Road Has Slid Over the Property Line

I am building a house in a subdivision where the road leading up to my house has slid to the south over the top of lot 18. The sewer line man hole that I have to tie into is in the road but outside of the recorded road easement. The road is no longer within the boundaries of the plotted easement. The city has no problem with me running a sewer line down the road. When the sewer line is completed I will be giving it to the city and then other people in the neighborhood may tie into the sewer.

Do I have to get an easement from the owner of lot 18 to run my sewer line down the middle of the road?

Can I get some clarity? You say the road has "slid"...is this a gravel or unpaved road? Depending on how the easement was recorded, the easement may have moved with the road because it may read as an offset to the "center line" of road.

However, if the road is in fact running along a portion of Lot 18, you will definitely need an easement.

the road slid? Wow! Where do you live? California on one of the fault lines?
How much movement are we talking about?

I would think the integrity of the sewer line may have been compromised. In fact, any underground utility may be damaged.



Since property lines are located from datum points and not from a referenced landmark, the owner of lot 18 still owns his lot regardless of where the road is now.

I think the owner of lot 18 needs to make a demand the road be moved back where it belongs so this will be a moot point. Barring that, the governing authority cannot give you permission to run a sewer line outside of their easement so I would urge Mr. Lot 18 be consulted before taking any action.

Thanks for the feedback. A water line broke up above lot 18 back in the 1970’s that caused the hill to slide. The road slide over 30 feet. It is a gravel road and used by the rest of the people in the subdivision every day.

so, what does Mr. lot 18 say about the road on his property?

It sounds like whomever is in charge of maintaining the infrastructure for the area is a bit derelict in their responsibilities.

Mr. Lot 18 wants me to take out a bond guaranteeing that no harm will ever come to his property as a result of putting in the sewer line.

At least he didn't say no!!:p

Ha, ha! An eternal optimist.

I went down to the court house to try and research how the road easement was worded. However, I was not able to find my way through the maze of information. Do you think it would be worth my while to hire a title company to find the easement?

is the road actually an easement? that would be a bit unusual. More often the road is owned by the municipality. I usually ask the municipality that owns the road for their legal description. Often it is simply as described on a plat map of the area.

or is this something less than an municipally owned road?

If it is via easements, it would be due to an easement on the underlying land so look at the filings for the underlying property.

The road is owned by the city. This subdivision is built on an ancient landslide. When landslides move they will counter rotate. I believe this is what happened. Should I file a prescriptive easement or try and get the city to do it?