Permissive use of Land

[curiousinnc]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? North Carolina

In 2002 I bought a church that had been closed down. After moving here, we found out that a neighbor above us (which in not landlocked and has a completely different easement off of another persons property on their deed) had been using the back of our property to get to their land above us. Their perpetual easement given to them on their deed was never established so we gave them permission (because they are family) to use our property to get to theirs in the agreement that they would eventually use the easement given to them on their deed. We started with 3 vehicles and that had family as visitors and now 95% of the traffic and wear and tear is theirs and they tried to get logging trucks up through but we threw a fit because they caved our water easement in because the truck was bigger and wider than the drive. We tried discussing that the traffic had gotten to be a bit too much and that we didn't like the fact that cars were hanging around just sitting in the middle of the roads because we don't know who they are or what they are doing there and they just snickered at us. Ever since then everybody that uses my property to get to theirs snubs my husband and I if we wave at them. They think that because they have driven on it longer than we have lived there that they have more rights to it than we do. They are treating it like it is a public road. If it wasn't for letting them use our property their wouldn't even be a lane there for anyone to travel because the easement on my deed stops and turns into the beginning of my property and we would have used it for our driveway. My question is this, if you give someone permission to use your property to get to their home, do they have the right to invite anybody to cross your property without consulting with us? As a landowner, legally who has the say so to who is going to cross my property with permission?

 

[154NH773]

It's time to rescind the permission you granted to them. Have a letter prepared by a lawyer notifying them that after a certain date they will no longer be allowed to use path. Give them a reasonable deadline to establish the new access and then block the road.
It is your property and you pay the taxes. You determine who can use it.

You may get comments about adverse possession, but they would have to take you to court to prove such a claim, which is probably unlikely.

 

[latigo]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? North Carolina

In 2002 I bought a church that had been closed down. After moving here, we found out that a neighbor above us (which in not landlocked and has a completely different easement off of another persons property on their deed) had been using the back of our property to get to their land above us. Their perpetual easement given to them on their deed was never established so we gave them permission (because they are family) to use our property to get to theirs in the agreement that they would eventually use the easement given to them on their deed. We started with 3 vehicles and that had family as visitors and now 95% of the traffic and wear and tear is theirs and they tried to get logging trucks up through but we threw a fit because they caved our water easement in because the truck was bigger and wider than the drive. We tried discussing that the traffic had gotten to be a bit too much and that we didn't like the fact that cars were hanging around just sitting in the middle of the roads because we don't know who they are or what they are doing there and they just snickered at us. Ever since then everybody that uses my property to get to theirs snubs my husband and I if we wave at them. They think that because they have driven on it longer than we have lived there that they have more rights to it than we do. They are treating it like it is a public road. If it wasn't for letting them use our property their wouldn't even be a lane there for anyone to travel because the easement on my deed stops and turns into the beginning of my property and we would have used it for our driveway. My question is this, if you give someone permission to use your property to get to their home, do they have the right to invite anybody to cross your property without consulting with us? As a landowner, legally who has the say so to who is going to cross my property with permission?

Just so you are not confused about the likelihood of neighbor acquiring the right to the use of your land upon a claim of "adverse possession".

First of all such a claim would not lie under the theory of adverse possession. Among other missing elements of the cause of action, they are not in possession. Nor would it be adverse due to the fact that it has been a permissive use.

Under other circumstances the neighbor might claim a right-of-way or easement by prescriptive use, but again to prevail it would need to be shown that the use was without your consent.

Do as earlier suggested. Revoke the permission and if needed, physically obstruct further unwanted passage over your land.

 

[curiousinnc]

Thank you for responding...we do plan on revoking the permission at some point. My concern at the moment is that they are fighting to keep themselves out of foreclosure at this point so it is unlikely that they will be able to establish and make another route for some time...I know we can't stop them from getting to their property since their driveway was established from our property and not the right of way they were granted on their deed. My concern at this time is trying to figure out if our giving them permission to get to their house entitles them to the right to invite others to use or cross our property without our consent or permission. The logging people even argued with us about how they had a right to get to their property because they were made to believe it was a documented right of way until we showed them our deed that shows no right of way or easement was granted to them and we showed them the county satellite image for our property that shows that the right of way on our deed ends at the beginning of our property and it also shows that no easement is highlighted for getting to their property. I have security issues that have already been raised with the neighbors but they really don't care about our concerns. My husband is a maximum security guard at the prison who works with people who get paroled and can very easily find out where he lives and our 16 year old son was murdered by a man that lives very close to us. He will be getting out of prison in about 2 years so the comings and goings of all this traffic and cars sitting around in the drives when we don't know who they are or what they are doing is a great concern to us...Is it possible to put time limits on the non-resident traffic that comes through such as 9 am to 5 pm? Just a thought, really don't know if it's possible. Anyway, because we gave them permission, does it entitle them to give everyone else permission to cross our property without consent or permission?

 

[FarmerJ]

if they may be facing foreclosure so what, either they will have the funds to stop it or they wont, as far as forcing them to deal with any possible expenses they might have to take on to use the other way into this this property again , SO what. Get the letter done and sent out to them via a couple methods first one being certified mail then maybe the second one what the post office calls mail tracking or say fed ex just have some spacing between them. As far as inmates your husband could have a 100 mile each way commute and if one of them wanted to cause him harm then I dont think it matters where he lives. traffic limits , at this point dont you think attempting to limit the neighbors traffic really would do any good? I dont since according to your words it appears they do not care what you may have to say about it. (so you may want to add a sign at the end of your driveway saying `no logging access permitted` then once you have blocked further access by this rear property `no trespassing-keep out ` under it. then plan for fencing in your property. This way you can raise dobies or rotties if you want.