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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2011
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    638

    Default Re: Is It Possible to Restrict an Existing Easement Due to Abuse of It

    FYI, here's what it looks like now.

    The magenta arrow shows a steep bank from a part of our lawn down to the water.
    The blue lines are the maintenance road. It is side sloped to the downhill for drainage.
    The red arrow is the steep support bank for the road and ditch.
    The yellow arrow is my new access drive which the District has apparently decided is theirs. It leads onto the larger area where I had dirt removed, and everything was graded.

    This picture can't show how steep it is. I'd just like you to see how much work I had done, terracing all of this back. Even the paved road is pretty steep. Only the home and lawn areas have been made fairly level. Any mud placed anywhere will flow downhill.



    Quote Quoting jk
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    well, nothing you have presented here even suggests this. If you have information supporting such a claim, it could change everything. I can only go on what I'm given.
    Sorry, I should have spelled that out better earlier. Yes, the easement states that they will (and they did) build the bridge so that the land owner could cross the ditch. How's the landowner to cross if he can't use the road?

    No, you do not own the road. You own the dirt under it. They own the road and from what you have posted, have no duty to maintain it or to make it usable for others.
    Well, that would be for the court to decide. The District has a limited easement on land that I own. There can be no mistaking that the road is for the joint use of the District and the landowner.

    there is your posting here. You claim this has been happening for 75 years. Sure sounds like an adverse possession to me (although I have not looked up the other requirements of such in Oregon)
    Clear and convincing, what is the width? What is the description, for ten years? The courts start out by disfavoring easements by prescription. That's where they start. Any adverse claim must be clear and convincing, and show the place and the amount of land. Time isn't enough although it is an element. The exact spot is also a requirement. One must be able to write a legal description of it, and prove it for ten consecutive years.

    sometimes frustration clouds the mind.
    It did. It really did, and I thank you. My goal is to convince them that they can't use my new driveway, nor can they use that lower piece as a staging area. They also can't dump mud on the road because gravity will pull it down the support bank and out onto my lower property.

    then it would appear court is in your future.
    Yep. Thanks again.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Ohio
    Posts
    2,592

    Default Re: Is It Possible to Restrict an Existing Easement Due to Abuse of It

    For starters, I'm just going to say that we have a couple of experienced posters on this board in this thread.

    I think that a lot of the legal stuff has been adequately addressed, so I'm only going to bring up some other issues. I'm not intending to intrude on any of that.

    For starters, the OP has not gone to elected representatives as far as we know. Any "district" under the drainage laws are also subject, somewhere, to elected representatives. I'm not getting any sense that the appeal to the elected representatives has been tried.

    I am also puzzled by the fact that the OP disputed the right of the "District" and it did not immediately retreat to higher management for further advice. The point is that in my experience, once a dispute is initiated, most organizations require as a matter of policy, to pull off of a job and let someone beyond the pickup truck to do the next negotiations.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Posts
    638

    Default Re: Is It Possible to Restrict an Existing Easement Due to Abuse of It

    Quote Quoting LandSurveyor
    View Post
    For starters, I'm just going to say that we have a couple of experienced posters on this board in this thread.

    I think that a lot of the legal stuff has been adequately addressed, so I'm only going to bring up some other issues. I'm not intending to intrude on any of that.

    For starters, the OP has not gone to elected representatives as far as we know. Any "district" under the drainage laws are also subject, somewhere, to elected representatives. I'm not getting any sense that the appeal to the elected representatives has been tried.

    I am also puzzled by the fact that the OP disputed the right of the "District" and it did not immediately retreat to higher management for further advice. The point is that in my experience, once a dispute is initiated, most organizations require as a matter of policy, to pull off of a job and let someone beyond the pickup truck to do the next negotiations.
    Very good points. Thank you.

    When I first cleaned up the property, I sent the manager of the District a registered letter stating that I had done it, that their usage had been returned to 30', how much I spent, etc. I explained that any more dumping would run downhill and be a criminal trespass and that I was asking them never to do it again. I got no reply, but they've never done it again. As perhaps you can see, I keep the ditch clean of blackberries etc. and so far their excavator has just driven on the road past the end of my property and then begun to clean. It's really the money I spent, and my concern for the future over what they do to everyone else and what they did to my property which concerns me, especially since they didn't answer me.

    The other concern is their use of my "new" facility below as a staging area for equipment. When I go down there and politely, and I mean politely, tell the workers they can't park there, they argue with me. They tell me they have an easement and can do anything they want. I've had no luck trying to tell them that their easement is only 30' wide, and I've had no response from the District.

    I hope I'm not coming across as a crank. I just want the road and bank neat - which I took care of - and drivable. I also don't want more mud running out of the 30' and beginning to trash the bank and the area outside the 30' again.

    I also don't want them using the lower drive or land because when it's wet, they leave messy ruts and other tracks in it and then I have to take my tractor down there and smooth it out.

    I suppose if they answer to someone it would either be the state, which might be the public utilities commissioner? I do know that their trucks have public license plates on them. The District must be "quasi-governmental." Our public plates on all city, county and state rigs are easy to spot.

    I suppose if they answer to someone in the county, it would be the three county commissioners.

    I'll look into it. I know the state PUC was awesome in helping with the power company when we built this house. The power company had a ridiculous idea of how to mess things up bringing in power and I had a better idea. The PUC forced the power company to do it the best way - the way I wanted it - nice and simple.

    Thanks for the tips. I'll get on it.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Ohio
    Posts
    2,592

    Default Re: Is It Possible to Restrict an Existing Easement Due to Abuse of It

    When I first cleaned up the property, I sent the manager of the District a registered letter stating that I had done it, that their usage had been returned to 30', how much I spent, etc. I explained that any more dumping would run downhill and be a criminal trespass and that I was asking them never to do it again. I got no reply,
    That's all good to know. It would have been better to post it up in the first thread so no one has to go asking for it. We are here trying to help you and to the extent that important facts are withheld, we can't provide that help.

    I hope I'm not coming across as a crank. I just want the road and bank neat - which I took care of - and drivable. I also don't want more mud running out of the 30' and beginning to trash the bank and the area outside the 30' again.
    I don't think that you are a crank at all.


    I suppose if they answer to someone in the county, it would be the three county commissioners.
    That is where I would start with the complaints. I think that you have some legitimate complaints.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Posts
    638

    Default Re: Is It Possible to Restrict an Existing Easement Due to Abuse of It

    Quote Quoting LandSurveyor
    View Post
    That's all good to know. It would have been better to post it up in the first thread so no one has to go asking for it. We are here trying to help you and to the extent that important facts are withheld, we can't provide that help.
    Sorry about that. When I first posted, I was pretty upset. I had some trucks down there yesterday and they blew me off. I couldn't even think "injunctive relief," LOL.

    I don't think that you are a crank at all.

    That is where I would start with the complaints. I think that you have some legitimate complaints.
    Thanks. I will. Part of me wants to go ahead and file for injunctive relief, attaching pictures of the mess they've made of neighbors' properties and then my property, and the proof of money I spent as exhibits, and then put the ball in their court. I suspect they'd be required by rules to give that to county counsel and commissioners or someone, and I would get a response. I suspect then they'd talk to me with more urgency?

    I do want to get along with everyone, but it takes two.

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