easement improvement

New York. We recently bought a house with an acre of land that is land locked with an easement in our deed and also the surrounding properties deed. Our piece of property was deeded out of the farm property that surrounds us back in 1947 to a family member. Another family member lost the house due to foreclosure and we now own it. The first day we were here we were visited by the member that lost the property and were told we only have an easemnet for in and out and he would let us in and out if he felt like it and if he really wanted he would dump a load of dirt at the end of it. This was 2 months ago and there have been no other incidents, but obviously they are bitter about losing this piece of the farm and probably will not be cooperative. The easement runs down a private road about 250', turns left and then goes another 250' up to our house. The road is used to access the farm and the first 50' after the turn access a rental property owned by the same people. After the rental property it just goes up the hill to our house. My question is what right do we have towards improvement to the section that only we use? This hill currently is gravel but we would like to pave it our bring in gravel to cut down on the incline. The deed reads "which easement shall be for all highway and utility purposes and shall be used in common with the said xx xxxx, his heirs and assigns, and shall be subject to the right of the owner of the fee thereof to convey and dedicated the same for public highway purposes". This hill is gradually going to worsen so eventually something will have to be done. Also, come winter do we have the right to have anyone we want plow the section only we use, I'm sure they'll stop plowing right after the rental property. Thank You

[HomeGuru]

Originally posted by kablatt
New York. We recently bought a house with an acre of land that is land locked with an easement in our deed and also the surrounding properties deed. Our piece of property was deeded out of the farm property that surrounds us back in 1947 to a family member. Another family member lost the house due to foreclosure and we now own it. The first day we were here we were visited by the member that lost the property and were told we only have an easemnet for in and out and he would let us in and out if he felt like it and if he really wanted he would dump a load of dirt at the end of it. This was 2 months ago and there have been no other incidents, but obviously they are bitter about losing this piece of the farm and probably will not be cooperative. The easement runs down a private road about 250', turns left and then goes another 250' up to our house. The road is used to access the farm and the first 50' after the turn access a rental property owned by the same people. After the rental property it just goes up the hill to our house. My question is what right do we have towards improvement to the section that only we use? This hill currently is gravel but we would like to pave it our bring in gravel to cut down on the incline. The deed reads "which easement shall be for all highway and utility purposes and shall be used in common with the said xx xxxx, his heirs and assigns, and shall be subject to the right of the owner of the fee thereof to convey and dedicated the same for public highway purposes". This hill is gradually going to worsen so eventually something will have to be done. Also, come winter do we have the right to have anyone we want plow the section only we use, I'm sure they'll stop plowing right after the rental property. Thank You

**A: an attorney would need to review the survey and title report to advise you further.