Landlocked property and right of way easements...

North Carolina - my property is landlocked. there is a 10 foot piece of my neighbor's driveway separating us from the main road. Firstly, it should be known that they sold us the property... when I tried to resell it last year they told the prospective buyer that he would not be able to access the property because they would not give him permission to cross their land. It appears I don't have a formal right of way or easement and I need to know what I can do about it. They want to buy back the property but at $25,000 less than I paid. With this right of way thing, I'm being held hostage. The property has been under title since 1968 as far as I can tell. Help!! Thank you...

[HomeGuru]

Why did you buy the property with no recorded ingress/egress? Now you must sue Seller/neighbor for an easement or right of way.

I got taken.. they convinced me that we only needed one attorney.. theirs.. I admit I was a dolt.. the question is: can I sue them in small claims court or do I have to have an attorney? My husband and I are both disabled and on a very limited income...

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

My response:

Something smells real bad about our writer's situation. I can't say for sure, but I'll bet you dollars to donuts that this situation is an ongoing scam and "enterprise" for our writer's sellers. I think we might have a RICO situation going on.

I'll further bet that if our writer checks the history of transactions about this property, that our writer will find, since 1968, the sellers have sold this property numerous times, and have purchased it back, having made similar offers to each of the owners. I'll further speculate that each of those buyers were aged, or otherwise not in a financial position to fight the seller, and eventually decided to sell the property back to the original seller at a huge loss due to the same facts, and due to an inability to fight back.

If this is the case, the property seller is engaged in an "enterprise", never having the intent to allow ingress and egress rights to new, third party buyers, and thus placing the property owners, like our writer, in a "squeeze play" leaving no other alternative but to sell the property back to the original owner at a "discount".

Nice way to make money - - but, it smacks of illegality.

I'd spend a few hundred bucks, if you can, to have an attorney review the history of this property, and to determine if there's an ongoing pattern amounting to Racketeering going on. If that's the case, the RICO Act allows for attorney fees.

Check it out as soon as possible.

IAAL