Can They Force Use of Road

[Peery]

I live in Virginia. Over the past several months, we have been in dispute with the owners of an adjacent parcel of land over a driveway going over our land into the adjacent property. Sometime in the 1960's my grandfather gave the landowner at that time an 18 foot right of way into his property. It was specifically granted to the landowner and his wife for their personal and exclusive use for as long as they owned the land and then was to terminate. After my grandfather died, my grandmother gave the property to her children. My father received the property that the right of way went across. When my grandmother made the deed, she mentioned the right of way that was used by the neighbors and again stated the size, 18ft, and the fact that it was for use by the landowner and his wife as long as they owned the land and then terminated. The neighbor and his wife both were dead by 2002. My father gave verbal permission for the neighbors children to continue using the road as long as they owned the land. My father died in 2004 and my sisters and I inherited the land. In late 2006, we were approached about buying the land from the neighbors, we made an offer, which was denied. After finding out that the land was being marketed, we approached the heirs of the neighboring land and told them expliciably that the road was to be used by their family for access to the home and was not to be used for marketing the property for sale. We did this so as to not imply to any potential buyers that the purchase of the land included the use of this road. The land is not land locked as we have pulled chain of title to the neighboring property and there is at least one and more likely 2 deeded rights of way out to other public roads. These outs have not been used for many years but indeed exist through deeds. After asking the neighbors to stop using the road for marketing the property and their refusal to do so, we blocked the road in April of 2007. The property sold in May, 2007 and now on June 25th, we received a summons to court regarding their contention that they have a prescriptive right of way. Our thinking is that this was a permissive use road, that technically ended when the original property owners died or at the very least when their heirs sold the land. Our stance is that we had every right to close the road when the property changed hands and that the new property owners have no permissive use, or prescriptive rights since the right of passage was permissive and exclusive to one party, with termination by express terms (death of original landowner/sale of property). What do you think?

[lwpat]

Its not important what anyone on this board thinks. What has your attorney told you? If the situation is as described, I think you have a strong case.

[Peery]

We finallly saw an attorney today who said that the deed made by my grandmother to my father was ambiguious. He said that the terminology included language indicating a easment and also read as if it were a license of sorts. Either way it clearly is specific in its use and duartion being specific for the current landowner as long as they owned the land and then it was to terminate. We retained the lawyer and an injunction is scheduled for July 3. The attorney said that it could go either way because the judge could say that since the road had been used for such a long time that he would let them continue to use it. He said he would have to look at some cases similar in nature if possible to get a better feel. I personally think it would set bad precedent to give someone right of way over another land owner when the land was not landlocked and the road was never used by adverse posession. I think the new owners feel as though we are the path of least resistence in getting access to their new aquisition. Thank you for responding.

[WootonBooton]

Does anyone know the outcome of this case? What did the judge rule. I am aware that it is an old posting. If there is a newer posting of this problem please advise.