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“My neighbor has an ingress and egress easement through my property. Can I have the neighbor sign a liability waiver? The reason being is that I have livestock (Goats and Llamas) and she wants to use the easement with her small children who are 4 and 8 years old. I’m concerned that if they don’t shut the gate properly and the goats get out in which they could cause a car accident or I get a ticket from the city. I’m also concerned that male goats can get randy or territorial in which they may injure someone in the party.
Would it be possible to have waiver written up to protect myself in California?”Can you HAVE your neighbor sign a waiver? Sure. Can you FORCE her to do so? Probably not.
Question: I’m assuming that the easement is not positioned such that you could fence it off, and make your livestock a non-issue. Obviously, that would be an easy solution.Short of that, you’re in a fairly uncertain place, legally. Your neighbor has an easement for ingress and egress-that is, getting into and out of her own property. Assuming the document that created the easement doesn’t say anything more on the subject-and you should always check the document first-the law is simply that you may use your property in any way that doesn’t interfere with your neighbor’s use of her easement.
So, suppose she does leave the fence open and one of your goats gets out and causes an accident. Would that be her responsibility? Maybe.Is having livestock an interference with her use of the easement, or is it a reasonable use of the remainder of your property? I could imagine a court deciding either way on that one.
Answer:
Perhaps a good beginning would be to sit down with your neighbor to work out some rules for use of the easement. Neither of you wants to have to make that homeowner’s insurance claim because a llama damaged someone’s truck.
