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Neighbors and boundaries

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cktoer

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? When I bought my house 24 years ago, it was discovered that I own the 9 feet of my neighbors driveway. I signed an easement giving them permission to use the driveway as a driveway and to stay 5 feet away from my house since the cement driveway is the only thing separating our houses. Since then, the property has been sold to new people and my situation has changed. I want to tear down my house and put up another one. Is there a way to do away with the easement and take control of all of my lot?
 


justalayman

Senior Member
first, why does everybody ignore the question:

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
so, to your problem:

what was the verbiage used to list who the easement was granted to?

Did it include something such as:

to Mr Jones, his assigns and heirs
 

154NH773

Senior Member
As justalayman said, it depends on the wording of the original easement grant. If it was just to the previous owner, that would be an "easement in gross", which could potentially be extinguished by you alone.
If the wording simply grants the easement to the other property or as was stated above "to the heirs and assigns", then the easement is appurtanent to the other property regardless of who owns it, and the only way to extinguish it is by mutual agreement of both parties. If that's the case, maybe you can buy them out and extinguish it.
 

drewguy

Member
And was it in fact a recorded easement or merely a permission letter?

If you recorded an easement against your property that cannot be extinguished unilaterally, you likely will have to pay the neighbor to buy your way out of it.
 

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