Utah Easement Question

[alligatorob]

Utah, I just purchased a house on 1.75 acres, the land had been part of a 5 acre tract. My piece was subdivided in 2012, it was part of an estate and the inheriting brothers divided it up. The owner of the remaining land is driving through my property and claiming he has an easement. There is an "irrigation easement" to the irrigation company to maintain an irrigation line where he is driving, and he is the head of the irrigation company. However he and his son are using the road to access their property for other reasons. He is claiming this was a historic road or right of way.

He has other access to his land via a city road right of way. The city road however has never been improved, but a usable dirt road exists, in fact the garbage truck uses it to get to his place. Looking at the historical photos on Google Earth I can see that in the past people have driven from my property to his, mostly not along this easement. He has very recently improved (graveled) his side of the road.

When I got title insurance I specifically asked about right of ways and got copies of them all, I do not see any written right of way covering this use other than the irrigation easement.

I don't really care if he drives on the road, but I don't want to make this a permanent easement that would allow the road to be used if his property is subdivided or developed further.

My question is what can I do now to make it more difficult for him to assert an easement right in the future? If I send him a letter giving him revocable permission to use the road would that stop his being able to use his current actions to some day assert a claim?

 

[FarmerJ]

( have the title firm give you a letter saying they did not find any recorded easement to him for your property ) after he has used it for as long as he has then id suggest you take that letter to a lawyer and have the lawyer draw up the permission letter and send it WHY a attorney well Id lay odds that this neighbor may have a huge hissy fit when they get the permission letter but at least with it coming from a atty then they may be less likely to do anything about it since if they had then you would have found a recorded easement. BUT if that easement area has a pipe in It then honestly it likely would be much cleaner for you to put a stop to his use of your land and just have the atty remind him the easement is only for maintenance of the pipe and not as a access to his property. ( I think it would not be a bad choice to gate and fence that area and just have the atty do a letter telling him his easement does not include using it as a driveway)