Neighbor Claiming Prescriptive Easement?

[CloverKnollFarms]

Yeap, never buying a property with an easement for other owners to access.

What a recipe for headaches.

 

[Sigarms]

Yes and no. There is a bunch of Common Law around easements, in the absence of explicit agreements.

In a nut shell, the person who uses the easement has the right to maintain it for the allowed use, and also carries the obligation to maintain it to the extent they wish to use it. So if a tree falls across the easement, the person using the easement has to clear it if they wish to use the easement, not the land owner. The land owner can clear it too if they wish, but they don't have any obligation to do it.

The person who's property is encumbered by the easement retains full rights to the easement land, however they are prohibited from interfering with the other party using the easement. So the land owner can use and maintain the land however they wish, as long as it doesn't block the easement.

Thus, other than a utilities company that has to access your land to do maintenance on their "product" (which anyone is subject to to owning land), when you buy a property, don't let anyone else (private party) access to your land because at the end of the day, if it's not a headache now, sooner or later it it will become a headache.

I thought the OP mentioned that they bought 200 acres in Colorado, With that much land, I would just give 20 or so acres to anyone who has/had access to that land and build a new driveway.

End of the day, probably cheaper than getting lawyers involved.

If I'm spending money on 200 acres, I want to own ALL the land and no access for at least 3 other people to access my land.

ANYTIME the question of an easement comes up here on this forum, end of the day, DON'T have one because if someone (private party) has a legal right to access your land, you're asking for a can of worms to be open up, and you'll be here asking what to to (no offense to the OP, just being honest IMO).

If you agreed to more than a couple of people using your access road, the gates are open for someone who may not of been on the paperwork and uses that same road for access.

This same advice I would give long after I die.

 

[DarkBlack]

I’ll add, the OP stated 3 “houses” have a legal easement to use his road. I’m guessing it’s 3 documented properties, which means it’s not just 3 other guys, but their wives, their sons, daughters, parents, friends…. And the different vehicles they may drive.
That’s a lot of different vehicles that I believe can rightfully use the easement. Not sure what good will come from singling out this one neighbor who appears to be only using a small part of it closest to the main road.I totally understand doing it for the principal, but will it really benefit you?

 

[dodge man]

I’ve done quite a a few surveys where easements for access were involved. Most of the time people got along. I’ve also been involved in a couple that had long drawn out battles. In one case I suspect many thousands of dollars were involved in lawyer fees. One guy kept appealing when he lost. He also got arrested when he cut the other guys hand.

 

[Sigarms]

I’ve done quite a a few surveys where easements for access were involved. Most of the time people got along.

I get along very well with my neighbors.

A couple have told me that they don't want us to move, but they understand why we would want to downsize.

You can get along with someone your entire life, and once people change in the mix as to who you and they are dealing with, ALL bets are off on how well you will get along with "new" people thrown into the mix per a new relationship.

End of the day, it's only a matter of time before you get a real butthole to deal with...

 

[lman]

My neighbor has about 2 acres on my side of a creek and he has no real access to it so I maintain it by mowing a lane and cleaning up downed limbs. Somebody marked some large walnut trees this spring on that property. My wife was not happy because we suspected he was going to cut and drag the trees out of there and we had been maintaining it for 25 years. I talked to him and offered to buy the property. He agreed to sell the property and after about a 6 month process of surveying and approval of the split by the county a quit claim deed was completed. The neighbor then said that he was going to sell and the transfer would be done at the time his property sold. He recently said that sale fell through. I am now waiting for him and his bank to remove that property from his mortgage lien.
I didn't know it was going to take a year to complete this process for property in a flood plain that can't be built on.
I guess the good thing is that nobody cut the trees down on my side and tore up the land like they did on the other side of the creek.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I had an interesting case. Bought property a couple years back with a private driveway. Deeded access to use the road, based on a ROW wider than the actual road. When I had contractor putting in driveway where my property touches the road, the neighbor objected.
Now I had already talked to that neighbor months earlier, told him my plans, with no objections.
He wanted an easement. I said no, my property joins the deeded access road. He’s claiming by his survey there was a foot of his land between the edge of road (not edge of ROW) and the line. His survey did not include survey of the road, but only has property line bearings. The road was penciled in using angled lines to approximately show the curvature of the road. My survey shows same thing.
In actuality, when you look from point a to point b down the line, the road crosses onto my property, and the ROW width is further on my property.

About that time, once I started moving dirt, the neighbor on the other side of me gave me an unsolicited offer to buy my land. He told me the day I bought it he wanted it, but didn’t have the money then. It was a good enough offer that I accepted it.

I decided I didn’t want to build next to the a hole who couldn’t see in a straight line, and I would have had to get a lawyer and surveyor involved. Objecting Neighbor told me he wasn’t paying for a surveyor, and I told him I was entering the deeded access road from my property.

Just not worth the hassle, there are other nice properties.

 

[dodge man]

As a surveyor we had to be neutral, it didn’t matter who hired us, we had to come up with the same result. I did often mentally take a side though because I often saw a person who was being difficult with a neighbor.

You also have to realize lawyers are not that way. They are your advocate and will take your case even if you have a lousy case as long as they get paid.

 

[paulsharvey]

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"

 

[paulsharvey]

If all of these properties came from the same parent parcel, even if it was 150 years ago, it might have included in the subdivision, something about cross access.