Private access easement

[pastorkev]

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

I am a pastor of a church in Hamilton County Tennessee. We own 19 acres of property that is divided by a private access easement. This easement runs through our two plots 13 acres being on one side of the easement and 6 being on the other. The easement leads to four houses behind our property and these homes are concealed behind a large tree line that borders the back of our property. The church has experienced growth and we are about to build a new building. The issue is that we wanted to use the paved easement that belongs to the homeowner to be an exit on Sundays after church. Additionally we are concerned that this 50 foot private access easement will make it impossible to access our other 6 acres because there is no alternate entrance or road to that 6 acre track. Do we have any recourse for entrance into that 6 acre track and how should we go about trying to tie into the existing easement for exit purposes on Sunday?

[drewguy]

It's your property. All the easement does is ensure that the owners of those 4 houses can also use your stretch of property for access, unless there's some exclusive use term in the easement. That said, if they have been paying to maintain the easement and you now place lots of traffic on it, they may reasonably expect you to contribute to the maintenance of the easement if there isn't a specific requirement one way or the other.

I don't understand how you would lose access to the other 6 acres--go across the easement. Just don't build a road on the easement that doesn't have a curb cut or something to allow vehicles to cross it.

If what exists is not an easement but rather a separate plot of land owned by the 4 houses, so it's their property not yours, you will have to negotiate with them for a right to use it, either by easement on their property or through some sort of lease. Of course there may be other ways to accomplish this, such as agreeing to maintain it at church expense in exchange for use.