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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2016
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    Default Can You Put a Gate on an Easement if the Dominant Estate Owner Objects

    My question involves personal property located in the State of: Ohio

    My driveway is a easement for ingress and egress, it states on the deeds. We put up a gate and gave the neighbor a key as to not restrict his access to his property (mind you, the property that he bought a few years ago was landlocked and is no longer landlocked.) Meaning he has access to his this property from his property. As to not restrict HIS access we handed him a key and told him we put a gate up for our protection. These days who can you trust? When I gave him the key, he said it was against the law to restrict his access to his property. I gave him a key. He said his lawyer would be in contact with us. I am sure that I will get a threatening letter from his lawyer telling me it is against the law to block access of an easement. Our driveway is a private drive that dead ends and goes no where. Do I need to get a deck action and take this to court and have the deeds rewritten to exclude this clause in the deeds? Is it my right as a property owner to put a gate as long as I give him a key to the gate. And do I have to give his family that does NOT live with him a key to access the easement? Thanks in advance!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
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    7,056

    Default Re: Gates on Easements

    Your neighbor will likely find out when he speaks to his attorney that there is nothing in the law that would prevent you from putting up a security gate as long as the neighbor has access through the gate. Putting up the gate and giving him a key to the lock does not create an undue impediment to his access to the easement.

    Wait and see if you get something from his attorney.

    You will not be able to extinguish the easement by going to court if it was granted in the deeds and is appurtenant unless the neighbor abandons it and that is not likely to happen with his property otherwise landlocked.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
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    16,474

    Default Re: Gates on Easements

    Quote Quoting budwad
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    Your neighbor will likely find out when he speaks to his attorney that there is nothing in the law that would prevent you from putting up a security gate as long as the neighbor has access through the gate. Putting up the gate and giving him a key to the lock does not create an undue impediment to his access to the easement.

    Wait and see if you get something from his attorney.

    You will not be able to extinguish the easement by going to court if it was granted in the deeds and is appurtenant unless the neighbor abandons it and that is not likely to happen with his property otherwise landlocked.
    I am pretty certain that this person has already posted this situation, in detail, from the perspective of the other person.

    Party house, rented on the weekends only. Has its own private drive access from the main road. The owner of the party house doesn't want service vehicles on his private driveway so he wants them to use the easement that otherwise, would not be used (he doesn't want the extra wear and tear on his driveway). His party house has caused problems for the neighbors of the party house and therefore they put up a gate to help keep the partiers away. Owner objects to the gate because his service people cannot use the easement, because of course they do not have keys.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Gates on Easements

    Quote Quoting llworking
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    I am pretty certain that this person has already posted this situation, in detail, from the perspective of the other person.

    Party house, rented on the weekends only. Has its own private drive access from the main road. The owner of the party house doesn't want service vehicles on his private driveway so he wants them to use the easement that otherwise, would not be used (he doesn't want the extra wear and tear on his driveway). His party house has caused problems for the neighbors of the party house and therefore they put up a gate to help keep the partiers away. Owner objects to the gate because his service people cannot use the easement, because of course they do not have keys.
    Though it sounded familiar. Imagine that, both sides finding the same forum!

  5. #5
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    Default Re: Can You Put a Gate on an Easement if the Dominant Estate Owner Objects

    The question of whether the easement can be gated at all is a question that must first be addressed by looking at the granting language of the right-of-way. Sometimes a grant will specifically permit or specifically forbid a gate; in many situations the grant will be silent, in which case it becomes necessary to analyze whether or not the gate and lock would constitute an undue or unreasonable interference with the dominant estate's use of the easement.

    Further, the analysis will turn on the facts and it is not a given that a particular gate (let alone a locked gate) will be deemed permissible. When a gate is allowed, a remote controlled gate to which the dominant estate is issued a remote control is most likely to be deemed reasonable, while a heavy, difficult to use gate with a lock that must be manually removed before somebody can drive through then reapplied after they pass the gate is quite potentially an unreasonable burden. There's also the question of whether or not you can require the dominant estate to either close the gate or lock it -- they may be within their rights to leave it unlocked and wide open, and there would be no inherent restriction on their distributing keys to whomever they chose. Further, you have to ensure that the gate and lock are consistent with local zoning requirements and rules for access by emergency vehicles.

    I'm not clear as to why you believe you would be able to have a court rewrite the grant of an easement through a declaratory action. You can expect that the court will seek to enforce your respective rights under the easement, as granted.

    Quote Quoting CenTex71
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    Though it sounded familiar. Imagine that, both sides finding the same forum!
    The "party house" is in Texas, so it's probably not the neighbor involved in this Ohio dispute.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2016
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    2

    Default Re: Gates on Easements

    No, I have never posted anything on here before and my neighbors are sold old that they probably have dial up if any internet at all. There is no party house. It is me, trying to live my life and have no worries about people coming down my private drive at all hours of the night when the road leads to no where. There is no weekend rental house on this dead end road. Please do not assume that I am someone else. I just found this website today. And today was my first question!!!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
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    16,474

    Default Re: Gates on Easements

    Quote Quoting MonicaG220
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    No, I have never posted anything on here before and my neighbors are sold old that they probably have dial up if any internet at all. There is no party house. It is me, trying to live my life and have no worries about people coming down my private drive at all hours of the night when the road leads to no where. There is no weekend rental house on this dead end road. Please do not assume that I am someone else. I just found this website today. And today was my first question!!!
    Ok, then you might want to explain it a bit better. If the road leads to no where, then what kind of property needs to access it?...and why would their family even want to access it?

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
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    672

    Default Re: Gates on Easements

    I admit I'm confused. Can you post the actual language of the easement? If your "driveway is a easement for ingress and egress", but is a dead end, what are they accessing? Is your driveway on a portion of their easement, and exactly how is that easement defined? Is the person using the driveway one of the very old people? Is he using it at all hours of the day and night, meaning many trips per day, throughout the day and night?

    Without knowing what is actually allowed, it's tough to find you answers. Maybe his lawyer will contact you, and you will have a better idea what you're facing...

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