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Private road and abuse of "easement"

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Siouxzan

Junior Member
WA State

Part of my property is a 30ft wide private road, approximately 500ft long, that connects with a county road. Two neighbors live along this private road and use it to access their driveways. Our house was built in 1971 and there exists nowhere in writing that the neighbors have easement rights, but we have let them use it freely.

One of these neighbors, whose property starts where our private road intersects with the county road, has become increasingly aggressive in harassing my family, particularly my young son who waits for the bus, often in the dark, at the end of the road. He has also claimed a 10ft wide strip running the entire length of our road, adjacent to his property, as his own and has planted grass on it. The access to his driveway is right at the intersection with the county road and, although he has no reason to be milling around up at our end, he has taken to driving up to the end (to our house) several times a day and doing burnouts in the gravel and on the grass.

In addition to this, before this man became senile and just generally nasty, we had discussed with him on several occasions his lack of any upkeep on the portion of the road he uses. He has never once agreed to either lift a finger to help with the upkeep or chip in for the routine maintenance. I was told by an attorney that he is legally obligated to do so but I don't know what the legal precedence is for this. While the other neighbor, like ourselves, work to keep the road in good condition, this individual has let the section in front of his house become rutted, muddy, and heavily pot-holed. I became stubborn and stopped doing the upkeep on that portion a few years ago since he would not agree to help. Now the reasonable neighbor, my family, and visitors all have to deal with driving through a very unpleasant section of road to access our properties.

Between the relentless harassment (the Snohomish County Sherriff's department will not respond to such problems and are notorious for this), the refusal to respect our property boundaries, and the refusal to help maintain the road, I am wondering where his actual easement rights, if any, fall. Does he by definition have easement rights, even though they exist nowhere in writing, because he has used the property for so long to access his driveway? If we are proactive can we forbid him from using our road at all (and perhaps fence it off, forcing him to either commit vandalism, which I have little doubt he will do, or cut his own road to his driveway off the county road)?

Thanks so much for any help/advice!
 


xylene

Senior Member
Perhaps if you had not let this situation fester since 1971 the rights and responsibilities would be clearer?

Now you have a mess. You need a lawyer and given the situation there will be court (or at least the threat of it) to create a binding agreement for joint maintenance.

Stop being stubborn, it is not helping your case.
 

FarmerJ

Senior Member
Get a boundry survey done and have permanent markers put in like pipes beat down into the ground so even if they are cut off they can be found with metal detector. THEN go to the trouble of putting in a security camera and record his activity that occurs on your property that is up by your house. Call your county /city and learn what would be involved with any property on the county road that wanted to have its own driveway. (if it is relatively easy or not) Your nieghbor unfortunately for you has been able to use your driveway entrance to get to his own property for such a long time now that its fair odds that the court would see it as a prescriptive easement. I think its time for you to talk to a real estate atty about what might happen if you deny him access , The atty can advise you on your odds of forcing him to get his own driveway if the process is a easy one, or just what your options might be . After this mess is all settled maybe it would be a good idea to get a written easement and maint agreement set up with the other home who uses this so that way if either of you sell there would be no problem for the one remaining. Some nieghbors in your spot may be willing to do the right thing but future owners may not be so willing.
 

Siouxzan

Junior Member
Thank you, FarmerJ

Dear FarmerJ,

I appreciate your input. My spouse and I continue to reflect on the idea of blocking access and it's really not our style. This individual suddenly turned on us like a switch recently and we are torn between being angry with his behavior, especially since we and our young children and wife feel constantly threatened (from him standing naked with a gun in his window while we're at the bus stop and destroying our property in the middle of the night, for example), and continuing to be empathetic towards his mental condition. We will continue to try and work with his family, but they are distant and not real sympathetic (although recognize the problem exists).

As per your advice, I will see what I can do through an attorney. We're broke and I was hoping to get some ideas here first. I am curious though, is it true that, as a real estate attorney told me in passing, if he wants to claim any easement rights he's legally obligated to contribute to road maintenance?

As an aside, one of today's adventures was a visit from the Health Department. He complained that we are pumping our septic onto his property. They recognized it as total fiction. I'm hoping this will help our case in the end.

Thanks again,
Siouxan
 

TransPlanNH

Junior Member
Put up a sign

Your crazy neighbor has absolutely no right to use the road down to your house. He probably has earned prescriptive rights to use the portion of road from his corner lot onto the private road in order to access the public road. However, it is almost certain that he has no use for driving from his house down to yours, and probably has not been doing it since 1971. As such, he does not have a right to use your property. If your road is part of an older road though, it could be different.

I would talk to the other (second) neighbor, and then put up a no-trespassing sign at the road just pass the crazy guy's house. Then if he comes down the road, he is trespassing. Check your local laws. Usually that's some type of misdemeanor, Police are typically not fond of getting into boundary disputes, but perhaps you could go the route of contacting your local town government talking to them and seeing if they can get to police to cooperate.

Otherwise just maintain the road and ignore the nut.
 

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