Driveway Issue - can I get an easement?

[Chellynyc]

What is the name of your state? New York

I purchased my house about two years ago and at the time my driveway was on my neighbors property by 5 inches. We recently replaced our driveway, went over the existing driveway which means we are 5 inches in their property but that is also how we bought the house. Can I obtain an easement for that five inches since they never contested it until now? What are my rights after paying all this $$ to have this work done?

 

[pauper_72]

By no means...

consider this advice but I want to see if I am close. My guess would be that the old driveway fell under some grandfather clause.

An almost similar situation here was our garage. The old one was too close to the property line. If we tore it down to rebuild / replace we had to leave 51% of the original exterior walls intact or we had to abide by the new building codes which would have required us to move our garage too close to the house.

 

[divgradcurl]

What is the name of your state? New York

I purchased my house about two years ago and at the time my driveway was on my neighbors property by 5 inches. We recently replaced our driveway, went over the existing driveway which means we are 5 inches in their property but that is also how we bought the house. Can I obtain an easement for that five inches since they never contested it until now? What are my rights after paying all this $$ to have this work done?

Does either party have a recent survey? If you knew about the enroachment, why did you replace the driveway with the encroachment?

You either need to see if you can obtain title to the land via adverse possession (look it up, or talk with a lawyer), try and purchase the land (or an easement) from your neighbor, ignore it (and hope your neighbor does as well), or modify your driveway so it is solely on your own property.

 

[divgradcurl]

consider this advice but I want to see if I am close. My guess would be that the old driveway fell under some grandfather clause.

An almost similar situation here was our garage. The old one was too close to the property line. If we tore it down to rebuild / replace we had to leave 51% of the original exterior walls intact or we had to abide by the new building codes which would have required us to move our garage too close to the house.

That has to do with changes in setback requirements, not encroachment.