wall even if the said wall would be solely within my property line?” We have been in several disagreements with the next door neighbor and he is the president of the HOA for our section of the community, but not for the whole governing community. What are my options, I have even offered to obtain the permits from the city and install a 12 inch pipe. This seems like a vendetta and not justice.” The City has recently developed upstream and the State has widened the road in front of my property and added drainage that runs through this ditch. Since flow has increased, should either entity have obtained an easement? We are in the process of selling our land and want to make sure the new owners have access to the water shut offs and sewer lines if neccessary. The lawyer won’t write up the easement with out the city noting where the water and sewer line lay. So is it legal for us to write up an agreement and have it notorized and signed by our neighbor? The city decided to clean out a old ditch and used my property for access, telling me there was an easement. All of the privacy trees and shrubs were removed and some property was destroyed in the process. My deed shows that there is not an easement on my property. What can I do about the damage which was caused? “I have a contract to buy a piece of property. During the survey, it was determined that a portion of the driveway is on “the brothers” (referred to as 2B’s from here on) land next door. And does the gas company have any rights to my land even though there is no pipe on it, a large (90′ pines with other tall vegetation under them) vegetative buffer barring the use of it, and no recorded easement (there is one on the 2B’s land and the previous owner was compensated for it; the 2B’s purchased their land with the easement already there)? Currently, the only people who use the easement are neighborhood children, many of whom ride their bicycles (and on one occasion, a gasoline-powered motorized scooter) through our front yard, past our house, through the backyard, and into the trees beyond. Our lawn is suffering serious damage because of this. Is it possible to vacate the pedestrian easement, and if so, how? The language of the easement grants the servient estate owner the right to relocate the easement. Does this allow the servient estate owner to create a separate right-of-way for each easement holder; thus requiring each easement holder to construct and maintain a separate roadway? I bought my property in October 2008 and I was told at signing that I had lot 14 and 14a. I have the lot 14a on my deed and then when i was putting up a fence on the opposing side of my ditch I ran into a conflict with my neigboor about this. I called the deeds office in the county and they say that the deed shows 14 and 14a as mine but it is an easement. What does this mean? Is this portion of land of 14a mine? We have been contacted by one of the family members of the person who once owned both plots of land. They believe that they own the 50 foot easement even though our deed says that it is part of our property. Do they really “own” this property? We recently purchased a 5 acre piece of property. Unfortunately we did not have access to the language of the document when we purchased the property. This is what was “told” to us about the easement when we purchased the property. Our neighbors have recently brought to our attention that we were mistaken about the extent of the length of the easement. They have stated that they intend to put a road the entire length of the easement– nearly 400 feet. Do they have the “right” to do all of these things? They removed the easement from the property, I have letters from the HOA and township validating this. The problem is that the water issue was not mitigated. My question is, since we were misinformed about the easement and the necessity of it, and since we have a major water issue and would not have purchased this home had that been disclosed to us, can we hold the HOA responsible to resolve this issue at their cost. In addition, if an easement is required on this property, can we hold the HOA liable for the dimished value of the home as a result? I have a property in the Hollywood Hills that is landlocked. Does anyone know if this is the right course? If so, how do I apply for an easement? Which department in the county do I need to contact? To get into our property we have to cross two other properties. Last fall when we paved our part of the driveway and the man in the middles driveway the contractor had some extra material and asked us if he could put it on the top of the driveway, of course we liked the idea of getting in and out easier but warned the contractor that the man on the top is very unreasonable and he would have to get his permission. Several months later we received a letter from his attorney who is also his nephew saying we had to remove the asphalt and take it back to dirt and gravel. Please give me some feedback on the situation. Can government entities explicitly grant Easement by Necessity to private landowners, particularly if the government entity may have created a landlock situation? How do we now establish access/egress to our lot? Do we stand a chance of convincing the Bureau of Reclamation to explicitly grant us use of the easement, which should satisfy the permitting requirement for the other bridge? My neighbor has an ingress and egress easement through my property. Can I have the neighbor sign a liability waiver? Would it be possible to have waiver written up to protect myself in California? We are a townhome community with a private road that connects to public streets on each end. Though we are responsible for all repairs to that private road, probably 90% of the traffic is cut-through traffic between the public streets. Could we legally close one end of this road permanently? Years ago a Water District acquired a residential parcel for construction of a water tank. The residential property has an easement for ingress/egress to an private road shared by over twenty other residential properties. The Water District (public utility) now is permitting a cellular company (private business) to apply for County permits to construct a cellular antenna facility on the property. Can the Water District give permission to the cellular company to use the private road to install and maintain the cellular facility when all of the other easement holders are in opposition? We bought a house/land 6 years ago and signed an ingress/egress easement with the previous owners to allow them the use of our driveway to access their property that adjoins ours. We are having major problems with the renters (& parents of the daycare children) speeding up and down our driveway and forcing us to get out of their way when we are on it. In an effort to slow down the traffic we have put up a nonlocking gate at the end of the driveway where it joins their property. The property owners are now saying we have no legal right to install the gate. The parish of Iberia were I live was going to build a road that would have gone between our lots and the easement was 60 foot but they decide to do away with that easement and went with the 30 foot drainage easement on my side of the boundry line. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. What should I watch out for? My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. It seems that I would be giving up substantial property rights were I to grant the easement, and that the unrecorded quality of the easement seems sneaky. What should I watch out for? We and our adjacent neighbors are in a dispute over a 4 foot high concrete retaining wall that straddles both of our property lines. We’ve had large clay terra-cotta pots sitting on top of retaining wall with lattice in the pots to obscure the neighbors privacy fence, which is few feet back from the retaining wall. Recently (last week), they decided to start objecting to the clay pots (which are on their property, according to their survey). Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? The easement borders my entire property line, I have a private driveway off the easement to my house. The neighbor who lives directly behind me says that when I pull off the paved part of the easement over the grass part of the easement (approx. 10 ft) to get to my front yard, I am tresspassing over his property. He has called the police 4 times in the past 6 months accusing me of trespassing when I park my car in my yard. Do I have the right to access my property from the easement? Does he have the right to call the state police to my house everytime I park in my yard? I have a 1 acre peice of property in a gated community. There is a 14 ft utility easement at the front of my property as there is a transformer there. The HOA came in on my property and installed Electrical power panels to service a gate for back entry/ exit to the sub division. They did not have my permission. They also dug a trench completely across my property about 2 feet wide to reach the transformer for power to the gate and when finished left my property in a mess. My question is, did the HOA have the right to do what they did without my permission? I purchased a commercial building in Maryland and attempted to get an occupancy permit for a tenant. The town conditioned approval with a request for me to grant easements to the town for the maintenance of sewer lines running under my property and to enter my property to inspect them. These easements, if granted, would severely limit my ability to add on to my building and park in my lot. If they don’t agree to negotiate more favorable terms (to me) can I cap off the sewer lines with impunity? May they condition an occupancy permit on an unrelated grant of an easement to them? Have access to irrigation water via a pipeline across neighbors property. Helped to pay for pipeline that supplies water to their parcel, and to our pipeline. New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? I recently discovered that a contractor has run a water line to the house that he is building on property adjacent to ours. The contractor has placed this line inside the 10′ easement on our property rather than disturb the paving that covers the 10′ easement on the adjacent property. Is this legal? City wants a pipeline easement across a small section of the backside of the property. Now heres the question – if I take their ca$h, and later after the work is done , water or gas line leaks show up, say in my yard, is the city liable? What is a “non-assignable and exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and across the following described lands:…” New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? Because we’ve lived in the house (for 12 years) and maintained the retaining wall before and after it was rebuilt, and paid entirely for the reconstruction of the wall, does this give us a right to a prescriptive easement (i.e. right to own the wall completely) overriding the neighbor’s survey, which they claim gives them exclusive ownership rights? Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? My deed states that an adjacent landowner has a strip beside my property that is “as wide as a road”….their deed says a 60 foot wide strip. In 1924 the two deeds said the same thing, but the next time the land changed hands, the 60 ft. was specified. Since it was not recorded on both deeds, can this be legal? The electric and cable companies apparently have an easement on our property although I am unable to find proof of this in our deed and abstract. We do not subscribe to cable and our electric is fed to the property from another line (not on our property) have asked the companies to please fix the cables/wires that they are encroaching on my ability to use my own property and it poses a safety risk. What can I do? Recently there has been a change of ownership on one of the properties. The new owner has a teenage son. The parents leave town often and leave the son alone. While the parents are away the son has been throwing parties where there is teenage drinking. We are concerned that at some point one of these underage drunk children will cause and/or have an accident that will result in death or injury while crossing our property. Can we be held liable if something like this should occur? Other than calling law enforcement to alert them to the party is there any thing else we can do to protect ourselves? As a small Home Owners Association in Washington state, we have a plated 60 foot access & egress easement which has existed for over 20 years. The easement in question passes across a tiny segment of the 5 acres of a single member’s property but they are exceedingly resistant to expanding the margin of the easement though the expansion will be into a completely unused area of their property and out of sight and will fully address their and our membership’s concerns of liability/risk. Given the facts above, within reason, and without damaging in any way the associate member’s property or its value does our Homeowner’s association have a right to demand the expansion of the easement margin? I purchased a narrow lot two houses from my house in 2005. My neighbor whose house next to my narrow lot bought his house in 1998. He constructed sliding iron front gates on track in front of his house sometime after which I am not sure. But it is very likely that was more than 5 years ago. About 8-10 feet of the track is on my property(I have a survey done). Now my question is would it still work if I give notice of permission for him to continue to use it to park his cars in order to prevent a potential claim of prescriptive easement? This family has settled this land 100 years ago. At the turn of the century loggers started this road to reach the top of this ridge which crossed thier land as will as someone elses. When the second generation owner sold 30 acres next to this 500 feet she recorded an easement back in 1968. So that they could still use this pathway. Now the current owner of the 30 acres complained to the forest service and the have recently de-constructed the pathway, and put up concrete barriers. The question is does the national forest have to recognize perscriptive easements? A piece of land I am thinking of buying is land locked but has a deeded Right of way that is 10ft wide and 50 feet long in PA. Can I pave or lay gravel down on this section to help my vehicle get thru. I Live on a Busy Street and my Neighbor with Easement Access Leaves my Gate Unlocked and Open, What can I do? My neighbor wants an easement on my property for his proposed sewer line. We will be selling our property within the next nine months. Are there any legal, physical or real estate sales issues if we grant the easement? What is the value of this easement? I own a building with another company and there is an easement on the property. There is a restrictive covenant which states I am to provide “reasonable permanent access” to this easement. What is meant by reasonable permanent access? The owners of the land over which our easement runs is in the process of having a home built on the second parcel and one of the conditions of their building permit is that they must run sewer lines back to the house (we are on septic) and the only place where the sewer lines can run is up the middle of the 150′ easement road. The builders informed us that when the sewer company puts in the sewer, that we will not have access to our property for three days. The sewer installers have further said that they will not put down the steel plates common to such an installation as the expense is too great. Can the owner of the easement and/or their contractors deny us access during this process? For past few months, My neighbors (12 people) are now constantly using their basement door and my driveway as their main door, even their guest use it as a entrance door even though they have their front door and it is becoming extremely difficult to use my driveway where I park my cars(because of their constant presence, sitting in the driveway, children playing in the driveway etc), when I ask them to stop sitting or playing, they apologize, but keep repeating, them blocking my driveway with their cars is also becoming a problem. How to solve this problem, Is their a legal way? Can I stop them from using my driveway? I live in the state of NY and I have a right of way on a piece of property from 1970. This was used for a turn around and a place for the kids to play. It is 50-100ft, we are at the end of a dead end street. The town just abandoned this piece for a neighbor to have a driveway to get to there new house. Can this be legally done? My right of way was also included with the deed given to the town when they took over the road in 1992. Is a verbal easement legal and binding? We are planning on building a home with our frontage being on a private road that has five homes on it. We have a written easement with our neighbor right across from us. But we have had a verbal easement with our neighbor that sits at the start of the private road for about three years now. Dose a verbal easement eventually become legal or our we going to be having problems? Do we even need a written easement from him with us all ready having a easement to our frontage? We live in a site built condominium association. We share a drainage/walkway easement with our next door neighbors according to our plat map which is what our township considers. A state park trail runs along the east side of our development. We have always invited the homes in the development to access the trail by walking through our yard. A few in the association now want to put a sidewalk through to make the walkway more official. Do we have to go by what the township says about where the easement is or by the Master Deed? Do we have to allow a sidewalk through our yards? Does a Condo Association have the legal right to build a sidewalk on a walk-way easement? An easement was approved by the township to allow residents access to a public walking trail, this easement was defined as a 20ft area between two adjoining lots. Does a Condo Association have the right to make such improvements; even if the owners of the lots do not agree with this (assuming it properly approved by a majority of residents)? I am buying a home on 1.34 acres of land and should be closing on it in about a month. The owner of another acre directly behind my land would like to sell the land to me the land is currently landlocked. What would I have to do to purchase this land? I’m assuming this means that I need to have an easement? If so, is this costly? What is the difference between an easement for INGRESS AND EGRESS (not exclusive) as opposed to an easement “OVER AND ACROSS” lands? The easements run through a gated community to a river. We are not a part of the HOA. WE recently bought a 2nd home on the river. The property has a boat ramp on it. The latest Platte chart, only shows the outline of our property, no indication of a boat ramp. AND there are no easements recorded to date. BUT, everyone allows everyone to share… We’ve asked that they sign a waiver of liability in exchange for permission of using the ramp, since this is our 2nd home and we cannot maintain the ramp non-stop. We’ve been indirectly threatened that an easement by prescription will be placed on our ramp… What are our rights? My husband and I purchased a piece of land 17 years ago which consisted of a working commercial fish hatchery, buildings and 3 homes. There is a piece of property between us and the county road on which we have “a non-exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and under a piece of land 20 feet in width”. We now have a new owner of the property on which we have the easement who is claiming that we don’t have the right to have this business as the easement is for a single family residence access only. Can he stop us from having this business which has been in existence since 2004? I own an undeveloped 5 ac parcel in California. Upon having it surveyed, I learned that my neighbor’s driveway falls as much as 20′ outside of the easement. The easement is 60′ (30′ of which is on my property) for a one lane gravel road. Can I insist the road be moved to regain my property? Is it my responsibility to rebuild it, or the responsibility of the neighbor? I recently purchased 9 acres of land that has an easement attached to it. There is a 40 foot public road easement that was granted back in the 70’s on the property and has never been used. We want to build a new house on the property. The only access is a driveway tile installed right on this 40′ easement. We have been told that if we build there and use this drive as our access we could possibly be sued or the owner of the easement could put a lien on our property. Is this true? If we are not blocking his access in any way, are we not entitled to use this drive to get to our house? My home is landlocked but has a road easement for access purposes. I know want to subdivide the property into 4 parcels. Do I need additional easements for all the new properties? I live in a home with a 20 ft easement driveway from the main road to a semi public lake. Home owners have been granted ingress & egress to the lake. There are 3 houses and 1 duplex on the easement driveway. About 20 years ago the owner of our home built and maintained a dock that sits just off the natural water line of the lake and it meets all state codes and is legally there. We bought the home 7 years ago and we have maintained the dock and keep our boat anchor during the summer. Can the owners of the duplex give their tenants the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Can the tenants of the duplex give anyone (i.e., friends, neighbors, relatives, etc.,) the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Do we have the right to prohibit the tenants from the dock even though we have no paperwork showing ownership of the dock? Can the Board of a HOA enter a private property within the community that happens to have the waterfall circuit board and the sprinkler system control panel located on their property? We can’t find anywhere in the documents or bylaws where the board was given a utility easement or access easement to get to these panels. Do we have a right to enter a backyard to access the control panels without a documented easement? Can this homeowner forbid us access to the panels? My neighbor has planted a hedge that is growing across my property. I asked him to trim it back so it would still look nice, but be on his property. He not only has let it grown further (he claims he’s using the easement, which half happens to be over MY boundary line). He called the police on me, and they said I could be arrested if I touched his plants Why can he cut my bushes on MY property, yet he can continue to encroach on mine? Does he have the right to let his plants grow over the easement that is on my property? We own a property on a private road with 14 homes. We all have septic and wells. We have an irreparable septic problem. We have been denied a permit for a new on-lot septic option. Our neighbors have reported us to county and local government. Thus causing us to enter into the legal system to fight it. We have a developer who is ready to put in a private line to a sewer main. All that we need is for the neighbors to sign giving us an easement to put it in along the private road. They are giving us a hard time about it and will not sign. Is there anyway to force the easement through so that we can fix our problem? There is an access easement on my property so that my neighbor can access his yard (they use my driveway). I am wanting to build a fence on my property line which would cross a small portion at the end of the easement. I would not be hindering his access to his backyard, but he is against my building the fence. Would I legally be able to build the fence as long as I am not keeping him from getting into his backyard (egress and ingress)? We have allowed our neighbors to use the back portion of our yard for almost five years in exchange for the landscaping they did for us. Their house is directly behind ours, and they did not have room for their son and daughter to play. They have paid the water bill, but no insurance, property taxes, mortgage, etc. Do we need to have a formal easement agreement? Can they take over our property and assume ownership after a prescribed length of time? The Dominant tenant has a right to cross my backyard to access her own backyard. The easement is 6 feet wide. Am I allowed to develop this area of land at all (low wood deck, asphalt, concrete etc). I do not intend to impede her access at all. The original property owner gave an easement and “right-of-way for the purpose of ingress & egress and to run with said land and to be transferable therewith; reserving unto the grantor the right to use said road & grant others a like easement and right-of-way.” I am putting an underground sprinkler system in the front yard but the neighbor insists that it will be in the easement area. The sprinkler heads will be flush with the ground and will not impede traffic flow. Is this allowed? There is very little likelihood that the road will ever be paved or taken over by the state. What are my rights? Three homes drive over our properties this easement . On the deed its state non exclusive easement for ingress and egress. I been having a bad time with a neighbor that drives over my land and the neighbors land, his dogs attacked me on my property and I find him. Now he wont stop driving past my house fast and he will come to a complete stop and peel out right in front of my house on this easement road. Is there any law that will help me on private easement roads with endangerment or damages. The dog attack is on record .the police wont touch private roads in Washington state. They told me that he has to go out onto the public road. Is this right? I have speed limit signs and a speed pump on a gravel road which we all agreed on even him, so I want to know what I can do by law to stop him, is this harassment? An easement through an unincorporated HOA community in Yavapai County, AZ allows access through the community to landlocked abutting Property. Easement metes and bounds describe a route somewhat different from existing roads. Owner has unfettered access. Adherence to the described easement would require demo of some existing construction and construction of new roads. What are respective rights of community and easement grantee (Property owner)? For example, does the law allow the Property owner unrestricted rights to treat the route of his described easement however he deems necessary irrespective of the current use of that property? I have recently purchased 20 acres of land in Indiana that was considered landlocked and was given a proper easement to said land for ingress and egress and utilities. The problem we have run into after residing here for 1 year is there is no signage or notification of where our easement begins off of a private drive. Am I allowed to put signage (my family name, private drive, no trespassing, etc…) at the beginning of our easement to recognize what the easements intent is and to deter unwanted traffic? The owner of the land has forbade us to place any signage on their property (our easement) at this time. My house (primary residence) is on a lot without well defined borders to my neighbors. The grassy yard flows right into my neighbor property and there are some trees that act as a division but according to the plot plan my property runs well past them. Her lawn service cleans part of my lot (the part after the trees) and I worried she might think her yard is bigger than it is. How do I make sure after time she does not claim rights to the part of the yard she cleans? I recently purchased property that the driveway goes through my land, and continues to my new neighbors property. The “neighbor” is already giving me a hard time about keeping up with the driveway such as plowing snow up to the end of my property, not just where my family needs to park. She also stated that the “right of way” was in their deed. My deed has no information pertaining to giving them “right of way” through my property. If I have to give them access, shouldn’t it be stated in my deed also? I am wanting to know if we had allowed an easement across our property for another property owner to have access to their property behind us and now they are selling their property and the buyer is an adjoining property owner that will now have access to the property from his own property will be still have to allow access or use of the easement that is running through our property? We have given a 60 foot road easement for the purpose of ingress and egress to an adjacent property which is landlocked. The easement is situated on a steep sand hill which washes out easily. Previous owners have maintained the road and did not destroy the 60 foot easement. The current owner had not maintained the road and now are driving from side to side of the 60 feet to avoid the ruts that they have created. We have placed barriers on the side, leaving the previously maintained road clear. We have been told by one source that we could place gates at each side of the easement as long as we do not lock them without giving the adjacent property owner a key. Do we have the right to do this or do we have to allow these owners to destroy our land. I live in Texas, the property that I bought had an unrecorded easement. I would like to know if it is possible for the people using this easement to legally have the width of it extended from about 12ft. to 20ft.? I have an Easement on my land that specifically states for ingress and egress purpose to a land locked piece of land. The location of the easement lies in an area that one can only access the land locked land by foot. My question is, what can I do and what can I not do with that land that belongs to me? Can I erect a building, On the Easement, that dose not hinder the travel to and from the land locked land or can I not? A Real Estate Developer wants an Easement to my property. The Developer wants an easement to install a sewer line. Since, the Developer stands to gain capital from the installation of the sewer lines. Shouldn’t I be compensated at a commercial rate? Do I have to allow this easement? Two neighbors and I went together and put in a well for the purpose of irrigating our yards. We equally divided the cost of the well, pump, etc. Now the neighbor on whose property the well is located is selling her home. How can my other neighbor and I retain the legal right to use the well after the property is sold? I live in Maine and have house with a deeded right of way through someone’s property to get to my house. My deeded right of way is stated as 50 ft. My driveway is very narrow, only about 8 ft. wide. Could I tar the rest of the 50 ft. if I want? What are my rights? Right across the road from my property are my and one neighbor’s mailboxes. They turn come from their home and turn around in my driveway when they get their mail because it is more convenient for them to do that. Recently, they accused me of some things and I told them to not come on my property anymore. I have a number of questions concerning a private road easement which goes through our property along the floor of a steep valley. A mid portion stretch of the road goes through our property. I would like to access the property at the bottom of the hill for recreational activities and for maintenance (i.e. removing debris that periodically gets washed down, or dead trees that may have fallen). I have verbally asked the neighbors if it was OK for me to use of the road and they have declined. The easement in question was recorded in 1983. This is all news to us. We never were asked or notified. We bought property in 1977 and title search at that time showed no easements. I have a drainage easement (swale)running the back 20 feet of my property. Because of the overwhelming water we have been recieving, the “swale” is causing the water to pond, and as a result, my backyard is collapsing rapidly, and my basement is flooding during heavy rain. I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. This is for the purpose of developing his property and he is requesting three separate easements across our property. We share a reciprocal driveway easement with our neighbors, they park on our property and we drive across theirs. The easement documentation provides that we share in the costs of paving the easement. Some of our trees hanging over the area where they park have old, thick branches that could fall and damage their cars. Who is responsible for trimming the trees and keeping them safe? We have painted our remodeled home on three sides and our neighbor is denying us access to use the area beyond the 12 inches (which is on his property) to paint the wall. My neighbor has recently erected a barrier preventing us from driving across that portion of “her” driveway. It’s almost impossible to drive in 1 of 2 cars into the 2 car garage with this barrier. We have the deed and have had our property surveyed which clearly show our property line, however the property line is adjacent to an easement for a driveway. Our neighbor decided to pave the driveway which is on our property. Our deed has nothing in it about an easement being on our property. We were recently sent a letter from the local sewer authority requesting that we sign the attached right-of-way agreement and grant of right-of-way for an existing sewer line on our property for the sum of $1.00. Should we do it? After this new owner had his land surveyed he realized that I, and my neighbor, drove across a ~ 250 sq. ft piece of land in the nethermost corner of his 93 acre holding. This small piece of his adjoining property has been used continuously as a driveway entrance to our properties since their development 40 years ago. We have a 10 foot easement on the back end of our land as likewise do the owners of the field in the back. They would have to cut down 2 30 (foot) trees that are in our yard to do this. They told me at a meeting that if I did not give them the right of this easement through my property that they would condem that part of my yard and use it anyway. Our sewer line goes across our neighbor’s property. It was that way when each of us bought our properties. Now I need to replace the sewer line, and we can’t find any recorded easement. If our neighbor tries to keep us from replacing our sewer line, will we be able to prevail based on a prescriptive easement? In California, who is required to maintain an existing roadway easement across my neighbor’s land that allows access to my house? We recently acquired a piece of property that has an easement running on one side of it for 2 property owners to pass to get to their houses. Now a third person wants us to sign an agreement for an easement. We want to know what is the normal procedure for an easement? Our neighbor has an easement across our land, which he has permission to use. However, we just found out that all along he has been using property which is 5 feet outside of the permitted easement area. Now he wants to pave it. Does he have a prescriptive easement for the area which he was using which was outside of the original permitted easemenet area? Our property has an easement to the adjacent land to allow for farming. Now they are selling that land and intend to convert it to residential with “road” access down our easement. My neighbor’s chickens are constantly on my land. Is there any kind of easement that they could acquire over time on my property if I continue to allow this? How can we get someone who inherited our right of way (ROW) easement to deal with us? I want to move soon and rent out my house. Would I reduce my chances for keeping an easement I have on a neighboring lot if the other owner decides to bring a lawsuit to disclaim the easement and I don’t live here? The easement across our land is unusable. If I cut a road for my needs on my property (not on the easement) do the easement owners have the right to use my new road? I live in the Texas and want to know what size easement is required for an electrical line? What is an easement in gross? If you have paid a neighbor for use of a strip of land can they put a 4 foot high post at the corner of it, even though you were very clear that you were going to use it for a drive for your cars? Someone has built a house down the block from us and has decided to put a dock 20 feet from us, and instead of making his own access to his dock he has decided to use ours. What can we do? My wife and I recently bought a house on 80 acres that has an easement. The easement owner wants to use it to cross cattle; can we keep him from doing so? We want to change an existing easement by moving it 3 feet. This will not fundamentally change the easement owner’s access. The easement owner does not want us to make the change. Can we change the location of the easement under the circumstances described? Does an Implied Eastment of Necessity exist? I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. Is a prescriptive easement through notorious use automatic? The small town where I’ve lived for 15 years is now telling me that the “city mainâ€? is really a private service line. Over the years I have replaced all my outside sewer lines – this was before I realized the line ran across neighbors’ yards and where the actual problem lays. How do I go about getting an easement that would provide my home future protection? I feel like I’m being forced into giving the county a drainage easement. Can the county force me to give them a drainage easement? I would like to know if I can fight an easement that is already in place on the land I purchased An agreement between a townhome homeowners association and a neighboring condo homeowners association includes financial contributions for upkeep of property easements. Can one demand financial accountability from the other? An easement is a right-of-way you grant to someone to cross your land whenever they need to. Governments can force easements through the use of eminent domain law. Private groups have no such power.
How Do I Know Which Kind of Easement I Have?
I am one of a group of property owners that owns land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. This is all dirt road and these owners say that we will be responsible for maintaining it. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by peoples backyards with no access to it unless you enter through our property. My and my neighbor’s property lines run across the same pond and back to land on the other side, splitting the pond in 3 sections. Questions exist as to if property lines exist within water, and thus required to stay within property lines, or does entire pond become available for full use of all 3 owners? I am a homeowner. My property has a transformer unit/box on my ground property. On June 2, 2012 an unknown auto hit the box and caused a power outage. The outage was repaired and now the utility company is billing me for the damages because the transformer is on my property. Can they hold me liable to it if it was not me or any family member who caused the damage? The person who did the damage is unknown because it happened overnight while the entire street was asleep. What steps do I have to take to stop my neighbor from using our private driveway? My neighbors next to us pull into their driveway to enter their premisses but use our driveway to enter the main road. They have at times even pulled into our driveway to be able to go to the back of their house. We have asked them many times to stop doing this because we are afraid one day that we might have an accident. When they use our driveway, they fly out their very fast so we don’t see them using it. We live in New Jersey and have a 40-foot deeded necessary easement type right-of-way through a neighbor’s property. Lately he has begun parking large tractor-trailer size vehicles for long periods of time to one side of the easement. Although it’s an eyesore, it doesn’t impede our ability to get to our home as our driveway is much narrower than 40 feet. Is this permitted by law, and if so, will it have any effect on the conditions of the easement? Our HOA’s common area is subject to an equestrian easement. The city wants to use the easement and build a 10 feet wide bike trail. This would require that many of the trees on that part of the property to be cut down. We are afraid that this will cause a reduction in our property value. Is there any way we can fight the easement? We are located in Goleta, County of Santa Barbara, California. I am a resident of Louisiana and have purchased a property with easement issues. This property was once part of a larger tract. The original landowner used the house and an area of land around the house as collateral for a building loan. There was an easement included that went from the road to the house. After this, the landowner dug a very large pond across the easement. He built a limestone driveway that went around the pond to get to the house. This was never stated to be a legal easement. Our house was built in a development in the State of New York in 2008 that connected our road to another in the development. There is a 10′ drainage easement on the WEST side of the property (our side lot). Now, the Town wants to put SWALES through 4 feet of our front yard. Our question is: The Town has no drainage easement on the front of our property, I have thoroughly researched the Deed. I live in Tiburon, CA. I own a swimming pool and have a legal easement, with my next-door neighbor, that his tenants can use the pool. If one of his tenants were injured, on my property where the pool is located, would I be legally responsible? I have a house on a lake, and next to the lot is an easement. The people across the street say that the easement is a deeded easement and it is on all of their titles so they have a right to put a dock on the easement. I would not have a problem with that, except that the dock is only about half a foot away from my property line. Are they able to put the dock on the easement legally? I’m trying to work out an exchange of easements with a neighbor who owns property on both sides of me. I need an easement across one of their properties in order to reach an otherwise inaccessible part of my property, and they want an easement across my property to get from one to the other of theirs. My deed states that the nonexclusive right of way, which is the driveway to my property was bought, paid for and is transferred with the property to future owners. My question: Do I have to share the driveway with the property owner? The property adjoining the driveway was bought by another person who lays claim to the driveway, or right of way, of access. Do I have to maintain the road at my total expense if other property owners are using it? “I am having an issue with the utility company in NYS. The title was searched, and there was no recorded ROW or Easement with the Town or County. I contacted the company to have them remove the pole and now they are saying they have a notarized unrecorded document granting them easement dating back to 1967. Is this a legal easement, and am I now out of luck with them moving it? Thank you for your assistance.” What rights do I have to compel neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. What rights do I have to compel a neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. Prior to selling me the property, the neighbor owned both my lot and the adjacent lot, where he built his home. I just bought a foreclosed home and my neighbor has told me the previous owner gave him easement for his septic. You can see where it was put in as the ground has been freshly dug. It is about five feet from my pole barn. We live in a small town in northern Michigan where it is not uncommon for people to dig a whole and drop a fuel oil tank to hold their sewage. Recently, we erected a fence on our property and about 1 foot of it extends onto the conservation easement. Do we need to be concerned? We did get a permit but have not yet been visited by a township inspector. If/when the inspector comes by, will he or she look to see where the easement is and, if so, will we be required to move the fence? I am one of a group of property owner that own land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by the backyards of others with no access to it unless you enter through our property. I’ve been cleaning since 1984 when I purchased the property. My house and my neighbors house share a common sewer line; that is, my sewer line crosses over into their property and then connects with their sewer line. The combined line connects with the main sewer running underneath the city street. The neighbor has started doing major renovations and has broken the sewer lines as part of their foundation work. I received an “Unauthorized use of Easement” letter from the electric company notarized and signed by an attorney. The electric company is recording the unauthorized use of the easement in Real Property Records in our state of Texas. A residential developer, who wanted to develop a tract of property adjacent to ours, has approached my sister and me about placing a detention pond and easement, which the city required his development to have, across our property in exchange for the purchase of our property within a specified future date and price per acre. We agreed to allow the easement and detention pond subject to the execution of 2 agreements drawn up by the developer: (1) Option to Purchase Real Estate with a scheduled execution date of Sept. 2005, and (2) Agreement of Intent to Develop Real Estate which specified a scheduled execution date of Feb. 2006, and which he signed. My neighbor bought an overgrown wooded lot (about an acre) which has two water run off easements running through it and has since the subdivision was built in the 1960’s. This property they bought borders our property. One of the easements runs through our backyard, through their property and then into an agricultural pond not owned by them. I have a Swimming Pool easement with my next-door neighbor. The easement includes a bathroom with a toilet. My next-door neighbor hired a plumber to unclog the toilet, however he did not contact me about this toilet problem. He wants me to pay for part of the $680.00 bill. I live in Tiburon, CA. Am I responsible for this bill? I have sprinklers near the road which are continually run over or damaged. Is it legal for me to put up stakes or blocks to protect them? I have a private easement pole in my yard and my neighbor has tapped it with lines that run across my property, directly where I want to install a pool. What can I do? We live in a lake front community and own docks. Our HOA is now demanding a lease payment for these docks, some of which are over 25 years old. Can they do that? I’ve just discovered that my gas meter was servicing my neighbor’s utility room. The electric company told me it was my responsibility to correct it, which I’ve done. Does my neighbor have any obligation for part of the repair bill? My property has a water easement on it. Recently, I have had three pipes fixed and my monthly bill has been approximately $1800. Could the leaks I’m experiencing be a result of the easement? Our HOA is using our driveway, designated as a utility easement for the local water company, to check the status of a water tower several times a day. Do they have the right to do this? My property has a utility easement, of which the city has completely restricted access. Can they do this, since it affects a large area of my property? My neighbor, who has access to a joint easement “right of way” is building property that requires access through another homeowner’s right of way. That neighbor does not want to extend his access for this new property. We are hoping to avoid litigation. Do you have any advice? My neighbor’s property has a mineral right easement on it. A gas company, in order to easily access their new well, want to use a road on my property. Can I deny them? We were unaware of a 20 foot easement when we purchased our property and are now having trouble selling the home because of the easement. Do we have any recourse? We need to move an easement line over about 10 feet. How do we legally do this? Our road association is making changes that have not been approved by all homeowners and seem to be exceeding their authority. How can we find out whether they are within their legal rights? My neighbor won’t grant me a utility easement, in order for me to get electricity to the home I am building, unless I sell him another lot at half price. Do I have any recourse? I have a utility easement in my backyard. What rights do I have regarding getting the utility company to inform me when they will be accessing my yard and can I request they bury the four cables, currently above ground, running through my yard? We share a driveway, from which we access our horses, with other property owners. One neighbor wants to put in an electric gate, which would impede our ability to ride our horses out of our property safely. Do we have a position to argue the fact that we do not want the gate? A municipality sold land, that actually belonged to me, to my neighbor. Although my neighbor is willing to quit-claim the property back to me, who is responsible for the correcting the excavating that was done? My attorney failed to disclose, at closing, that there was an easement across my property. Can I sue him? Do I have an automatic easement if I own a property that has always used the well and septic system from an adjoining property? My Easement runs along my entire North Property Line where 1 of the subdivision road is now, which I utilize until the road takes a hard right and I go straight onto my easement (which we have solely maintained since 1978) down to my property to access my driveway/property, at the end on the left (straight ahead is the Corps Property/Lake). The problem is the relatively new neighbor (2001). Over the last 7 years, he rarely came up and if he did was not a nuisance but over the last 6 months or so, has come up more often and utilizing my Easement. I tried to politely explain that the Easement is not for parking and to utilize his property only; however, he got belligerent and insisted that I had no authority to tell him were to park or not and that he’d soon own it!!! Short of a Civil Suit, who has the Authority to tell him he can’t park on it??? I bought a an acre and a half with a 30 foot easement with a ditch on my side of the property line that goes from the road to a canal. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. She has no easements on her side. The developer plans to build a concrete driveway on the easement (Easement “A”), and place his utility lines along side, on the our- property side of the driveway. In addition to laying out the concrete drive, he plans to create a large entryway where the easement joins the public road and landscape to further (visually) associate the entire easement, as well as his untouched and unused 15 ft. wide, 200 ft. long flag pole, with his property, thus expanding his property footprint and increasing its market value while significantly diminishing ours. I have contacted the law office of the attorneys who drafted the document, and they refuse to clarify the intent of their language. Do the words “ingress and egress” mean that my neighbor can pour a driveway on the easement? My neighbors have begun building a locking auto mated gate with an alarm system and security cameras at the street- side- end of the driveway. Can the benefactors of an express easement for only “driveway and utility purposes” build a gate on what is, save for the easement, my property? If not, can I stop them without the hassle and expense of a survey and lawsuit? At some point in time a previous lot owner cleared a path along this easement and now it is used by the neighborhood as a road. Our association has notified the current property owners that they will no longer provide snow removal as this is private property and not an established road (county assessor confirmed). Now, if the county assessors records show there is no established road and only two lots with a utility easement then can the current property owners claim a grandfather clause and demand continued snow service as they have received in previous years?” I want to build a fence across my property line which would result in me building a retaining wall and filling in my part of the pond. Do I need to file some sort of easement with the property owner to be able to build a retaining wall even if the said wall would be solely within my property line?” We have been in several disagreements with the next door neighbor and he is the president of the HOA for our section of the community, but not for the whole governing community. What are my options, I have even offered to obtain the permits from the city and install a 12 inch pipe. This seems like a vendetta and not justice.” The City has recently developed upstream and the State has widened the road in front of my property and added drainage that runs through this ditch. Since flow has increased, should either entity have obtained an easement? We are in the process of selling our land and want to make sure the new owners have access to the water shut offs and sewer lines if neccessary. The lawyer won’t write up the easement with out the city noting where the water and sewer line lay. So is it legal for us to write up an agreement and have it notorized and signed by our neighbor? The city decided to clean out a old ditch and used my property for access, telling me there was an easement. All of the privacy trees and shrubs were removed and some property was destroyed in the process. My deed shows that there is not an easement on my property. What can I do about the damage which was caused? “I have a contract to buy a piece of property. During the survey, it was determined that a portion of the driveway is on “the brothers” (referred to as 2B’s from here on) land next door. And does the gas company have any rights to my land even though there is no pipe on it, a large (90′ pines with other tall vegetation under them) vegetative buffer barring the use of it, and no recorded easement (there is one on the 2B’s land and the previous owner was compensated for it; the 2B’s purchased their land with the easement already there)? Currently, the only people who use the easement are neighborhood children, many of whom ride their bicycles (and on one occasion, a gasoline-powered motorized scooter) through our front yard, past our house, through the backyard, and into the trees beyond. Our lawn is suffering serious damage because of this. Is it possible to vacate the pedestrian easement, and if so, how? The language of the easement grants the servient estate owner the right to relocate the easement. Does this allow the servient estate owner to create a separate right-of-way for each easement holder; thus requiring each easement holder to construct and maintain a separate roadway? I bought my property in October 2008 and I was told at signing that I had lot 14 and 14a. I have the lot 14a on my deed and then when i was putting up a fence on the opposing side of my ditch I ran into a conflict with my neigboor about this. I called the deeds office in the county and they say that the deed shows 14 and 14a as mine but it is an easement. What does this mean? Is this portion of land of 14a mine? We have been contacted by one of the family members of the person who once owned both plots of land. They believe that they own the 50 foot easement even though our deed says that it is part of our property. Do they really “own” this property? We recently purchased a 5 acre piece of property. Unfortunately we did not have access to the language of the document when we purchased the property. This is what was “told” to us about the easement when we purchased the property. Our neighbors have recently brought to our attention that we were mistaken about the extent of the length of the easement. They have stated that they intend to put a road the entire length of the easement– nearly 400 feet. Do they have the “right” to do all of these things? They removed the easement from the property, I have letters from the HOA and township validating this. The problem is that the water issue was not mitigated. My question is, since we were misinformed about the easement and the necessity of it, and since we have a major water issue and would not have purchased this home had that been disclosed to us, can we hold the HOA responsible to resolve this issue at their cost. In addition, if an easement is required on this property, can we hold the HOA liable for the dimished value of the home as a result? I have a property in the Hollywood Hills that is landlocked. Does anyone know if this is the right course? If so, how do I apply for an easement? Which department in the county do I need to contact? To get into our property we have to cross two other properties. Last fall when we paved our part of the driveway and the man in the middles driveway the contractor had some extra material and asked us if he could put it on the top of the driveway, of course we liked the idea of getting in and out easier but warned the contractor that the man on the top is very unreasonable and he would have to get his permission. Several months later we received a letter from his attorney who is also his nephew saying we had to remove the asphalt and take it back to dirt and gravel. Please give me some feedback on the situation. Can government entities explicitly grant Easement by Necessity to private landowners, particularly if the government entity may have created a landlock situation? How do we now establish access/egress to our lot? Do we stand a chance of convincing the Bureau of Reclamation to explicitly grant us use of the easement, which should satisfy the permitting requirement for the other bridge? My neighbor has an ingress and egress easement through my property. Can I have the neighbor sign a liability waiver? Would it be possible to have waiver written up to protect myself in California? We are a townhome community with a private road that connects to public streets on each end. Though we are responsible for all repairs to that private road, probably 90% of the traffic is cut-through traffic between the public streets. Could we legally close one end of this road permanently? Years ago a Water District acquired a residential parcel for construction of a water tank. The residential property has an easement for ingress/egress to an private road shared by over twenty other residential properties. The Water District (public utility) now is permitting a cellular company (private business) to apply for County permits to construct a cellular antenna facility on the property. Can the Water District give permission to the cellular company to use the private road to install and maintain the cellular facility when all of the other easement holders are in opposition? We bought a house/land 6 years ago and signed an ingress/egress easement with the previous owners to allow them the use of our driveway to access their property that adjoins ours. We are having major problems with the renters (& parents of the daycare children) speeding up and down our driveway and forcing us to get out of their way when we are on it. In an effort to slow down the traffic we have put up a nonlocking gate at the end of the driveway where it joins their property. The property owners are now saying we have no legal right to install the gate. The parish of Iberia were I live was going to build a road that would have gone between our lots and the easement was 60 foot but they decide to do away with that easement and went with the 30 foot drainage easement on my side of the boundry line. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. What should I watch out for? My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. It seems that I would be giving up substantial property rights were I to grant the easement, and that the unrecorded quality of the easement seems sneaky. What should I watch out for? We and our adjacent neighbors are in a dispute over a 4 foot high concrete retaining wall that straddles both of our property lines. We’ve had large clay terra-cotta pots sitting on top of retaining wall with lattice in the pots to obscure the neighbors privacy fence, which is few feet back from the retaining wall. Recently (last week), they decided to start objecting to the clay pots (which are on their property, according to their survey). Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? The easement borders my entire property line, I have a private driveway off the easement to my house. The neighbor who lives directly behind me says that when I pull off the paved part of the easement over the grass part of the easement (approx. 10 ft) to get to my front yard, I am tresspassing over his property. He has called the police 4 times in the past 6 months accusing me of trespassing when I park my car in my yard. Do I have the right to access my property from the easement? Does he have the right to call the state police to my house everytime I park in my yard? I have a 1 acre peice of property in a gated community. There is a 14 ft utility easement at the front of my property as there is a transformer there. The HOA came in on my property and installed Electrical power panels to service a gate for back entry/ exit to the sub division. They did not have my permission. They also dug a trench completely across my property about 2 feet wide to reach the transformer for power to the gate and when finished left my property in a mess. My question is, did the HOA have the right to do what they did without my permission? I purchased a commercial building in Maryland and attempted to get an occupancy permit for a tenant. The town conditioned approval with a request for me to grant easements to the town for the maintenance of sewer lines running under my property and to enter my property to inspect them. These easements, if granted, would severely limit my ability to add on to my building and park in my lot. If they don’t agree to negotiate more favorable terms (to me) can I cap off the sewer lines with impunity? May they condition an occupancy permit on an unrelated grant of an easement to them? Have access to irrigation water via a pipeline across neighbors property. Helped to pay for pipeline that supplies water to their parcel, and to our pipeline. New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? I recently discovered that a contractor has run a water line to the house that he is building on property adjacent to ours. The contractor has placed this line inside the 10′ easement on our property rather than disturb the paving that covers the 10′ easement on the adjacent property. Is this legal? City wants a pipeline easement across a small section of the backside of the property. Now heres the question – if I take their ca$h, and later after the work is done , water or gas line leaks show up, say in my yard, is the city liable? What is a “non-assignable and exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and across the following described lands:…” New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? Because we’ve lived in the house (for 12 years) and maintained the retaining wall before and after it was rebuilt, and paid entirely for the reconstruction of the wall, does this give us a right to a prescriptive easement (i.e. right to own the wall completely) overriding the neighbor’s survey, which they claim gives them exclusive ownership rights? Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? My deed states that an adjacent landowner has a strip beside my property that is “as wide as a road”….their deed says a 60 foot wide strip. In 1924 the two deeds said the same thing, but the next time the land changed hands, the 60 ft. was specified. Since it was not recorded on both deeds, can this be legal? The electric and cable companies apparently have an easement on our property although I am unable to find proof of this in our deed and abstract. We do not subscribe to cable and our electric is fed to the property from another line (not on our property) have asked the companies to please fix the cables/wires that they are encroaching on my ability to use my own property and it poses a safety risk. What can I do? Recently there has been a change of ownership on one of the properties. The new owner has a teenage son. The parents leave town often and leave the son alone. While the parents are away the son has been throwing parties where there is teenage drinking. We are concerned that at some point one of these underage drunk children will cause and/or have an accident that will result in death or injury while crossing our property. Can we be held liable if something like this should occur? Other than calling law enforcement to alert them to the party is there any thing else we can do to protect ourselves? As a small Home Owners Association in Washington state, we have a plated 60 foot access & egress easement which has existed for over 20 years. The easement in question passes across a tiny segment of the 5 acres of a single member’s property but they are exceedingly resistant to expanding the margin of the easement though the expansion will be into a completely unused area of their property and out of sight and will fully address their and our membership’s concerns of liability/risk. Given the facts above, within reason, and without damaging in any way the associate member’s property or its value does our Homeowner’s association have a right to demand the expansion of the easement margin? I purchased a narrow lot two houses from my house in 2005. My neighbor whose house next to my narrow lot bought his house in 1998. He constructed sliding iron front gates on track in front of his house sometime after which I am not sure. But it is very likely that was more than 5 years ago. About 8-10 feet of the track is on my property(I have a survey done). Now my question is would it still work if I give notice of permission for him to continue to use it to park his cars in order to prevent a potential claim of prescriptive easement? This family has settled this land 100 years ago. At the turn of the century loggers started this road to reach the top of this ridge which crossed thier land as will as someone elses. When the second generation owner sold 30 acres next to this 500 feet she recorded an easement back in 1968. So that they could still use this pathway. Now the current owner of the 30 acres complained to the forest service and the have recently de-constructed the pathway, and put up concrete barriers. The question is does the national forest have to recognize perscriptive easements? A piece of land I am thinking of buying is land locked but has a deeded Right of way that is 10ft wide and 50 feet long in PA. Can I pave or lay gravel down on this section to help my vehicle get thru. I Live on a Busy Street and my Neighbor with Easement Access Leaves my Gate Unlocked and Open, What can I do? My neighbor wants an easement on my property for his proposed sewer line. We will be selling our property within the next nine months. Are there any legal, physical or real estate sales issues if we grant the easement? What is the value of this easement? I own a building with another company and there is an easement on the property. There is a restrictive covenant which states I am to provide “reasonable permanent access” to this easement. What is meant by reasonable permanent access? The owners of the land over which our easement runs is in the process of having a home built on the second parcel and one of the conditions of their building permit is that they must run sewer lines back to the house (we are on septic) and the only place where the sewer lines can run is up the middle of the 150′ easement road. The builders informed us that when the sewer company puts in the sewer, that we will not have access to our property for three days. The sewer installers have further said that they will not put down the steel plates common to such an installation as the expense is too great. Can the owner of the easement and/or their contractors deny us access during this process? For past few months, My neighbors (12 people) are now constantly using their basement door and my driveway as their main door, even their guest use it as a entrance door even though they have their front door and it is becoming extremely difficult to use my driveway where I park my cars(because of their constant presence, sitting in the driveway, children playing in the driveway etc), when I ask them to stop sitting or playing, they apologize, but keep repeating, them blocking my driveway with their cars is also becoming a problem. How to solve this problem, Is their a legal way? Can I stop them from using my driveway? I live in the state of NY and I have a right of way on a piece of property from 1970. This was used for a turn around and a place for the kids to play. It is 50-100ft, we are at the end of a dead end street. The town just abandoned this piece for a neighbor to have a driveway to get to there new house. Can this be legally done? My right of way was also included with the deed given to the town when they took over the road in 1992. Is a verbal easement legal and binding? We are planning on building a home with our frontage being on a private road that has five homes on it. We have a written easement with our neighbor right across from us. But we have had a verbal easement with our neighbor that sits at the start of the private road for about three years now. Dose a verbal easement eventually become legal or our we going to be having problems? Do we even need a written easement from him with us all ready having a easement to our frontage? We live in a site built condominium association. We share a drainage/walkway easement with our next door neighbors according to our plat map which is what our township considers. A state park trail runs along the east side of our development. We have always invited the homes in the development to access the trail by walking through our yard. A few in the association now want to put a sidewalk through to make the walkway more official. Do we have to go by what the township says about where the easement is or by the Master Deed? Do we have to allow a sidewalk through our yards? Does a Condo Association have the legal right to build a sidewalk on a walk-way easement? An easement was approved by the township to allow residents access to a public walking trail, this easement was defined as a 20ft area between two adjoining lots. Does a Condo Association have the right to make such improvements; even if the owners of the lots do not agree with this (assuming it properly approved by a majority of residents)? I am buying a home on 1.34 acres of land and should be closing on it in about a month. The owner of another acre directly behind my land would like to sell the land to me the land is currently landlocked. What would I have to do to purchase this land? I’m assuming this means that I need to have an easement? If so, is this costly? What is the difference between an easement for INGRESS AND EGRESS (not exclusive) as opposed to an easement “OVER AND ACROSS” lands? The easements run through a gated community to a river. We are not a part of the HOA. WE recently bought a 2nd home on the river. The property has a boat ramp on it. The latest Platte chart, only shows the outline of our property, no indication of a boat ramp. AND there are no easements recorded to date. BUT, everyone allows everyone to share… We’ve asked that they sign a waiver of liability in exchange for permission of using the ramp, since this is our 2nd home and we cannot maintain the ramp non-stop. We’ve been indirectly threatened that an easement by prescription will be placed on our ramp… What are our rights? My husband and I purchased a piece of land 17 years ago which consisted of a working commercial fish hatchery, buildings and 3 homes. There is a piece of property between us and the county road on which we have “a non-exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and under a piece of land 20 feet in width”. We now have a new owner of the property on which we have the easement who is claiming that we don’t have the right to have this business as the easement is for a single family residence access only. Can he stop us from having this business which has been in existence since 2004? I own an undeveloped 5 ac parcel in California. Upon having it surveyed, I learned that my neighbor’s driveway falls as much as 20′ outside of the easement. The easement is 60′ (30′ of which is on my property) for a one lane gravel road. Can I insist the road be moved to regain my property? Is it my responsibility to rebuild it, or the responsibility of the neighbor? I recently purchased 9 acres of land that has an easement attached to it. There is a 40 foot public road easement that was granted back in the 70’s on the property and has never been used. We want to build a new house on the property. The only access is a driveway tile installed right on this 40′ easement. We have been told that if we build there and use this drive as our access we could possibly be sued or the owner of the easement could put a lien on our property. Is this true? If we are not blocking his access in any way, are we not entitled to use this drive to get to our house? My home is landlocked but has a road easement for access purposes. I know want to subdivide the property into 4 parcels. Do I need additional easements for all the new properties? I live in a home with a 20 ft easement driveway from the main road to a semi public lake. Home owners have been granted ingress & egress to the lake. There are 3 houses and 1 duplex on the easement driveway. About 20 years ago the owner of our home built and maintained a dock that sits just off the natural water line of the lake and it meets all state codes and is legally there. We bought the home 7 years ago and we have maintained the dock and keep our boat anchor during the summer. Can the owners of the duplex give their tenants the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Can the tenants of the duplex give anyone (i.e., friends, neighbors, relatives, etc.,) the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Do we have the right to prohibit the tenants from the dock even though we have no paperwork showing ownership of the dock? Can the Board of a HOA enter a private property within the community that happens to have the waterfall circuit board and the sprinkler system control panel located on their property? We can’t find anywhere in the documents or bylaws where the board was given a utility easement or access easement to get to these panels. Do we have a right to enter a backyard to access the control panels without a documented easement? Can this homeowner forbid us access to the panels? My neighbor has planted a hedge that is growing across my property. I asked him to trim it back so it would still look nice, but be on his property. He not only has let it grown further (he claims he’s using the easement, which half happens to be over MY boundary line). He called the police on me, and they said I could be arrested if I touched his plants Why can he cut my bushes on MY property, yet he can continue to encroach on mine? Does he have the right to let his plants grow over the easement that is on my property? We own a property on a private road with 14 homes. We all have septic and wells. We have an irreparable septic problem. We have been denied a permit for a new on-lot septic option. Our neighbors have reported us to county and local government. Thus causing us to enter into the legal system to fight it. We have a developer who is ready to put in a private line to a sewer main. All that we need is for the neighbors to sign giving us an easement to put it in along the private road. They are giving us a hard time about it and will not sign. Is there anyway to force the easement through so that we can fix our problem? There is an access easement on my property so that my neighbor can access his yard (they use my driveway). I am wanting to build a fence on my property line which would cross a small portion at the end of the easement. I would not be hindering his access to his backyard, but he is against my building the fence. Would I legally be able to build the fence as long as I am not keeping him from getting into his backyard (egress and ingress)? We have allowed our neighbors to use the back portion of our yard for almost five years in exchange for the landscaping they did for us. Their house is directly behind ours, and they did not have room for their son and daughter to play. They have paid the water bill, but no insurance, property taxes, mortgage, etc. Do we need to have a formal easement agreement? Can they take over our property and assume ownership after a prescribed length of time? The Dominant tenant has a right to cross my backyard to access her own backyard. The easement is 6 feet wide. Am I allowed to develop this area of land at all (low wood deck, asphalt, concrete etc). I do not intend to impede her access at all. The original property owner gave an easement and “right-of-way for the purpose of ingress & egress and to run with said land and to be transferable therewith; reserving unto the grantor the right to use said road & grant others a like easement and right-of-way.” I am putting an underground sprinkler system in the front yard but the neighbor insists that it will be in the easement area. The sprinkler heads will be flush with the ground and will not impede traffic flow. Is this allowed? There is very little likelihood that the road will ever be paved or taken over by the state. What are my rights? Three homes drive over our properties this easement . On the deed its state non exclusive easement for ingress and egress. I been having a bad time with a neighbor that drives over my land and the neighbors land, his dogs attacked me on my property and I find him. Now he wont stop driving past my house fast and he will come to a complete stop and peel out right in front of my house on this easement road. Is there any law that will help me on private easement roads with endangerment or damages. The dog attack is on record .the police wont touch private roads in Washington state. They told me that he has to go out onto the public road. Is this right? I have speed limit signs and a speed pump on a gravel road which we all agreed on even him, so I want to know what I can do by law to stop him, is this harassment? An easement through an unincorporated HOA community in Yavapai County, AZ allows access through the community to landlocked abutting Property. Easement metes and bounds describe a route somewhat different from existing roads. Owner has unfettered access. Adherence to the described easement would require demo of some existing construction and construction of new roads. What are respective rights of community and easement grantee (Property owner)? For example, does the law allow the Property owner unrestricted rights to treat the route of his described easement however he deems necessary irrespective of the current use of that property? I have recently purchased 20 acres of land in Indiana that was considered landlocked and was given a proper easement to said land for ingress and egress and utilities. The problem we have run into after residing here for 1 year is there is no signage or notification of where our easement begins off of a private drive. Am I allowed to put signage (my family name, private drive, no trespassing, etc…) at the beginning of our easement to recognize what the easements intent is and to deter unwanted traffic? The owner of the land has forbade us to place any signage on their property (our easement) at this time. My house (primary residence) is on a lot without well defined borders to my neighbors. The grassy yard flows right into my neighbor property and there are some trees that act as a division but according to the plot plan my property runs well past them. Her lawn service cleans part of my lot (the part after the trees) and I worried she might think her yard is bigger than it is. How do I make sure after time she does not claim rights to the part of the yard she cleans? I recently purchased property that the driveway goes through my land, and continues to my new neighbors property. The “neighbor” is already giving me a hard time about keeping up with the driveway such as plowing snow up to the end of my property, not just where my family needs to park. She also stated that the “right of way” was in their deed. My deed has no information pertaining to giving them “right of way” through my property. If I have to give them access, shouldn’t it be stated in my deed also? I am wanting to know if we had allowed an easement across our property for another property owner to have access to their property behind us and now they are selling their property and the buyer is an adjoining property owner that will now have access to the property from his own property will be still have to allow access or use of the easement that is running through our property? We have given a 60 foot road easement for the purpose of ingress and egress to an adjacent property which is landlocked. The easement is situated on a steep sand hill which washes out easily. Previous owners have maintained the road and did not destroy the 60 foot easement. The current owner had not maintained the road and now are driving from side to side of the 60 feet to avoid the ruts that they have created. We have placed barriers on the side, leaving the previously maintained road clear. We have been told by one source that we could place gates at each side of the easement as long as we do not lock them without giving the adjacent property owner a key. Do we have the right to do this or do we have to allow these owners to destroy our land. I live in Texas, the property that I bought had an unrecorded easement. I would like to know if it is possible for the people using this easement to legally have the width of it extended from about 12ft. to 20ft.? I have an Easement on my land that specifically states for ingress and egress purpose to a land locked piece of land. The location of the easement lies in an area that one can only access the land locked land by foot. My question is, what can I do and what can I not do with that land that belongs to me? Can I erect a building, On the Easement, that dose not hinder the travel to and from the land locked land or can I not? A Real Estate Developer wants an Easement to my property. The Developer wants an easement to install a sewer line. Since, the Developer stands to gain capital from the installation of the sewer lines. Shouldn’t I be compensated at a commercial rate? Do I have to allow this easement? Two neighbors and I went together and put in a well for the purpose of irrigating our yards. We equally divided the cost of the well, pump, etc. Now the neighbor on whose property the well is located is selling her home. How can my other neighbor and I retain the legal right to use the well after the property is sold? I live in Maine and have house with a deeded right of way through someone’s property to get to my house. My deeded right of way is stated as 50 ft. My driveway is very narrow, only about 8 ft. wide. Could I tar the rest of the 50 ft. if I want? What are my rights? Right across the road from my property are my and one neighbor’s mailboxes. They turn come from their home and turn around in my driveway when they get their mail because it is more convenient for them to do that. Recently, they accused me of some things and I told them to not come on my property anymore. I have a number of questions concerning a private road easement which goes through our property along the floor of a steep valley. A mid portion stretch of the road goes through our property. I would like to access the property at the bottom of the hill for recreational activities and for maintenance (i.e. removing debris that periodically gets washed down, or dead trees that may have fallen). I have verbally asked the neighbors if it was OK for me to use of the road and they have declined. The easement in question was recorded in 1983. This is all news to us. We never were asked or notified. We bought property in 1977 and title search at that time showed no easements. I have a drainage easement (swale)running the back 20 feet of my property. Because of the overwhelming water we have been recieving, the “swale” is causing the water to pond, and as a result, my backyard is collapsing rapidly, and my basement is flooding during heavy rain. I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. This is for the purpose of developing his property and he is requesting three separate easements across our property. We share a reciprocal driveway easement with our neighbors, they park on our property and we drive across theirs. The easement documentation provides that we share in the costs of paving the easement. Some of our trees hanging over the area where they park have old, thick branches that could fall and damage their cars. Who is responsible for trimming the trees and keeping them safe? We have painted our remodeled home on three sides and our neighbor is denying us access to use the area beyond the 12 inches (which is on his property) to paint the wall. My neighbor has recently erected a barrier preventing us from driving across that portion of “her” driveway. It’s almost impossible to drive in 1 of 2 cars into the 2 car garage with this barrier. We have the deed and have had our property surveyed which clearly show our property line, however the property line is adjacent to an easement for a driveway. Our neighbor decided to pave the driveway which is on our property. Our deed has nothing in it about an easement being on our property. We were recently sent a letter from the local sewer authority requesting that we sign the attached right-of-way agreement and grant of right-of-way for an existing sewer line on our property for the sum of $1.00. Should we do it? After this new owner had his land surveyed he realized that I, and my neighbor, drove across a ~ 250 sq. ft piece of land in the nethermost corner of his 93 acre holding. This small piece of his adjoining property has been used continuously as a driveway entrance to our properties since their development 40 years ago. We have a 10 foot easement on the back end of our land as likewise do the owners of the field in the back. They would have to cut down 2 30 (foot) trees that are in our yard to do this. They told me at a meeting that if I did not give them the right of this easement through my property that they would condem that part of my yard and use it anyway. Our sewer line goes across our neighbor’s property. It was that way when each of us bought our properties. Now I need to replace the sewer line, and we can’t find any recorded easement. If our neighbor tries to keep us from replacing our sewer line, will we be able to prevail based on a prescriptive easement? In California, who is required to maintain an existing roadway easement across my neighbor’s land that allows access to my house? We recently acquired a piece of property that has an easement running on one side of it for 2 property owners to pass to get to their houses. Now a third person wants us to sign an agreement for an easement. We want to know what is the normal procedure for an easement? Our neighbor has an easement across our land, which he has permission to use. However, we just found out that all along he has been using property which is 5 feet outside of the permitted easement area. Now he wants to pave it. Does he have a prescriptive easement for the area which he was using which was outside of the original permitted easemenet area? Our property has an easement to the adjacent land to allow for farming. Now they are selling that land and intend to convert it to residential with “road” access down our easement. My neighbor’s chickens are constantly on my land. Is there any kind of easement that they could acquire over time on my property if I continue to allow this? How can we get someone who inherited our right of way (ROW) easement to deal with us? I want to move soon and rent out my house. Would I reduce my chances for keeping an easement I have on a neighboring lot if the other owner decides to bring a lawsuit to disclaim the easement and I don’t live here? The easement across our land is unusable. If I cut a road for my needs on my property (not on the easement) do the easement owners have the right to use my new road? I live in the Texas and want to know what size easement is required for an electrical line? What is an easement in gross? If you have paid a neighbor for use of a strip of land can they put a 4 foot high post at the corner of it, even though you were very clear that you were going to use it for a drive for your cars? Someone has built a house down the block from us and has decided to put a dock 20 feet from us, and instead of making his own access to his dock he has decided to use ours. What can we do? My wife and I recently bought a house on 80 acres that has an easement. The easement owner wants to use it to cross cattle; can we keep him from doing so? We want to change an existing easement by moving it 3 feet. This will not fundamentally change the easement owner’s access. The easement owner does not want us to make the change. Can we change the location of the easement under the circumstances described? Does an Implied Eastment of Necessity exist? I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. Is a prescriptive easement through notorious use automatic? The small town where I’ve lived for 15 years is now telling me that the “city mainâ€? is really a private service line. Over the years I have replaced all my outside sewer lines – this was before I realized the line ran across neighbors’ yards and where the actual problem lays. How do I go about getting an easement that would provide my home future protection? I feel like I’m being forced into giving the county a drainage easement. Can the county force me to give them a drainage easement? I would like to know if I can fight an easement that is already in place on the land I purchased An agreement between a townhome homeowners association and a neighboring condo homeowners association includes financial contributions for upkeep of property easements. Can one demand financial accountability from the other? An easement is a right-of-way you grant to someone to cross your land whenever they need to. Governments can force easements through the use of eminent domain law. Private groups have no such power.
How Do I Know Which Kind of Easement I Have?
I am one of a group of property owners that owns land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. This is all dirt road and these owners say that we will be responsible for maintaining it. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by peoples backyards with no access to it unless you enter through our property. My and my neighbor’s property lines run across the same pond and back to land on the other side, splitting the pond in 3 sections. Questions exist as to if property lines exist within water, and thus required to stay within property lines, or does entire pond become available for full use of all 3 owners? I am a homeowner. My property has a transformer unit/box on my ground property. On June 2, 2012 an unknown auto hit the box and caused a power outage. The outage was repaired and now the utility company is billing me for the damages because the transformer is on my property. Can they hold me liable to it if it was not me or any family member who caused the damage? The person who did the damage is unknown because it happened overnight while the entire street was asleep. What steps do I have to take to stop my neighbor from using our private driveway? My neighbors next to us pull into their driveway to enter their premisses but use our driveway to enter the main road. They have at times even pulled into our driveway to be able to go to the back of their house. We have asked them many times to stop doing this because we are afraid one day that we might have an accident. When they use our driveway, they fly out their very fast so we don’t see them using it. We live in New Jersey and have a 40-foot deeded necessary easement type right-of-way through a neighbor’s property. Lately he has begun parking large tractor-trailer size vehicles for long periods of time to one side of the easement. Although it’s an eyesore, it doesn’t impede our ability to get to our home as our driveway is much narrower than 40 feet. Is this permitted by law, and if so, will it have any effect on the conditions of the easement? Our HOA’s common area is subject to an equestrian easement. The city wants to use the easement and build a 10 feet wide bike trail. This would require that many of the trees on that part of the property to be cut down. We are afraid that this will cause a reduction in our property value. Is there any way we can fight the easement? We are located in Goleta, County of Santa Barbara, California. I am a resident of Louisiana and have purchased a property with easement issues. This property was once part of a larger tract. The original landowner used the house and an area of land around the house as collateral for a building loan. There was an easement included that went from the road to the house. After this, the landowner dug a very large pond across the easement. He built a limestone driveway that went around the pond to get to the house. This was never stated to be a legal easement. Our house was built in a development in the State of New York in 2008 that connected our road to another in the development. There is a 10′ drainage easement on the WEST side of the property (our side lot). Now, the Town wants to put SWALES through 4 feet of our front yard. Our question is: The Town has no drainage easement on the front of our property, I have thoroughly researched the Deed. I live in Tiburon, CA. I own a swimming pool and have a legal easement, with my next-door neighbor, that his tenants can use the pool. If one of his tenants were injured, on my property where the pool is located, would I be legally responsible? I have a house on a lake, and next to the lot is an easement. The people across the street say that the easement is a deeded easement and it is on all of their titles so they have a right to put a dock on the easement. I would not have a problem with that, except that the dock is only about half a foot away from my property line. Are they able to put the dock on the easement legally? I’m trying to work out an exchange of easements with a neighbor who owns property on both sides of me. I need an easement across one of their properties in order to reach an otherwise inaccessible part of my property, and they want an easement across my property to get from one to the other of theirs. My deed states that the nonexclusive right of way, which is the driveway to my property was bought, paid for and is transferred with the property to future owners. My question: Do I have to share the driveway with the property owner? The property adjoining the driveway was bought by another person who lays claim to the driveway, or right of way, of access. Do I have to maintain the road at my total expense if other property owners are using it? “I am having an issue with the utility company in NYS. The title was searched, and there was no recorded ROW or Easement with the Town or County. I contacted the company to have them remove the pole and now they are saying they have a notarized unrecorded document granting them easement dating back to 1967. Is this a legal easement, and am I now out of luck with them moving it? Thank you for your assistance.” What rights do I have to compel neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. What rights do I have to compel a neighbor to remove his drainage piping that exists outside the legally recorded easement on my property? I purchased a lakefront, unimproved lot from my neighbor in August, 2000 in Virginia. It had a drainage easement along the property line adjoining my neighbor’s lot but well outside the build-able area. Prior to selling me the property, the neighbor owned both my lot and the adjacent lot, where he built his home. I just bought a foreclosed home and my neighbor has told me the previous owner gave him easement for his septic. You can see where it was put in as the ground has been freshly dug. It is about five feet from my pole barn. We live in a small town in northern Michigan where it is not uncommon for people to dig a whole and drop a fuel oil tank to hold their sewage. Recently, we erected a fence on our property and about 1 foot of it extends onto the conservation easement. Do we need to be concerned? We did get a permit but have not yet been visited by a township inspector. If/when the inspector comes by, will he or she look to see where the easement is and, if so, will we be required to move the fence? I am one of a group of property owner that own land dominant to another estate. We have used the same road to access our land for over 30 years. It is currently 1.3 miles across this servient property and we maintain it ourselves. The owners of the servient property now want to change the location of the road and make it go way around the back of their property, increasing the distance to 3.5 miles. They are bearing the cost of construction of this new road. There’s an irrigation easement between my backyard and my rear neighbors backyard that ends at the edge of our property and leads nowhere else due to other houses blocking it. It is there because we had water rights which we had to relinquish in order to obtain city water. No water has ran through it in over 15 years and it is surrounded by the backyards of others with no access to it unless you enter through our property. I’ve been cleaning since 1984 when I purchased the property. My house and my neighbors house share a common sewer line; that is, my sewer line crosses over into their property and then connects with their sewer line. The combined line connects with the main sewer running underneath the city street. The neighbor has started doing major renovations and has broken the sewer lines as part of their foundation work. I received an “Unauthorized use of Easement” letter from the electric company notarized and signed by an attorney. The electric company is recording the unauthorized use of the easement in Real Property Records in our state of Texas. A residential developer, who wanted to develop a tract of property adjacent to ours, has approached my sister and me about placing a detention pond and easement, which the city required his development to have, across our property in exchange for the purchase of our property within a specified future date and price per acre. We agreed to allow the easement and detention pond subject to the execution of 2 agreements drawn up by the developer: (1) Option to Purchase Real Estate with a scheduled execution date of Sept. 2005, and (2) Agreement of Intent to Develop Real Estate which specified a scheduled execution date of Feb. 2006, and which he signed. My neighbor bought an overgrown wooded lot (about an acre) which has two water run off easements running through it and has since the subdivision was built in the 1960’s. This property they bought borders our property. One of the easements runs through our backyard, through their property and then into an agricultural pond not owned by them. I have a Swimming Pool easement with my next-door neighbor. The easement includes a bathroom with a toilet. My next-door neighbor hired a plumber to unclog the toilet, however he did not contact me about this toilet problem. He wants me to pay for part of the $680.00 bill. I live in Tiburon, CA. Am I responsible for this bill? I have sprinklers near the road which are continually run over or damaged. Is it legal for me to put up stakes or blocks to protect them? I have a private easement pole in my yard and my neighbor has tapped it with lines that run across my property, directly where I want to install a pool. What can I do? We live in a lake front community and own docks. Our HOA is now demanding a lease payment for these docks, some of which are over 25 years old. Can they do that? I’ve just discovered that my gas meter was servicing my neighbor’s utility room. The electric company told me it was my responsibility to correct it, which I’ve done. Does my neighbor have any obligation for part of the repair bill? My property has a water easement on it. Recently, I have had three pipes fixed and my monthly bill has been approximately $1800. Could the leaks I’m experiencing be a result of the easement? Our HOA is using our driveway, designated as a utility easement for the local water company, to check the status of a water tower several times a day. Do they have the right to do this? My property has a utility easement, of which the city has completely restricted access. Can they do this, since it affects a large area of my property? My neighbor, who has access to a joint easement “right of way” is building property that requires access through another homeowner’s right of way. That neighbor does not want to extend his access for this new property. We are hoping to avoid litigation. Do you have any advice? My neighbor’s property has a mineral right easement on it. A gas company, in order to easily access their new well, want to use a road on my property. Can I deny them? We were unaware of a 20 foot easement when we purchased our property and are now having trouble selling the home because of the easement. Do we have any recourse? We need to move an easement line over about 10 feet. How do we legally do this? Our road association is making changes that have not been approved by all homeowners and seem to be exceeding their authority. How can we find out whether they are within their legal rights? My neighbor won’t grant me a utility easement, in order for me to get electricity to the home I am building, unless I sell him another lot at half price. Do I have any recourse? I have a utility easement in my backyard. What rights do I have regarding getting the utility company to inform me when they will be accessing my yard and can I request they bury the four cables, currently above ground, running through my yard? We share a driveway, from which we access our horses, with other property owners. One neighbor wants to put in an electric gate, which would impede our ability to ride our horses out of our property safely. Do we have a position to argue the fact that we do not want the gate? A municipality sold land, that actually belonged to me, to my neighbor. Although my neighbor is willing to quit-claim the property back to me, who is responsible for the correcting the excavating that was done? My attorney failed to disclose, at closing, that there was an easement across my property. Can I sue him? Do I have an automatic easement if I own a property that has always used the well and septic system from an adjoining property? My Easement runs along my entire North Property Line where 1 of the subdivision road is now, which I utilize until the road takes a hard right and I go straight onto my easement (which we have solely maintained since 1978) down to my property to access my driveway/property, at the end on the left (straight ahead is the Corps Property/Lake). The problem is the relatively new neighbor (2001). Over the last 7 years, he rarely came up and if he did was not a nuisance but over the last 6 months or so, has come up more often and utilizing my Easement. I tried to politely explain that the Easement is not for parking and to utilize his property only; however, he got belligerent and insisted that I had no authority to tell him were to park or not and that he’d soon own it!!! Short of a Civil Suit, who has the Authority to tell him he can’t park on it??? I bought a an acre and a half with a 30 foot easement with a ditch on my side of the property line that goes from the road to a canal. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. She has no easements on her side. The developer plans to build a concrete driveway on the easement (Easement “A”), and place his utility lines along side, on the our- property side of the driveway. In addition to laying out the concrete drive, he plans to create a large entryway where the easement joins the public road and landscape to further (visually) associate the entire easement, as well as his untouched and unused 15 ft. wide, 200 ft. long flag pole, with his property, thus expanding his property footprint and increasing its market value while significantly diminishing ours. I have contacted the law office of the attorneys who drafted the document, and they refuse to clarify the intent of their language. Do the words “ingress and egress” mean that my neighbor can pour a driveway on the easement? My neighbors have begun building a locking auto mated gate with an alarm system and security cameras at the street- side- end of the driveway. Can the benefactors of an express easement for only “driveway and utility purposes” build a gate on what is, save for the easement, my property? If not, can I stop them without the hassle and expense of a survey and lawsuit? At some point in time a previous lot owner cleared a path along this easement and now it is used by the neighborhood as a road. Our association has notified the current property owners that they will no longer provide snow removal as this is private property and not an established road (county assessor confirmed). Now, if the county assessors records show there is no established road and only two lots with a utility easement then can the current property owners claim a grandfather clause and demand continued snow service as they have received in previous years?” I want to build a fence across my property line which would result in me building a retaining wall and filling in my part of the pond. Do I need to file some sort of easement with the property owner to be able to build a retaining wall even if the said wall would be solely within my property line?” We have been in several disagreements with the next door neighbor and he is the president of the HOA for our section of the community, but not for the whole governing community. What are my options, I have even offered to obtain the permits from the city and install a 12 inch pipe. This seems like a vendetta and not justice.” The City has recently developed upstream and the State has widened the road in front of my property and added drainage that runs through this ditch. Since flow has increased, should either entity have obtained an easement? We are in the process of selling our land and want to make sure the new owners have access to the water shut offs and sewer lines if neccessary. The lawyer won’t write up the easement with out the city noting where the water and sewer line lay. So is it legal for us to write up an agreement and have it notorized and signed by our neighbor? The city decided to clean out a old ditch and used my property for access, telling me there was an easement. All of the privacy trees and shrubs were removed and some property was destroyed in the process. My deed shows that there is not an easement on my property. What can I do about the damage which was caused? “I have a contract to buy a piece of property. During the survey, it was determined that a portion of the driveway is on “the brothers” (referred to as 2B’s from here on) land next door. And does the gas company have any rights to my land even though there is no pipe on it, a large (90′ pines with other tall vegetation under them) vegetative buffer barring the use of it, and no recorded easement (there is one on the 2B’s land and the previous owner was compensated for it; the 2B’s purchased their land with the easement already there)? Currently, the only people who use the easement are neighborhood children, many of whom ride their bicycles (and on one occasion, a gasoline-powered motorized scooter) through our front yard, past our house, through the backyard, and into the trees beyond. Our lawn is suffering serious damage because of this. Is it possible to vacate the pedestrian easement, and if so, how? The language of the easement grants the servient estate owner the right to relocate the easement. Does this allow the servient estate owner to create a separate right-of-way for each easement holder; thus requiring each easement holder to construct and maintain a separate roadway? I bought my property in October 2008 and I was told at signing that I had lot 14 and 14a. I have the lot 14a on my deed and then when i was putting up a fence on the opposing side of my ditch I ran into a conflict with my neigboor about this. I called the deeds office in the county and they say that the deed shows 14 and 14a as mine but it is an easement. What does this mean? Is this portion of land of 14a mine? We have been contacted by one of the family members of the person who once owned both plots of land. They believe that they own the 50 foot easement even though our deed says that it is part of our property. Do they really “own” this property? We recently purchased a 5 acre piece of property. Unfortunately we did not have access to the language of the document when we purchased the property. This is what was “told” to us about the easement when we purchased the property. Our neighbors have recently brought to our attention that we were mistaken about the extent of the length of the easement. They have stated that they intend to put a road the entire length of the easement– nearly 400 feet. Do they have the “right” to do all of these things? They removed the easement from the property, I have letters from the HOA and township validating this. The problem is that the water issue was not mitigated. My question is, since we were misinformed about the easement and the necessity of it, and since we have a major water issue and would not have purchased this home had that been disclosed to us, can we hold the HOA responsible to resolve this issue at their cost. In addition, if an easement is required on this property, can we hold the HOA liable for the dimished value of the home as a result? I have a property in the Hollywood Hills that is landlocked. Does anyone know if this is the right course? If so, how do I apply for an easement? Which department in the county do I need to contact? To get into our property we have to cross two other properties. Last fall when we paved our part of the driveway and the man in the middles driveway the contractor had some extra material and asked us if he could put it on the top of the driveway, of course we liked the idea of getting in and out easier but warned the contractor that the man on the top is very unreasonable and he would have to get his permission. Several months later we received a letter from his attorney who is also his nephew saying we had to remove the asphalt and take it back to dirt and gravel. Please give me some feedback on the situation. Can government entities explicitly grant Easement by Necessity to private landowners, particularly if the government entity may have created a landlock situation? How do we now establish access/egress to our lot? Do we stand a chance of convincing the Bureau of Reclamation to explicitly grant us use of the easement, which should satisfy the permitting requirement for the other bridge? My neighbor has an ingress and egress easement through my property. Can I have the neighbor sign a liability waiver? Would it be possible to have waiver written up to protect myself in California? We are a townhome community with a private road that connects to public streets on each end. Though we are responsible for all repairs to that private road, probably 90% of the traffic is cut-through traffic between the public streets. Could we legally close one end of this road permanently? Years ago a Water District acquired a residential parcel for construction of a water tank. The residential property has an easement for ingress/egress to an private road shared by over twenty other residential properties. The Water District (public utility) now is permitting a cellular company (private business) to apply for County permits to construct a cellular antenna facility on the property. Can the Water District give permission to the cellular company to use the private road to install and maintain the cellular facility when all of the other easement holders are in opposition? We bought a house/land 6 years ago and signed an ingress/egress easement with the previous owners to allow them the use of our driveway to access their property that adjoins ours. We are having major problems with the renters (& parents of the daycare children) speeding up and down our driveway and forcing us to get out of their way when we are on it. In an effort to slow down the traffic we have put up a nonlocking gate at the end of the driveway where it joins their property. The property owners are now saying we have no legal right to install the gate. The parish of Iberia were I live was going to build a road that would have gone between our lots and the easement was 60 foot but they decide to do away with that easement and went with the 30 foot drainage easement on my side of the boundry line. I want my nieghbor to remove a septic drain line that runs onto my side into the ditch. Do I have the right to make her remove it. My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. What should I watch out for? My neighbor has asked me to grant her an unrecorded easement that would provide emergency egress from her back yard, through my back yard, to the street. It seems that I would be giving up substantial property rights were I to grant the easement, and that the unrecorded quality of the easement seems sneaky. What should I watch out for? We and our adjacent neighbors are in a dispute over a 4 foot high concrete retaining wall that straddles both of our property lines. We’ve had large clay terra-cotta pots sitting on top of retaining wall with lattice in the pots to obscure the neighbors privacy fence, which is few feet back from the retaining wall. Recently (last week), they decided to start objecting to the clay pots (which are on their property, according to their survey). Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? The easement borders my entire property line, I have a private driveway off the easement to my house. The neighbor who lives directly behind me says that when I pull off the paved part of the easement over the grass part of the easement (approx. 10 ft) to get to my front yard, I am tresspassing over his property. He has called the police 4 times in the past 6 months accusing me of trespassing when I park my car in my yard. Do I have the right to access my property from the easement? Does he have the right to call the state police to my house everytime I park in my yard? I have a 1 acre peice of property in a gated community. There is a 14 ft utility easement at the front of my property as there is a transformer there. The HOA came in on my property and installed Electrical power panels to service a gate for back entry/ exit to the sub division. They did not have my permission. They also dug a trench completely across my property about 2 feet wide to reach the transformer for power to the gate and when finished left my property in a mess. My question is, did the HOA have the right to do what they did without my permission? I purchased a commercial building in Maryland and attempted to get an occupancy permit for a tenant. The town conditioned approval with a request for me to grant easements to the town for the maintenance of sewer lines running under my property and to enter my property to inspect them. These easements, if granted, would severely limit my ability to add on to my building and park in my lot. If they don’t agree to negotiate more favorable terms (to me) can I cap off the sewer lines with impunity? May they condition an occupancy permit on an unrelated grant of an easement to them? Have access to irrigation water via a pipeline across neighbors property. Helped to pay for pipeline that supplies water to their parcel, and to our pipeline. New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? I recently discovered that a contractor has run a water line to the house that he is building on property adjacent to ours. The contractor has placed this line inside the 10′ easement on our property rather than disturb the paving that covers the 10′ easement on the adjacent property. Is this legal? City wants a pipeline easement across a small section of the backside of the property. Now heres the question – if I take their ca$h, and later after the work is done , water or gas line leaks show up, say in my yard, is the city liable? What is a “non-assignable and exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and across the following described lands:…” New owner says since pipeline is not specified or noted in title search, there is no legal basis and his lawyer has notified us that unless we can show legal basis they are going to remove the pipeline. I believe our basis is implied easement. Am I correct, an what is the best way to establish this? Because we’ve lived in the house (for 12 years) and maintained the retaining wall before and after it was rebuilt, and paid entirely for the reconstruction of the wall, does this give us a right to a prescriptive easement (i.e. right to own the wall completely) overriding the neighbor’s survey, which they claim gives them exclusive ownership rights? Would mediation/arbitration be a better, less expensive way to go? My deed states that an adjacent landowner has a strip beside my property that is “as wide as a road”….their deed says a 60 foot wide strip. In 1924 the two deeds said the same thing, but the next time the land changed hands, the 60 ft. was specified. Since it was not recorded on both deeds, can this be legal? The electric and cable companies apparently have an easement on our property although I am unable to find proof of this in our deed and abstract. We do not subscribe to cable and our electric is fed to the property from another line (not on our property) have asked the companies to please fix the cables/wires that they are encroaching on my ability to use my own property and it poses a safety risk. What can I do? Recently there has been a change of ownership on one of the properties. The new owner has a teenage son. The parents leave town often and leave the son alone. While the parents are away the son has been throwing parties where there is teenage drinking. We are concerned that at some point one of these underage drunk children will cause and/or have an accident that will result in death or injury while crossing our property. Can we be held liable if something like this should occur? Other than calling law enforcement to alert them to the party is there any thing else we can do to protect ourselves? As a small Home Owners Association in Washington state, we have a plated 60 foot access & egress easement which has existed for over 20 years. The easement in question passes across a tiny segment of the 5 acres of a single member’s property but they are exceedingly resistant to expanding the margin of the easement though the expansion will be into a completely unused area of their property and out of sight and will fully address their and our membership’s concerns of liability/risk. Given the facts above, within reason, and without damaging in any way the associate member’s property or its value does our Homeowner’s association have a right to demand the expansion of the easement margin? I purchased a narrow lot two houses from my house in 2005. My neighbor whose house next to my narrow lot bought his house in 1998. He constructed sliding iron front gates on track in front of his house sometime after which I am not sure. But it is very likely that was more than 5 years ago. About 8-10 feet of the track is on my property(I have a survey done). Now my question is would it still work if I give notice of permission for him to continue to use it to park his cars in order to prevent a potential claim of prescriptive easement? This family has settled this land 100 years ago. At the turn of the century loggers started this road to reach the top of this ridge which crossed thier land as will as someone elses. When the second generation owner sold 30 acres next to this 500 feet she recorded an easement back in 1968. So that they could still use this pathway. Now the current owner of the 30 acres complained to the forest service and the have recently de-constructed the pathway, and put up concrete barriers. The question is does the national forest have to recognize perscriptive easements? A piece of land I am thinking of buying is land locked but has a deeded Right of way that is 10ft wide and 50 feet long in PA. Can I pave or lay gravel down on this section to help my vehicle get thru. I Live on a Busy Street and my Neighbor with Easement Access Leaves my Gate Unlocked and Open, What can I do? My neighbor wants an easement on my property for his proposed sewer line. We will be selling our property within the next nine months. Are there any legal, physical or real estate sales issues if we grant the easement? What is the value of this easement? I own a building with another company and there is an easement on the property. There is a restrictive covenant which states I am to provide “reasonable permanent access” to this easement. What is meant by reasonable permanent access? The owners of the land over which our easement runs is in the process of having a home built on the second parcel and one of the conditions of their building permit is that they must run sewer lines back to the house (we are on septic) and the only place where the sewer lines can run is up the middle of the 150′ easement road. The builders informed us that when the sewer company puts in the sewer, that we will not have access to our property for three days. The sewer installers have further said that they will not put down the steel plates common to such an installation as the expense is too great. Can the owner of the easement and/or their contractors deny us access during this process? For past few months, My neighbors (12 people) are now constantly using their basement door and my driveway as their main door, even their guest use it as a entrance door even though they have their front door and it is becoming extremely difficult to use my driveway where I park my cars(because of their constant presence, sitting in the driveway, children playing in the driveway etc), when I ask them to stop sitting or playing, they apologize, but keep repeating, them blocking my driveway with their cars is also becoming a problem. How to solve this problem, Is their a legal way? Can I stop them from using my driveway? I live in the state of NY and I have a right of way on a piece of property from 1970. This was used for a turn around and a place for the kids to play. It is 50-100ft, we are at the end of a dead end street. The town just abandoned this piece for a neighbor to have a driveway to get to there new house. Can this be legally done? My right of way was also included with the deed given to the town when they took over the road in 1992. Is a verbal easement legal and binding? We are planning on building a home with our frontage being on a private road that has five homes on it. We have a written easement with our neighbor right across from us. But we have had a verbal easement with our neighbor that sits at the start of the private road for about three years now. Dose a verbal easement eventually become legal or our we going to be having problems? Do we even need a written easement from him with us all ready having a easement to our frontage? We live in a site built condominium association. We share a drainage/walkway easement with our next door neighbors according to our plat map which is what our township considers. A state park trail runs along the east side of our development. We have always invited the homes in the development to access the trail by walking through our yard. A few in the association now want to put a sidewalk through to make the walkway more official. Do we have to go by what the township says about where the easement is or by the Master Deed? Do we have to allow a sidewalk through our yards? Does a Condo Association have the legal right to build a sidewalk on a walk-way easement? An easement was approved by the township to allow residents access to a public walking trail, this easement was defined as a 20ft area between two adjoining lots. Does a Condo Association have the right to make such improvements; even if the owners of the lots do not agree with this (assuming it properly approved by a majority of residents)? I am buying a home on 1.34 acres of land and should be closing on it in about a month. The owner of another acre directly behind my land would like to sell the land to me the land is currently landlocked. What would I have to do to purchase this land? I’m assuming this means that I need to have an easement? If so, is this costly? What is the difference between an easement for INGRESS AND EGRESS (not exclusive) as opposed to an easement “OVER AND ACROSS” lands? The easements run through a gated community to a river. We are not a part of the HOA. WE recently bought a 2nd home on the river. The property has a boat ramp on it. The latest Platte chart, only shows the outline of our property, no indication of a boat ramp. AND there are no easements recorded to date. BUT, everyone allows everyone to share… We’ve asked that they sign a waiver of liability in exchange for permission of using the ramp, since this is our 2nd home and we cannot maintain the ramp non-stop. We’ve been indirectly threatened that an easement by prescription will be placed on our ramp… What are our rights? My husband and I purchased a piece of land 17 years ago which consisted of a working commercial fish hatchery, buildings and 3 homes. There is a piece of property between us and the county road on which we have “a non-exclusive easement for ingress and egress over and under a piece of land 20 feet in width”. We now have a new owner of the property on which we have the easement who is claiming that we don’t have the right to have this business as the easement is for a single family residence access only. Can he stop us from having this business which has been in existence since 2004? I own an undeveloped 5 ac parcel in California. Upon having it surveyed, I learned that my neighbor’s driveway falls as much as 20′ outside of the easement. The easement is 60′ (30′ of which is on my property) for a one lane gravel road. Can I insist the road be moved to regain my property? Is it my responsibility to rebuild it, or the responsibility of the neighbor? I recently purchased 9 acres of land that has an easement attached to it. There is a 40 foot public road easement that was granted back in the 70’s on the property and has never been used. We want to build a new house on the property. The only access is a driveway tile installed right on this 40′ easement. We have been told that if we build there and use this drive as our access we could possibly be sued or the owner of the easement could put a lien on our property. Is this true? If we are not blocking his access in any way, are we not entitled to use this drive to get to our house? My home is landlocked but has a road easement for access purposes. I know want to subdivide the property into 4 parcels. Do I need additional easements for all the new properties? I live in a home with a 20 ft easement driveway from the main road to a semi public lake. Home owners have been granted ingress & egress to the lake. There are 3 houses and 1 duplex on the easement driveway. About 20 years ago the owner of our home built and maintained a dock that sits just off the natural water line of the lake and it meets all state codes and is legally there. We bought the home 7 years ago and we have maintained the dock and keep our boat anchor during the summer. Can the owners of the duplex give their tenants the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Can the tenants of the duplex give anyone (i.e., friends, neighbors, relatives, etc.,) the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Do we have the right to prohibit the tenants from the dock even though we have no paperwork showing ownership of the dock? Can the Board of a HOA enter a private property within the community that happens to have the waterfall circuit board and the sprinkler system control panel located on their property? We can’t find anywhere in the documents or bylaws where the board was given a utility easement or access easement to get to these panels. Do we have a right to enter a backyard to access the control panels without a documented easement? Can this homeowner forbid us access to the panels? My neighbor has planted a hedge that is growing across my property. I asked him to trim it back so it would still look nice, but be on his property. He not only has let it grown further (he claims he’s using the easement, which half happens to be over MY boundary line). He called the police on me, and they said I could be arrested if I touched his plants Why can he cut my bushes on MY property, yet he can continue to encroach on mine? Does he have the right to let his plants grow over the easement that is on my property? We own a property on a private road with 14 homes. We all have septic and wells. We have an irreparable septic problem. We have been denied a permit for a new on-lot septic option. Our neighbors have reported us to county and local government. Thus causing us to enter into the legal system to fight it. We have a developer who is ready to put in a private line to a sewer main. All that we need is for the neighbors to sign giving us an easement to put it in along the private road. They are giving us a hard time about it and will not sign. Is there anyway to force the easement through so that we can fix our problem? There is an access easement on my property so that my neighbor can access his yard (they use my driveway). I am wanting to build a fence on my property line which would cross a small portion at the end of the easement. I would not be hindering his access to his backyard, but he is against my building the fence. Would I legally be able to build the fence as long as I am not keeping him from getting into his backyard (egress and ingress)? We have allowed our neighbors to use the back portion of our yard for almost five years in exchange for the landscaping they did for us. Their house is directly behind ours, and they did not have room for their son and daughter to play. They have paid the water bill, but no insurance, property taxes, mortgage, etc. Do we need to have a formal easement agreement? Can they take over our property and assume ownership after a prescribed length of time? The Dominant tenant has a right to cross my backyard to access her own backyard. The easement is 6 feet wide. Am I allowed to develop this area of land at all (low wood deck, asphalt, concrete etc). I do not intend to impede her access at all. The original property owner gave an easement and “right-of-way for the purpose of ingress & egress and to run with said land and to be transferable therewith; reserving unto the grantor the right to use said road & grant others a like easement and right-of-way.” I am putting an underground sprinkler system in the front yard but the neighbor insists that it will be in the easement area. The sprinkler heads will be flush with the ground and will not impede traffic flow. Is this allowed? There is very little likelihood that the road will ever be paved or taken over by the state. What are my rights? Three homes drive over our properties this easement . On the deed its state non exclusive easement for ingress and egress. I been having a bad time with a neighbor that drives over my land and the neighbors land, his dogs attacked me on my property and I find him. Now he wont stop driving past my house fast and he will come to a complete stop and peel out right in front of my house on this easement road. Is there any law that will help me on private easement roads with endangerment or damages. The dog attack is on record .the police wont touch private roads in Washington state. They told me that he has to go out onto the public road. Is this right? I have speed limit signs and a speed pump on a gravel road which we all agreed on even him, so I want to know what I can do by law to stop him, is this harassment? An easement through an unincorporated HOA community in Yavapai County, AZ allows access through the community to landlocked abutting Property. Easement metes and bounds describe a route somewhat different from existing roads. Owner has unfettered access. Adherence to the described easement would require demo of some existing construction and construction of new roads. What are respective rights of community and easement grantee (Property owner)? For example, does the law allow the Property owner unrestricted rights to treat the route of his described easement however he deems necessary irrespective of the current use of that property? I have recently purchased 20 acres of land in Indiana that was considered landlocked and was given a proper easement to said land for ingress and egress and utilities. The problem we have run into after residing here for 1 year is there is no signage or notification of where our easement begins off of a private drive. Am I allowed to put signage (my family name, private drive, no trespassing, etc…) at the beginning of our easement to recognize what the easements intent is and to deter unwanted traffic? The owner of the land has forbade us to place any signage on their property (our easement) at this time. My house (primary residence) is on a lot without well defined borders to my neighbors. The grassy yard flows right into my neighbor property and there are some trees that act as a division but according to the plot plan my property runs well past them. Her lawn service cleans part of my lot (the part after the trees) and I worried she might think her yard is bigger than it is. How do I make sure after time she does not claim rights to the part of the yard she cleans? I recently purchased property that the driveway goes through my land, and continues to my new neighbors property. The “neighbor” is already giving me a hard time about keeping up with the driveway such as plowing snow up to the end of my property, not just where my family needs to park. She also stated that the “right of way” was in their deed. My deed has no information pertaining to giving them “right of way” through my property. If I have to give them access, shouldn’t it be stated in my deed also? I am wanting to know if we had allowed an easement across our property for another property owner to have access to their property behind us and now they are selling their property and the buyer is an adjoining property owner that will now have access to the property from his own property will be still have to allow access or use of the easement that is running through our property? We have given a 60 foot road easement for the purpose of ingress and egress to an adjacent property which is landlocked. The easement is situated on a steep sand hill which washes out easily. Previous owners have maintained the road and did not destroy the 60 foot easement. The current owner had not maintained the road and now are driving from side to side of the 60 feet to avoid the ruts that they have created. We have placed barriers on the side, leaving the previously maintained road clear. We have been told by one source that we could place gates at each side of the easement as long as we do not lock them without giving the adjacent property owner a key. Do we have the right to do this or do we have to allow these owners to destroy our land. I live in Texas, the property that I bought had an unrecorded easement. I would like to know if it is possible for the people using this easement to legally have the width of it extended from about 12ft. to 20ft.? I have an Easement on my land that specifically states for ingress and egress purpose to a land locked piece of land. The location of the easement lies in an area that one can only access the land locked land by foot. My question is, what can I do and what can I not do with that land that belongs to me? Can I erect a building, On the Easement, that dose not hinder the travel to and from the land locked land or can I not? A Real Estate Developer wants an Easement to my property. The Developer wants an easement to install a sewer line. Since, the Developer stands to gain capital from the installation of the sewer lines. Shouldn’t I be compensated at a commercial rate? Do I have to allow this easement? Two neighbors and I went together and put in a well for the purpose of irrigating our yards. We equally divided the cost of the well, pump, etc. Now the neighbor on whose property the well is located is selling her home. How can my other neighbor and I retain the legal right to use the well after the property is sold? I live in Maine and have house with a deeded right of way through someone’s property to get to my house. My deeded right of way is stated as 50 ft. My driveway is very narrow, only about 8 ft. wide. Could I tar the rest of the 50 ft. if I want? What are my rights? Right across the road from my property are my and one neighbor’s mailboxes. They turn come from their home and turn around in my driveway when they get their mail because it is more convenient for them to do that. Recently, they accused me of some things and I told them to not come on my property anymore. I have a number of questions concerning a private road easement which goes through our property along the floor of a steep valley. A mid portion stretch of the road goes through our property. I would like to access the property at the bottom of the hill for recreational activities and for maintenance (i.e. removing debris that periodically gets washed down, or dead trees that may have fallen). I have verbally asked the neighbors if it was OK for me to use of the road and they have declined. The easement in question was recorded in 1983. This is all news to us. We never were asked or notified. We bought property in 1977 and title search at that time showed no easements. I have a drainage easement (swale)running the back 20 feet of my property. Because of the overwhelming water we have been recieving, the “swale” is causing the water to pond, and as a result, my backyard is collapsing rapidly, and my basement is flooding during heavy rain. I am trying to determined how much to charge for easements that one of my neighbors wants across our property. This is for the purpose of developing his property and he is requesting three separate easements across our property. We share a reciprocal driveway easement with our neighbors, they park on our property and we drive across theirs. The easement documentation provides that we share in the costs of paving the easement. Some of our trees hanging over the area where they park have old, thick branches that could fall and damage their cars. Who is responsible for trimming the trees and keeping them safe? We have painted our remodeled home on three sides and our neighbor is denying us access to use the area beyond the 12 inches (which is on his property) to paint the wall. My neighbor has recently erected a barrier preventing us from driving across that portion of “her” driveway. It’s almost impossible to drive in 1 of 2 cars into the 2 car garage with this barrier. We have the deed and have had our property surveyed which clearly show our property line, however the property line is adjacent to an easement for a driveway. Our neighbor decided to pave the driveway which is on our property. Our deed has nothing in it about an easement being on our property. We were recently sent a letter from the local sewer authority requesting that we sign the attached right-of-way agreement and grant of right-of-way for an existing sewer line on our property for the sum of $1.00. Should we do it? After this new owner had his land surveyed he realized that I, and my neighbor, drove across a ~ 250 sq. ft piece of land in the nethermost corner of his 93 acre holding. This small piece of his adjoining property has been used continuously as a driveway entrance to our properties since their development 40 years ago. We have a 10 foot easement on the back end of our land as likewise do the owners of the field in the back. They would have to cut down 2 30 (foot) trees that are in our yard to do this. They told me at a meeting that if I did not give them the right of this easement through my property that they would condem that part of my yard and use it anyway. Our sewer line goes across our neighbor’s property. It was that way when each of us bought our properties. Now I need to replace the sewer line, and we can’t find any recorded easement. If our neighbor tries to keep us from replacing our sewer line, will we be able to prevail based on a prescriptive easement? In California, who is required to maintain an existing roadway easement across my neighbor’s land that allows access to my house?