undefinedWhat is the name of your state? California.
We have 16 acres in a rural area on the central coast. We have a deeded right of way for ingress and egress to cross over the neighbor's property to reach our property with rights of maintenence, repair and replacement. The road is the only point of entry for both properties. The road is approximately 1/2 mile long and has a "y" where we go right to our property and the neighbor continues to his residence. The easement road is fenced on either side and is 20 feet in width from one point to another and 15 feet wide at another point.
Last spring the neighbor bought four cows. They have 16 acres of land of land to graze the cows on. They rotate the cows in and out of different pastures. The neighbor has a pasture area up by their residence that is not fenced. The neighbor refused to fence off the easement road at this point (approximately 100 feet long) to keep the cows in the grass area. Thus allowing the cows to roam the asphalt road, defecating, urinating, standing and at times laying dead center infront of our entrance and the road we just repaved last year. The neighbor demanded that we shut our gate/entrance ( which we leave open ) to keep the cows from entering our property. Furthermore, he gated another portion of the easment below to keep the cows from walking further down the road. So now it is spring and he is getting ready (I can tell) to move those cows in this portion of his property and on the easment road which forces us to go through two gates and to have to get in and out of our cars four times just to get home. We asked him to fence the cows off the road and he refused stating that he had the right to gate, not gate and or use any portion of his property as he wished despite what it did to us. We have only lived there two 1/2 years. The previous owners lived in LA and were weekenders at best.
My questions are... Can he legally mandate us to abide by his demands to keep the gates closed? What can we do?
Secondly, Can we complete the fencing ourselves (along the easement of course) to keep the easment/right of way unonstructed, safe, clean and easily maintained? It is totally a burden, filthy, and in my opinion unsafe because we walk and jog on the road to get to the street, and my son walks to catch the school bus etc. The neighbor hates anyone on the easement and has stated that we can't even walk on the road. There is no reasoning with him and he becomes abusive in his language with tremendous hostility. He has even yelled at my 9 year son to get off his property while walking home from the bus stop.
We have called the sheriff and the sheriff has spoken to him, but the officer said it is a "civil matter"and we have to go to court. He is a bitter old man and I regret ever having to live next to this type of person.
What to do?
We have 16 acres in a rural area on the central coast. We have a deeded right of way for ingress and egress to cross over the neighbor's property to reach our property with rights of maintenence, repair and replacement. The road is the only point of entry for both properties. The road is approximately 1/2 mile long and has a "y" where we go right to our property and the neighbor continues to his residence. The easement road is fenced on either side and is 20 feet in width from one point to another and 15 feet wide at another point.
Last spring the neighbor bought four cows. They have 16 acres of land of land to graze the cows on. They rotate the cows in and out of different pastures. The neighbor has a pasture area up by their residence that is not fenced. The neighbor refused to fence off the easement road at this point (approximately 100 feet long) to keep the cows in the grass area. Thus allowing the cows to roam the asphalt road, defecating, urinating, standing and at times laying dead center infront of our entrance and the road we just repaved last year. The neighbor demanded that we shut our gate/entrance ( which we leave open ) to keep the cows from entering our property. Furthermore, he gated another portion of the easment below to keep the cows from walking further down the road. So now it is spring and he is getting ready (I can tell) to move those cows in this portion of his property and on the easment road which forces us to go through two gates and to have to get in and out of our cars four times just to get home. We asked him to fence the cows off the road and he refused stating that he had the right to gate, not gate and or use any portion of his property as he wished despite what it did to us. We have only lived there two 1/2 years. The previous owners lived in LA and were weekenders at best.
My questions are... Can he legally mandate us to abide by his demands to keep the gates closed? What can we do?
Secondly, Can we complete the fencing ourselves (along the easement of course) to keep the easment/right of way unonstructed, safe, clean and easily maintained? It is totally a burden, filthy, and in my opinion unsafe because we walk and jog on the road to get to the street, and my son walks to catch the school bus etc. The neighbor hates anyone on the easement and has stated that we can't even walk on the road. There is no reasoning with him and he becomes abusive in his language with tremendous hostility. He has even yelled at my 9 year son to get off his property while walking home from the bus stop.
We have called the sheriff and the sheriff has spoken to him, but the officer said it is a "civil matter"and we have to go to court. He is a bitter old man and I regret ever having to live next to this type of person.
What to do?
