Removing a Easement

[Margeret59]

have land with a easement for my Neighbor to use my septic and drain filled and I can use there weal for water they don’t want to help pay for Maintenance on the septic and they moved and we had to pay for the water pump to be Connected to our power to have water then they moved back in 3 months later can I have the easement took off and just get my own weal and block them from the septic This property is in Virginia

[budwad]

Are these easements express grants in your and your neighbor's deeds? You would first have to see what the grants say about maintenance of the septic system and the well to know for sure what responsibility each of you have to maintain each of the easements. And you would also need to know if these easements are appurtenant or in gross.

An appurtenant easement runs with the land no matter who owns it and an in gross easement is for a specific person or for a specific period of time.

Your neighbor has an easement to use your septic system. That makes you the servient estate and your neighbor is the dominant estate. If the grant doesn't address maintenance of easement or the system itself then the dominant would likely be responsible or it could be shared.

You have an easement to use your neighbor's well. In this case you are the dominant estate and your neighbor is the servient estate. The same situation (above) applies based on the express grant as to who is responsible to maintain the easement and the well.

You cannot remove an easement appurtenant under an express grant unless a court orders it for abandonment of the easement or both the servient and dominant estates agree to end it in a written document that is recorded.

The simple non-use of an easement does not establish abandonment. The dominant estate must take affirmative action to establish abandonment. If, for example, you were to drill your own well and stop using the neighbor's well or your neighbor installed their own septic system. Each of those actions would establish abandonment. But it would still take a court to order that the easement was abandoned.

Since you are now paying for the electricity for the well pump, you need to talk to a local attorney about how to proceed so that you don't end up paying for something the grant didn't require to pay.