Neighbors Actually Agree and Like each other.

[hunterridgefarm]

Easement Issue:


Quick History: We own 3-4 parcels of land and decided on the 45 ac tract to build our house on. We liked it because it had lots of road frontage and the river bordered most of the back of the property. We had three tracts of land that bordered us on one side and part of the back corner. The property was divided by a driveway that accessed the neighbor's property behind us and had been there for 75-100 years. No easement or ROW documented.

I made a point to meet this neighbor when I was clearing land for our house 5-6 years ago and we hit it off great. Lots of the same interest and both like the privacy our property offers and both were concerned about each others property being developed.

Jump ahead 5 years and he needs a bank loan to remodel and add on to his house. He came to me and said the bank required a ROW or easement and wanted 30'...? Having a little experience with deeded ROW's I said: " I knew at some point you would need an easement. And we can go about this a couple of ways. We can go to court and you would win since the road has been there so long, but you may not get exactly what you want. We will both spend money unnecessarily and a friendship will be damaged. I will give you a 25 ROW/easement with stipulations."

The reason I could get by with stipulations is his property connects another state maintained road with what can be considered a cart path. But also expensive to cut another road in.

We talk at length about the ROW and my main concern was someone developing his property should he ever sell or lose it. A camp ground was interested in buy my tract and his at one time, also before we purchased our land someone I know was looking to buy it and sell housing lots. He never plans on selling and neither do we but you never know what life we deal you.

The 25' is good enough for the bank but most require at least 30'. The deeded ROW requires that if his property is ever sold, no commercial business can be started as well as housing developments, camp grounds, etc. or the ROW if null and void and a new road must be cut where the property meets the other state road. No changes to the road such as culverts, ditches, etc can be made to the road without written consent from my wife and I or our heirs. This is valid until the year 2100.

I did agree that his 2 sons could build homes on the property without it effecting the easement. And we agreed he can do what is needed to the road.

This was not all one sided as he had input and agreed to this. Both of our attorneys said this was great and they wished more clients would sit down and discuss things like this and put it in writing.

With some of the bad neighbor stories I have read on TBN I thought one where neighbors get along and agree on things would be worth writing about.

 

[dodge man]

Are you kidding me, thats not the way this is suppose to work. First of, he is suppose to hire a surveyor, locate where the road is, and spend a couple of grand on the surveyor. You then come home, find all this flagging up, call him up on the phone and cuss him out. Then you hire a lawyer. He then hires a lawyer, and then after about two years you have a court case. Neither one of you wins really, you both are unhappy with the judges ruling, and you both spent about $15,000 on lawyer fees. Thats the correct way to handle this kind of situation.

All joking aside, I've seen the situation I describe above happen this way on more than one occasion. You handled it the correct way, and saved everyone a bunch of money.

 

[NorTracNY]

Dave is right! What were you thinking??? Are you trying to be "neighborly" or some other old fashioned thing?

Now what are you suppose to do with the money you couldn't give to the courts and your lawyer? You do know lawyer's have families to fee right?

 

[kf4uda]

Sounds like you and he are actually neighbors and not just people that live next to each other:thumbsup:

 

[Jstpssng]

I have to agree with replies # 1&2. WHAT are you thinking?!?! Can you imagine if this caught on? And in an election year no less!!

 

[johnrex62]

You are forgetting the logical extension to this agreement. You two are going to start hanging out and finishing each others sentences, mowing the right of way on alternate weekends for each other and bringing borrowed tools back cleaned and polished! This is just the start of a bromance. :laughing:

 

[etcallhome]

Gee ,,,treat someone the way you want to be treated !! That's great ,but like the others said ,remember this is election year , and if this would catch on ,you could set our country back 30-40 yrs where a hand shake or a verbal agreement ment something.

 

[DT86]

:thumbsup: I wish I had neighbors like either one of you!

 

[cqaigy2]

That's great having neighbors like that. We are pretty fortunate as well and have pretty decent neighbors.

I've live where immediate neighbors were not so good, one was a complete wack job and the other was an "Adam Henry". They used to scream at each other when they had the chance and at us if the other neighbor wasn't available.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Yes, I know this was not the way it should have been handled:laughing:

And to top it off I had my attorney look over the ROW as I had written what I wanted in it. This was after his attorney had reworded what I wrote (you know all these legal words). He offered to pay for my attorney fee but I refused. And to top it off my attorney decided not to charge me:confused3: :thumbsup:. Of course he is running for an elected office and I have a prime lot that he want to put a big sign on...:laughing:

I do all I can, within reason, to help my neighbors, give them free produce, till a little garden spot, plow snow, and all offer to pay me. But I tell them the way I grew up neighbors helped neighbors.


But even though this ROW worked out good, I did have about 3 aces in my pocket that I could play if it went south.

 

[LD1]

Great story:thumbsup:

 

[dmccarty]

U B So Lucky. :laughing:

Glad it turned out good for a change.

Later,
Dan

 

[Tig]

Good story. Good nieghbours are important.

 

[riptides]

Good story, thanks for sharing.

 

[lilranch2001]

Yes, I know this was not the way it should have been handled:laughing:

And to top it off I had my attorney look over the ROW as I had written what I wanted in it. This was after his attorney had reworded what I wrote (you know all these legal words). He offered to pay for my attorney fee but I refused. And to top it off my attorney decided not to charge me:confused3: :thumbsup:. Of course he is running for an elected office and I have a prime lot that he want to put a big sign on...:laughing:

I do all I can, within reason, to help my neighbors, give them free produce, till a little garden spot, plow snow, and all offer to pay me. But I tell them the way I grew up neighbors helped neighbors.


But even though this ROW worked out good, I did have about 3 aces in my pocket that I could play if it went south.

Although never to this extent, this is how our little neck of the woods lives life.
We all get along and help each other out.
It just makes sense, and makes life just a little simpler.

 

[PineRidge]

You guys are so lucky to have neighbors that you can actually talk to. :thumbsup:

Since we are talking about neighbors here's my story. Once upon a time I could actually talk to mine, well 12 years ago anyway.

Seems a local HVAC co had installed a high tech propane furnace for the neighbor and several years later it started intermittently refusing to heat. Switching the power off and on reset the furnace and got it back online. He finally got fed up with the original installing co. and asked if the HVAC co that I worked with (family owned business) would look at and repair the problem.

I explained that intermittent problems were the hardest to get under control but agreed to send out a tech to have a look. Several trips later we were finally able to determine that the furnace had a motherboard problem. It wasn't obvious at 1st but finally gave us the clue that we needed to diagnose and pinpoint. I talked my supplier into exchanging the PC board for free even though the furnace was well out of warranty. The boards retail value at the time was $475. And when all was said and done our company charged him $200. total for the labor bill.

Guess he figured the techs all worked for free, the trucks were all paid for, we had no overhead whatsoever, gasoline was free, and we didn't need profit to stay in business cause he hasn't said a word to me or the wife since.

On the other hand he did pay the $200. and I have had 12+ years of silence, so maybe I should count my blessings. :laughing: