Private Road easement not being granted w/o stipulation of granting an easement back

[Minnesota17]

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

I am in the process of purchasing a lake lot which is only accessible via a private road. An easement is needed (to use the road) by a few neighbors to gain access to the lot (something that was not done prior to putting this lot on the market), but one neighbor (across the street from the lot) is asking for a 10 foot easement to gain access to the lake in exchange for granting the road easement. As the lot is long and narrow (barely enough room on either end of the lot for the 10 foot easement) I do not want to grant this easement to the neighbor. (I am perfectly happy allowing them to walk down to the lake if they want to with permission though.) If the neighbor decides to not grant a road easement to the lot I am trying to purchase, what advice do people have as to my next steps?

Thanks!

 

[FarmerJ]

how did others in the past access this lot ? who created the lot ? Reason I asked that is say if this lot was part of a larger one and the person who is selling it still owns the land next to it did not provide access to it then You may want to see if your county ( county the land is in ) has any ordinances addressing private road issues When you made your offer did you make it contingent upon access issues being settled ? ( wondering if you may find it cheaper to back out of the deal) The neighbor wanting access to the lake thru what would be your property and this lot as you said is already narrow ( you said >but one neighbor (across the street from the lot) did you mean that there is a private road that is on his land ? (does anyone else use that private road ? sort of wondering if this might be more hassle for you than its worth ? Id really like to know how it is that the seller managed to own it and not have access settled , anywho its nearly nap time since I have work tonight LOL.

 

[Minnesota17]

how did others in the past access this lot ? who created the lot ? Reason I asked that is say if this lot was part of a larger one and the person who is selling it still owns the land next to it did not provide access to it then You may want to see if your county ( county the land is in ) has any ordinances addressing private road issues When you made your offer did you make it contingent upon access issues being settled ? ( wondering if you may find it cheaper to back out of the deal) The neighbor wanting access to the lake thru what would be your property and this lot as you said is already narrow ( you said >but one neighbor (across the street from the lot) did you mean that there is a private road that is on his land ? (does anyone else use that private road ? sort of wondering if this might be more hassle for you than its worth ? Id really like to know how it is that the seller managed to own it and not have access settled , anywho its nearly nap time since I have work tonight LOL.

This lot was split off from an adjacent, larger lot which already had a home on it. I do not know what easements are in place for this adjacent lot to access their property/driveway via the private road. All of the roads around the area are private and not city owned/maintained. As for what contingencies we made when we put in the offer for this lot, we did not know that there was not public access to the lot (no legal easements). It was only because a neighbor who had purchased a different lot a couple years ago called the seller's realtor to make them aware of the necessary easements they had to get to access their lot. Our Title company/Mortgage company will not allow us to purchase the land without first having legal access to the property. So, the past few weeks the Seller's realtor has been trying to get easements signed by the neighbors in order to legally sell the lot to me. So we are now at a point where one particular neighbor is asking for an easement through our property (to the lake) in exchange for granting an easement on the dirt/private road that all the other neighbors use (including the neighbor who bought a lot in the area a couple years ago). There is no road or path of any kind on the lot I am trying to purchase that leads to the lake. Thank you for reading and asking questions.

 

[LdiJ]

This lot was split off from an adjacent, larger lot which already had a home on it. I do not know what easements are in place for this adjacent lot to access their property/driveway via the private road. All of the roads around the area are private and not city owned/maintained. As for what contingencies we made when we put in the offer for this lot, we did not know that there was not public access to the lot (no legal easements). It was only because a neighbor who had purchased a different lot a couple years ago called the seller's realtor to make them aware of the necessary easements they had to get to access their lot. Our Title company/Mortgage company will not allow us to purchase the land without first having legal access to the property. So, the past few weeks the Seller's realtor has been trying to get easements signed by the neighbors in order to legally sell the lot to me. So we are now at a point where one particular neighbor is asking for an easement through our property (to the lake) in exchange for granting an easement on the dirt/private road that all the other neighbors use (including the neighbor who bought a lot in the area a couple years ago). There is no road or path of any kind on the lot I am trying to purchase that leads to the lake. Thank you for reading and asking questions.

You are probably going to have to walk away from the purchase if you cannot get the easement. Why can't the seller grant an easement through their lot to the person who wants lake access?

 

[FarmerJ]

So does the county this is in require the seller to provide access or not ? SO does the seller use the same private road that you would and does the language of the easement allow for expanded use ?

 

[Minnesota17]

You are probably going to have to walk away from the purchase if you cannot get the easement. Why can't the seller grant an easement through their lot to the person who wants lake access?

The seller could grant the easement since they still own the property, but since I am trying to purchase this land (small lot) they are leaving that decision up to me. I do not want to give a legal easement to the neighbor.

 

[Minnesota17]

So does the county this is in require the seller to provide access or not ? SO does the seller use the same private road that you would and does the language of the easement allow for expanded use ?

Yes, the county does require the seller to provide access to the lot. That is why they are having the easements (for road use) written up. The seller does use the same private road. I'm not sure what easement you are referring to when you ask about how the language is written.

In general, I am trying understand what options I may have if the neighbor (Neighbor#1) that wants lake access will not budge on granting me an easement (to a road that has been in place for 50+ years) in the same fashion that they granted to an adjacent neighbor (Neighbor#2) only ~2 years ago. Do I have any legal grounds to obtain the same type of easement this other neighbor (Neighbor#2) was granted?

 

[LdiJ]

The seller could grant the easement since they still own the property, but since I am trying to purchase this land (small lot) they are leaving that decision up to me. I do not want to give a legal easement to the neighbor.

You misunderstood me. You said that the lot you wish to buy was divided from a larger lot owned by the seller. Why cannot the seller grant an easement to the lake from the lot they are NOT selling?

 

[Minnesota17]

You misunderstood me. You said that the lot you wish to buy was divided from a larger lot owned by the seller. Why cannot the seller grant an easement to the lake from the lot they are NOT selling?

Ah, I understand now. I do not know what the relationships are between these 2 neighbors, but I believe granting an easement to the lake from the seller's lot (not the one being sold) is not an option.

 

[LdiJ]

Ah, I understand now. I do not know what the relationships are between these 2 neighbors, but I believe granting an easement to the lake from the seller's lot (not the one being sold) is not an option.

Not physically an option or not something they want to do? If they want to sell the lot badly enough its worth exploring as an alternative to you having to grant an easement.

 

[Minnesota17]

Not physically an option or not something they want to do? If they want to sell the lot badly enough its worth exploring as an alternative to you having to grant an easement.

I think it may not physically be an option as well as something they don't want to do. And to be honest I'm not sure if the seller is who owns the current lot that was divided...I believe it might be the son of the seller.

 

[FarmerJ]

Although its possible to buy land that has no access if the person who is now selling this lot was the person to divide the lot they cannot fairly landlock this lot ( wouldn't matter if they were selling to someone who already has property that shares a property line with it, No buyer of that lot has to agree to grant that one neighbor who has NO shoreline access a easement to the lake. But I suggest you speak to a real estate Attorney who can give you more advice as to your options if you go thru with the sale. ( one time I had just a question to ask of the recorders desk in Kanebec county government center and the two clerks rolled eyes , raised eyebrows as they said `buying with out your own access is such a hassle, and we cant help you if you have problems with your easement` It was related to a property that I was trying to learn more information about ) If the seller has a adjacent property and will not provide access / easement then Id say to let this become someone elses hassle.

 

[154NH773]

I agree with farmerj that you should not have to give an easement to the lake in order to gain access to your property, and I wouldn't do it.
That being said, this is a problem that should be settled BEFORE you purchase the property.
There are too many possibilities and variables to give you good advice and I agree you should consult a local attorney.
If there is a prohibition against selling landlocked property, and this property was subdivided from the one next to it, how did it get approval? This may be an illegal subdivision, but only an investigation into local and state regulations, and deed searches will be able to resolve these issues.
If you can't get it settled before closing, my recommendation would be to walk away.

 

[Minnesota17]

I agree with farmerj that you should not have to give an easement to the lake in order to gain access to your property, and I wouldn't do it.
That being said, this is a problem that should be settled BEFORE you purchase the property.
There are too many possibilities and variables to give you good advice and I agree you should consult a local attorney.
If there is a prohibition against selling landlocked property, and this property was subdivided from the one next to it, how did it get approval? This may be an illegal subdivision, but only an investigation into local and state regulations, and deed searches will be able to resolve these issues.
If you can't get it settled before closing, my recommendation would be to walk away.

Thank you! I will probably be retaining an attorney to look into this matter. Everybody is in agreement (the seller, the buyer (me), and the neighbor(s)) that this title issue should have been take care of before this lot was put up for sale. How this property was subdivided is unknown to me, but I'm sure legality of it will be discovered soon.

I have no other option than to resolve this issue as the bank will not loan me money without having legal access granted to this property.

To your knowledge, if the private road in question was a creation of undocumented/verbal agreements of neighbors to access subdivided lots, are their any options to gain access to this land without explicit permission from the neighbor? This neighbor granted an easement (for private road usage) only a year ago to an adjacent neighbor, but did not put any conditions on that easement. This road is used by the whole neighborhood and already has utility easements from the city for water and electric. It's not like the easement granted to the neighbor last year, and what I am asking for, will cause any additional strain on his property (other than the traffic my wife an I would put on the road).

 

[FarmerJ]

The things that hit me when im tired LOL SO there also is no so called maintenance agreement or anything written that addresses the maintenance of this private road ? Im wondering if you can find out how many other parcels are using that road and DO not have written easements ? Would your usage add a burden on to the road, hard to say , are garbage trucks already going down it ? do school buses already use it ? Have you gone back to the county recorders desk and asked them `who approved this parcel to be subdivided and not have access issues already settled ? since you did post > Yes, the county does require the seller to provide access to the lot < Have you ever gone to a county recorders title /documents desk and actually read thru every thing about a property as to its history , the loans against it , when loans were satisfied etc ? Anywho two more shifts to go, so time to get to bed LOL.