My grandparents bought their house over 40 years ago. Probably 30+ years ago, they verbally agreed with the neighbors to share a driveway between their 2 properties. My grandparents have used it as part of their circle drive forever now. The neighbor's house has since been owned by 2 different families over the years, and both have upheld the agreement & had no problems with our family using the driveway. In recent years, we had to move my grandma's mailbox closer to her back door, and the mail truck even uses the circle drive to deliver her mail. The neighbor's house has been vacant and on the market for awhile, not sure how long.
Last month my grandma moved to a retirement community-type place and my brother and his family are going to rent her house. About 3 weeks ago, someone bought the neighbor's house and -- you guessed it -- they're saying we can't use "their" driveway anymore. My brother told him that our family has been using it for close to 40 years, but the guy is being a total jerk. He even threatened to put up a fence.
My grandma (who is 80+ years old) says she thinks she remembers that initially, the driveway was part of our property and we're the ones who said the neighbors could use it. However, in later years, we put up a privacy fence so that the driveway now appears to be on the neighbor's property, and who knows if she'll have any documentation regarding original property lines. I doubt they ever had a formal survey or anything, so who knows? If they don't know for sure where the property lines are, how can they determine property boundaries? I mean, we could start measuring the lot based on the recorded dimensions, but we'd have to have the pins as a starting point, otherwise the dimensions don't matter. But who can afford a survey?
Anyway, assuming it does belong to the neighbors, the short version of a very long question is -- if you've used a portion of someone else's property for over 30 years, you obviously establish a right-of-way easement, however does the easement still apply if someone new purchases the property & says you can't use it anymore?
Thanks!

