Easement legality

[sharpstick]

Florida:
We are purchasing a lot with a house on it.
There appears to be some controversy about the legal easement(ingress and egress rights) for the property. This property is pretty much at the end of the road. We have spoken to the owner directly to the south, and he says that he and several other property owners to the south do not want to allow access to the road because it runs through their lots. (not near their houses enough to be a problem, imho)
That owner is also near the end of the road and he and one other owner next to me have been using it for several years. He claims that the easement was forfeit because the previous tenants moved out about eight years ago(health reasons) and the vacancy makes the easement rights no longer legal. I find it hard to believe that an existing house can lose its easement rights just because of a temporary vacancy.
The house we are buying is older than any of the others, built in 1979. The access road is a dirt trail that crosses about 6 or 7 other lots.
The listing agent and some lawyers claim that the easement is legal.
We're waiting for the agent and a lawyer who has been involved to resolve this, but I have been unable to find anything on my own about this temporary vacancy issue.

 

[Zigner]

Florida:
We are purchasing a lot with a house on it.
There appears to be some controversy about the legal easement(ingress and egress rights) for the property. This property is pretty much at the end of the road. We have spoken to the owner directly to the south, and he says that he and several other property owners to the south do not want to allow access to the road because it runs through their lots. (not near their houses enough to be a problem, imho)
That owner is also near the end of the road and he and one other owner next to me have been using it for several years. He claims that the easement was forfeit because the previous tenants moved out about eight years ago(health reasons) and the vacancy makes the easement rights no longer legal. I find it hard to believe that an existing house can lose its easement rights just because of a temporary vacancy.
The house we are buying is older than any of the others, built in 1979. The access road is a dirt trail that crosses about 6 or 7 other lots.
The listing agent and some lawyers claim that the easement is legal.
We're waiting for the agent and a lawyer who has been involved to resolve this, but I have been unable to find anything on my own about this temporary vacancy issue.

How do you figure that 8 years is a "temporary vacancy"?

 

[sharpstick]

How do you figure that 8 years is a "temporary vacancy"?

I assumed that stating the actual time frame would qualify my "temporary" comment. Now that you have asked, and I have attempted to answer(exactly what kind of answer would be helpful?), does it matter, is there a certain length of time that is temporary, legally speaking?
Should I just leave out the "temporary" part in my post? Apparently it was a subjective, anecdotal comment that had no importance.

 

[drewguy]

If the easement is properly recorded it does not disappear simply because of non-use. It is possible to show "abandonment" of an easement, but generally that requires some affirmative act beyond non-use. For example, if non-use had been coupled with construction of a new driveway, that might be an affirmative act.

2 thoughts:

1) Make sure the seller gives you confidence that the easement is properly recorded and continues to be valid.

2) You might ask them to pay for you to hire a lawyer to obtain an advisory opinion on abandonment of easements under Florida law.

 

[FarmerJ]

Search your homes records & the records for the other homes along this so called easement area at the county recorder and learn if there is a recorded easement and exactly what it says. If there is a valid easement that also does not have a end date or any other conditions where it would have expired then get a copies of it then send it to the neighbors via certified mail and ask them to highlight the wording that list what conditions in writting allowed it to expire or its expiration date and get back to you in the next week. Other wise you expect to be able to use it as it was granted.