Shared driveway w/ garage easement

[smilcher]

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


I share a driveway with the house next door to me and at the end of this driveway there is a one car garage/workshop that is used solely by the resident of the house next door with a recorded easement. I have contacted an attorney about splitting this one car garage/workshop into a shared garage and was told that the only thing I could do is get the owner of the property next door to agree to this. I had brought this subject up to the previous owner but he seemed uninterested in the problem.Here is where it gets interesting: The home is currently in pre-foreclosure. The owner has since moved to another country and is not interested in this house anymore. There is a negotiator in charge of trying to short sell this house. I have since sent a detailed letter to the mortgage company stating the difficulty of selling the house with the unusual way the garage is and have offered to remodel this garage into an attractive two car to benefit both houses. I have yet to hear back from them and here is where my question begins. The shared driveway is an average of 17 ft wide.My property line extends so that the driveway is 9 and a half feet on my side leaving 7 and a half feet of driveway on the neighbors. I have not found any easement for the driveway only for the garage/workshop. The easement reads "allow the Grantee to maintain the garage upon the Grantee's property to the extent it encroaches upon the Grantor's property and provide limited access to such garage." There is a door granting access to the garage on the neighbors property. Can I erect a fence on my property all the way up to the garage. This would not only leave the neighboring house with 7 and a half feet of driveway but the actual garage door is over three quarters on my property. I would rather not do this but I want to get my property back and if I am denied the right to remodel the garage I am not sure of my options. Sorry but the length of this post but I wanted to make sure I gave all the information I had.

 

[HomeGuru]

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


I share a driveway with the house next door to me and at the end of this driveway there is a one car garage/workshop that is used solely by the resident of the house next door with a recorded easement. I have contacted an attorney about splitting this one car garage/workshop into a shared garage and was told that the only thing I could do is get the owner of the property next door to agree to this. I had brought this subject up to the previous owner but he seemed uninterested in the problem.Here is where it gets interesting: The home is currently in pre-foreclosure. The owner has since moved to another country and is not interested in this house anymore. There is a negotiator in charge of trying to short sell this house. I have since sent a detailed letter to the mortgage company stating the difficulty of selling the house with the unusual way the garage is and have offered to remodel this garage into an attractive two car to benefit both houses. I have yet to hear back from them and here is where my question begins. The shared driveway is an average of 17 ft wide.My property line extends so that the driveway is 9 and a half feet on my side leaving 7 and a half feet of driveway on the neighbors. I have not found any easement for the driveway only for the garage/workshop. The easement reads "allow the Grantee to maintain the garage upon the Grantee's property to the extent it encroaches upon the Grantor's property and provide limited access to such garage." There is a door granting access to the garage on the neighbors property. Can I erect a fence on my property all the way up to the garage. This would not only leave the neighboring house with 7 and a half feet of driveway but the actual garage door is over three quarters on my property. I would rather not do this but I want to get my property back and if I am denied the right to remodel the garage I am not sure of my options. Sorry but the length of this post but I wanted to make sure I gave all the information I had.

**A: take your title report, deed, survey, real property tax papers etc. to a real estate attorney for review.

 

[154NH773]

Agreed that you need to consult an attorney.
However:

This would not only leave the neighboring house with 7 and a half feet of driveway but the actual garage door is over three quarters on my property. I would rather not do this but I want to get my property back

A 7 1/2 foot wide driveway may not be adequate even as "limited access", and the fact that your fence would seem to cut off some part of the main garage door access, it would probably not be allowed even if he is not currently driving a car into the garage.
A easement is a right to use your property essentially as if it were his own, and therefore you cannot "get back your property". Whoever granted the easement originally probably profited by the transaction, and then you bought the property burdened with the easement. The only way you could get the property back is to deal with the neighbor and maybe he would offer to sell you the easement so you could extinguish it. Not likely since his garage depends on it.
As to adding on to his garage; if he allowed it, that would open up a whole new set of potential future problems for both of you. (maintenance, upkeep, insurance, etc.)