Shared Roads and other issues.

[Jimbrown]

I do not know the answer to the rights of the easment owner but I have a similar situation where a neighbor used a very old easement to cross my land. there is nothing about who maintains it. It simply says he right of ingress and egress. My position is that yes he has the right to drive across it but not to improve it or maintain it in any mannor. If he don't like the ruts holes whatever build his own road on his own property. So far he has not challanged this. I am pretty sure that in this county I would win.

 

[MarkV]

I do not know the answer to the rights of the easment owner but I have a similar situation where a neighbor used a very old easement to cross my land. there is nothing about who maintains it. It simply says he right of ingress and egress. My position is that yes he has the right to drive across it but not to improve it or maintain it in any mannor. If he don't like the ruts holes whatever build his own road on his own property. So far he has not challanged this. I am pretty sure that in this county I would win.

Jim, I suspect that the person with the easement would have a pretty strong argument against your position if it ever came to that. His easement gives him the right to ingress and egress across your property as long as he stays with in the confines of the easement. Now if the road were to deteriorate to the point of impassable and he were not allowed to repair it his easement rights would be violated. Many easements’ provide the only possible access to a person’s property without the option of putting a new road in solely on their property. I don’t believe you could eliminate someone access to their property by telling them they could not maintain their easement.

The other side of the coin is that unless it is written into the easement agreement the land owner has no responsibility to maintain an easement for someone. If the power company has an easement to run lines across your property they can not make you cut the trees and mow the easement but you can not tell them they can’t as long as they are within the confines of the easement.

MarkV

 

[pappy19]

MarkV is correct on every count.