Neighbor Claiming Prescriptive Easement?

[MossRoad]

So, to our OPs specific case;
Step 1; check public works website, property appraiser, and call public works, and see if the "easement" might be a road. You mentioned signage, so... all this costs nothing, and makes no enemies. You can also likely get a copy of his deed for free online too. It's possible his deed includes something. Also his deed or your parent parcel might have something about access, easements, or water/grazing rights?
Step 2; assuming you find nothing that leads you to believe it's a road, an existing easement of his property, ect, you can get a fairly "cheap" consultation with a land attorney.
Step 3; no trespassing signs, no through traffic, ect;
Step 4; have an attorney send a cease and desist letter
Step 5; physical barrier at his property line

I dont know that #4/5 are worth it. Step 1 and 3 cost nothing, and aren't an "escalation"

From the OP's description, he cannot put a physical barrier at his property line, as three other people have the right to use it.

 

[MossRoad]

I think it's something like this... the OP should let me know if it's incorrect and I'll remove it.

- OP has driveway out to road.

- Three neighbors behind the guy with attitude have agreed upon easement access to the OP's driveway via the purple road.

- Guy with attitude has access to the road as well, but wants to access the purple road to get to the OP's driveway as a secondary access from his property.

- The question is, can the guy with attitude use the OP's driveway legally with no recorded deaded access, easement, etc...?

 

[paulsharvey]

"The question is, can the guy with attitude use the OP's driveway legally with no recorded deaded access, easement, etc...?"

Possibly. Here is a basemap example from somewhere in Achulata County, Colorado. You see where there Is a Road Right of Way, and between the properties, but you also see the road is Not located in that ROW, if you are the guy with the road cutting across your property, you are likely just SOL. The county is not going to relocate the road back to their ROW, if they Pave this road, they will do a taking based on maintenance. They most likely will not need to pay the owner either.

Land law is complicated; things line easements more so.

A Common issue in FLa, state, county, or business has a drainage easement going to a water body (could be a creek, lake, river). So, let's say it says, and is recorded, 30 ft drainage and maintenance easement extending north from the northern ROW line to discharge point 150 ft north. Ok, as happens the lake drops a couple hundred feet. That easement will still extend to the water body, regardless of if that is 400 ft away now.

Properties are frequently broken up, combined, broken again, adjusted, ect; and often old easements kinda get lost. So, you combine prop A, B, C, and D, and there is an easement through property C, I have seen were that gets lost, until someone digs through paperwork from 1939. Doesn't matter that its not shown on the deed, if the easement holder still had evidence, the 7th owner of ABCD still has an easement across it, and the original easement holder isn't going to pay anything for that. That does Not mean that the 7th owner of ABCD can't go after his title insurance, If he can show lose.

For a 20 ft (or 30/40 ft) easement on a 200 acre property, that hugs the property line, and already has multiple other easements, I dont think it's worth the fight.

But, to the original OP, and including some of Pinions other posts, you don't need to (and should not) feel obligated to maintain that "tee" off your drive for this guy, or any of the others.

 

[paulsharvey]

This is a rough sketch of our new property. The "road" with a name (white sign, green letters) is a 33 ft easement for general access of all properties, from each side (66 ft total), there are two utility easements also, for aerial power. The homes to the east, there is evidence of a former disturb, ie, they are in the process of building fences facing my new property, and the owner I bought from had blocked the utility easement with power poles towards that cluster of 3 homes.

The "road" easement is generic (and includes acces and utility), anyone can use that easement, no just property owners, it is not county ROW. The one crossing the property and the one at the back are exclusive utility easements to my co-op power company. Most rural properties will have some easements on them.

Also, people are people. If they can drive down a power line to shave distance or time, they will, regardless of legal access. Also, if you backed upto a 200 acre, unoccupied property, if the owner is foreign (more than 1h30m away), most people are going to view that as open access for hunting, riding, whatever. I feel "distructive" activity is a bit different, such as timber theft, trash dumping, ect; but for many people, it's the same thing.

I'm not trying to justify it, but that's how uncontrolled properties work. It's always rough turning uncontrolled properties into controlled.

 

[paulsharvey]

The drawing didn't upload

 

[paulsharvey]

My understanding here, the County no longer allows new access easements servicing more than 2 homes. They have had so much trouble, and now, for 3 homes or more, it's a subdivision, and needs to have platted roads (even if private, community, whatever).

Most of the old roads in the eastern US started basically this same way, a 25-33 ft easement between properties, until the local government took it as Right of Way.


I'll also give the county/public works perspective; sooner or later, on an easement servicing multiple homes, someone is going to need rescued, trees down, major erosion, school bus stuff, ect, and they are pretty much forced by public pressure to take action. It's easier and cleaner to have it a platted road.

Note/question; on your map, where are the mail boxes? Down at the paved road, or on the interior "T"? If at the individual homes or at the "T" I could easily see a judge saying a "resonable" person could assume this to be public access.

 

[ponytug]

My understanding here, the County no longer allows new access easements servicing more than 2 homes. They have had so much trouble, and now, for 3 homes or more, it's a subdivision, and needs to have platted roads (even if private, community, whatever).

Most of the old roads in the eastern US started basically this same way, a 25-33 ft easement between properties, until the local government took it as Right of Way.


I'll also give the county/public works perspective; sooner or later, on an easement servicing multiple homes, someone is going to need rescued, trees down, major erosion, school bus stuff, ect, and they are pretty much forced by public pressure to take action. It's easier and cleaner to have it a platted road.

Note/question; on your map, where are the mail boxes? Down at the paved road, or on the interior "T"? If at the individual homes or at the "T" I could easily see a judge saying a "resonable" person could assume this to be public access.

Here, I believe that if two properties share an access, the access must be maintained and sized to county standards if it is the primary access. The requirement put us off more than a few potential land purchases, but with threads like these one, one can see where the requirement might come from, beyond just fire access. There's a property near here that due to the required length or grade issues, would need a multimillion dollar access road that rather limits the value of the property. Nobody has built on it, yet, though I am sure it is only a question of time.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ning]

"The question is, can the guy with attitude use the OP's driveway legally with no recorded deaded access, easement, etc...?"

Possibly. Here is a basemap example from somewhere in Achulata County, Colorado. You see where there Is a Road Right of Way, and between the properties, but you also see the road is Not located in that ROW, if you are the guy with the road cutting across your property, you are likely just SOL. The county is not going to relocate the road back to their ROW, if they Pave this road, they will do a taking based on maintenance. They most likely will not need to pay the owner either.

Land law is complicated; things line easements more so.

A Common issue in FLa, state, county, or business has a drainage easement going to a water body (could be a creek, lake, river). So, let's say it says, and is recorded, 30 ft drainage and maintenance easement extending north from the northern ROW line to discharge point 150 ft north. Ok, as happens the lake drops a couple hundred feet. That easement will still extend to the water body, regardless of if that is 400 ft away now.

Properties are frequently broken up, combined, broken again, adjusted, ect; and often old easements kinda get lost. So, you combine prop A, B, C, and D, and there is an easement through property C, I have seen were that gets lost, until someone digs through paperwork from 1939. Doesn't matter that its not shown on the deed, if the easement holder still had evidence, the 7th owner of ABCD still has an easement across it, and the original easement holder isn't going to pay anything for that. That does Not mean that the 7th owner of ABCD can't go after his title insurance, If he can show lose.

For a 20 ft (or 30/40 ft) easement on a 200 acre property, that hugs the property line, and already has multiple other easements, I dont think it's worth the fight.

But, to the original OP, and including some of Pinions other posts, you don't need to (and should not) feel obligated to maintain that "tee" off your drive for this guy, or any of the others. View attachment 1903177

Unless you know more than what the map shows - realize that property boundaries shown on these sort of maps (my experience is with Google maps) often are off by a significant amount. Don't assume that what apple/google show on the map for the boundary is even within 10-15' of correct.

 

[paulsharvey]

Unless you know more than what the map shows - realize that property boundaries shown on these sort of maps (my experience is with Google maps) often are off by a significant amount. Don't assume that what apple/google show on the map for the boundary is even within 10-15' of correct.

You are right, However, when I worked for Marion County, we had a county road (dirt) that had shifted about 60 ft over around 100 years (in the town of Dunellon FLa). When we paved it (I was the inspector) we paved in In Place. We didn't realign it with platts, or property corners. Our ROW folks got an order of taking by maintenance, and it's ours. Now, if the affected former owners wanted, they could petition for the former ROW to be abandoned.

I have also been sent to pull 1899 platts, looking for state right of way info, and in the end, the surveyor and maintenance engineer meet onsite, and "if we mow it, it's our ROW, unless you can find definitive proof otherwise".

So, yes, property appraiser maps (were Huntwise, Basemap, Onyx, Landglide, pull their info from), absolutely can have line shift; roads also move. People round corners, and those get repaired, and eventually paved, and become part of the ROW. I even know of a current "dispute" were a drainage ditch was granted to the state, by a Navy base captain in 1942 (it even says his name on the easement map), but then the navy sold the base to a city, and the dispute boils down to, did a naval captain have the authority to grant federal land to a state... At the same time. the state has used the drainage easement since 1942...

Throw riparean rights, free range, common law, mineral rights, plain old survey errors, ect and this stuff is not for amateurs. When you think you have seen it all, you'll find the King of Spain granted the bed of a river to some dude in 1550, and it's still private ownership....

Still, before our OP goes nuts, he needs to see what info is available freely; then he can make an informed decision on what to do (or not do) next.

 

[paulsharvey]

Heck, I got sent once because a "gentleman" had put a locked gate and chain across a dirt, 2 track county road. He was trying to claim it as part of some ancestral Indian lands or some other BS. That was one where you walk out carefully, and let management know. Let their cops, lawyers, and right of way agents deal with Indians and "sovereign citizens"