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Building on Exclusive Easement

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mingbayf

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

Hi, I am a first time homeowner when I purchased my house 4 years ago. Shortly after, my neighbor build a short wall and a concrete pathway over a small strip of a shared front lawn which I have exclusive easement for as prescribed in the CC&R without my permission. What is my legal rights in this situation? Can I order them remove it? If I don't do anything, do I lose the easement because of the "hostile takeover"?

Furthermore, I just received a "Cease and Desist" letter from my neighbor complaining that "extraordinary high amount of water" is being sprayed onto their property and is causing damage. Upon my inspection, the sprinkler is spraying on that new concrete path which was originally a part of my lawn to start with! Any recommendation on how I should reply to this "Cease and Desist" letter? I really need help on this. Thanks a lot.
 


justalayman

Senior Member
so, is it a shared lawn or do you have an exclusive easement.

and just to be sure, you are confident the document state specifically it is an exclusive easement?
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

Hi, I am a first time homeowner when I purchased my house 4 years ago. Shortly after, my neighbor build a short wall and a concrete pathway over a small strip of a shared front lawn which I have exclusive easement for as prescribed in the CC&R without my permission. What is my legal rights in this situation? Can I order them remove it? If I don't do anything, do I lose the easement because of the "hostile takeover"?

Furthermore, I just received a "Cease and Desist" letter from my neighbor complaining that "extraordinary high amount of water" is being sprayed onto their property and is causing damage. Upon my inspection, the sprinkler is spraying on that new concrete path which was originally a part of my lawn to start with! Any recommendation on how I should reply to this "Cease and Desist" letter? I really need help on this. Thanks a lot.
**A: you need to read the actual recorded easement agreement. It may be that the neighbor actually owns the area and the easement is in your favor.
 

mingbayf

Junior Member
It's a strange setup and it's kind of hard to explain without a picture, but I'll try my best here. It's a PUD community and one of the sidewall of the house is basically sitting on the property boundary line. To avoid boundary disputes, the developer came up with the genius idea of offsetting the boundary line about 8 feet away from the house wall so the house wall would be entirely within my lot.

However, that means this 8 feet strip of my lot lies completely within my neighbor's sideyard/backyard. Which the CC&R prescribes "an exclusive easement for the use and enjoyment as a private sideyard area" for my neighbor.

To compensate the strip of the lot that my neighbor lost in their backyard, the property line at the front of the properties is also offset by about 8 feet away from their driveway into my front lawn. So technically, my neighbor does own that 8 feet wide strip of my front lawn, which I have an exclusive easement as prescribed in the CC&R. (There's a graphic in the CC&R which depicts the easements for each property, and "exclusive easement" is the exactly language used in the CC&R).

My question is how can I "use and enjoy" that 8 feet strip of my front lawn when my neighbor removed the grass and build a short wall to separate it from the rest of my front lawn, without my consent. I wouldn't really care about it much had they not complained about the sprinkler is spraying water over this short wall that they build. The sprinkler is doing what it is supposed to do, water the lawn! They were the ones who removed the lawn and made it a concrete path!

If that's not a violation of the CC&R, does that mean I am allowed to build a wall inside of their backyard since I technically own that strip of the land??
 

justalayman

Senior Member
I think I understand the screwed up way the developer fixed his screw up. Instead of adjusting the lot lines, he simply took the areas that would be involved in the adjustment and made exclusive easements out of them, correct?


Technically you do not own the property and the other guy does, and obviously the servient tenant believes he does have a right to use his property. Based on your description, the guy does not have any rights to build within the easement but how you have to enforce it is go to court.

how to reply to the letter?

dig up your proof of your claim, copy it and send it to the guy and also include a demand to remove the improvements he illegally placed within your easement.

Contact your title insurance company and apprise them of the situation and ask them for direction. They will either step up and do something or they will say it is not covered.

just to be sure; you do have an actual boundary survey with some stakes in the ground and all, right? If not, that is where you start.
 

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