Owner's Obligation of Right of Way
My Husband and I bought our house 8 months ago. We own the driveway, but our neighbor has a Right of way to use it.
The previous owner of our house put a drain in the driveway and after several years of people driving over it-it has sunken in. Our neighbor who holds the easement (ROW) as threatened us a couple times to fix it or she'll get her "lawyers to step on" us.
She says the drain is there because her property needs it, but we must pay for all the costs to fix it since it's on our property. We've tried speaking in a civilized manner with her, but she always starts yelling/flipping out/and threatening us. She has even called and yelled about leaves blowing into her yard...
It seems that our only hope is to seek legal representation of our own which I'm currently in process to do.
Has anyone here experienced something similar? Can she legally order us to fix something on our property?
Re: Owner's Obligation of Right of Way
what in the grant of the easement is there concerning the use and maintianance of the easmemnt.
Typically the users of an easement are liable for the costs to maintain it. If it is a jointly used easement, the costs are shared between the users.
Can you simply fill in the drain? If she requires some sort of drainage for her property, unless the original property owner caused the drain to be needed by building the easement, the neighbor may be able to be required to maintian the drain since you have no benefit of it.
Re: Owner's Obligation of Right of Way
Thanks for the response.
Her paying for half of the maint. is what the prior owner of our house had told us. She is now saying that she doesn't have to pay for anything.
It would make sense for her to help with the costs since we recently moved in and no one was living at our house 3 years before us. But the easement document that was included with our deed did not specify.
I'll have to see what I find out from a lawyer.
There was also an incident during the Summer were a vehicle was parked in the driveway (in a section not covered by the easement) and was blocking our usage of it. We could not get out of our own driveway, and when we asked her to please move the car so we could pass she again yelled at us stating that she had legal right to use the drive whenever/however she wanted.
Yet, most ROW (or all?) are intended to be used for passage not parking right?
Re: Owner's Obligation of Right of Way
Quote:
Yet, most ROW (or all?) are intended to be used for passage not parking right?
this becomes something that either the two of you or the courts would end up deciding. Use of the easement is dependant upon the grant itself along with any supporting evidence (by the grantor) to determine the actual accepted use. If the car did not restrict your use of the easement, you might be hard pressed to do too much about it without any direction from the grant or the grantor.
If it did restrict your use of the easement, this would almost assuredly be an improper use of the easement. The problem with this type of thing is that it generally requires a court to make the determionation and to enforce their orders (which you would have to motion for a contmept charge from the courts against the offender). Not a huge priority in the legal world.
what state is this in? laws are state specific and it may be possible for somebody to offer more direction if the state is known.
Re: Owner's Obligation of Right of Way
It sounds like you need an attorney to send her a letter outlining yours/hers responsibilites under state law and advising her not to burden the easement in any way. Also document any threats in the event you need to get a restraining order in the future.
Re: Owner's Obligation of Right of Way
We are in MA.
Our biggest problem with that time she blocked the driveway (besides not being able to get out of the drive) was that the car was parked 50% on the easement, and 50% on our private property. Yet she still went on and on about how she could park there if she wanted.
Re: Owner's Obligation of Right of Way
I hate to involve the police in these matters because they generally simply say "it's a civil matter" and they can't do anything. If the roadway was blocked enough so I could not travel the road, I would have called the police who would have said, "it's a civil matter" but they still would have, more than likely, advised the neighbor that she should move her vehicle.
If it didn't get moved then, I would be calling a tow truck to move it.
If the neighbor does trespass onto you property, it is something the police can deal with but they will claim, " we don't know exactly where the property line is" or something similar. It really ends up with you going to court yourself.
I would take lwpat's suggestion and enlist the assistance of an attorney. Sometimes recieving such a letter is enough to cause the offender to control themselves, at least for awhile.