What Makes a Right of Way Legal

[erik123]

My question involves an easement in the state of:MD Good Morning, My question is about a very vague R/W that appears on the deed pertaining to a parcel of land we are buying. Our land has a panhandle strip of land connecting us 1200' to the road...our lot was subdivided from the front 15ac in 1989. There is also a 15 ac lot behind us (unrelated to our lot)

The right of way 1st appeared on the deed for the front lot and our lot before they were subdivided in 1967. It states "Subject to however, a right of way 75' wide, to be used in common with others entitled thereto,along the southeast side of the 1st 2nd and 3rd lines of the herein described property. This verbiage still exists on the deed for the front lot but on the deed to our lot it is not on anymore.

The back 15ac lot had no record of a r/w until the current owner bought it in 1998. when he bought it the R/W "magically" appeared on his deed. Its also HANDWRITTEN on his plat. We have had a title search that found NO recorded r/w agreement.

We are about to settle on the property and spend 100,000$(long story) putting in a driveway and stream crossing on our strip of land fee paid simple but within the marked 75' r/w but we are concerned that once we do so the owner of the back lot will claim use of our drive and then sell the lot because it will be worth alot more and then someone can build on it.

We have consulted a local law firm and are waiting the results from their research, but I was interested in the thoughts of this forum. Thanks in advance for your time and expertise.

[Newtons_Apple]

Will the back lot be landlocked if it is found that the ROW does not benefit it? Does the back lot have any other access? Also, out of which parent parcel was the back lot cut from?

If it is found that the back lot was cut out from your parcel or a parent of your parcel, then the back lot will have a good chance of benefitting from the ROW.

Those are my thoughts based on what I can gather from your post.

[erik123]

Thanks for the quick reply. I was able to trace all the deeds back to a master parcel of 110 acres in 1965. When ours was split in 1965 the right of way started for us. It wasn't until the back lot was sold in 1998 that they inserted themselves into our r/w. The bordering farmer who owns a huge parcel also owns the 15 AC back lot. He could gain access through his property (even though he owns both they are separate deeds)

I guess he could have a case for r/w by necessity because otherwise he would technically be landlocked. Does the r/w even have validity because its missing from our deed and on top of that was never recorded as an agreement? But can someone just declare a right to use a r/w? And if we build the driveway and stream crossing does that entitle him to use? Thanks so much! I will be sure to update thread when our local lawyer has some info

[LandSurveyor]

Subject to however, a right of way 75' wide, to be used in common with others entitled thereto,along the southeast side of the 1st 2nd and 3rd lines of the herein described property.

A deeded private right of way serves a particular named parcel or parcels. The key is figuring out which parcels are intended to be served by the description. As there are evidently more documents relating to this question, those documents will need to be evaluated for an opinion about the parcels served.

This verbiage still exists on the deed for the front lot but on the deed to our lot it is not on anymore.

Once a valid ROW is created it does not need to be specifically recited in each following deed. Generally, it will continue as a heritable right until abandoned, surrendered, or merged.