Neighbor blocking access, built a barn on top of the road.

What is the name of your state? Missouri

Hello,

We've owned 40 acres of a thick wooded, undeveloped hilltop since 1964. The land is mainly a "Y" shaped ridge top, with deep valleys and creeks off to all sides except for the entrance road.

Our neighbor, who is "upstream" of our property, began making access to our land extrememly difficult, (about 10 years ago) by forcing us to park our vehicles at least 1000 feet away from the property line, as he forced us to walk uphill over the portion of the road passing through his property.

Since we do not regularly visit our property, but maybe once or twice a year, we noticed three years ago he built a barn directly on top of the road itself.

Yes, he built it directly on TOP of the road, blocking us off our property completely.

This road has ALWAYS been there, as it has passed through our property 50 years even before we bought it, and WAY before our neighbor bought his property. We were there first. We have arial photos, and documents to prove the existance of our road.

Now our neighbor says the road is his personal driveway, and that we are trespassing as we gain access to our 40 acres.

I have routinely noticed our neighbor using OUR property for his personal enjoyment, as his horses have left plenty of trails, and the road on our property is freshly cleared, with piles of manure as evidence.

Last Saturday 4/02/05 I confronted them again, and now I've been told that I'm completely kicked off ALL of the road, and I need to get permission from everyone else in the rural "subdivision" upstream. (about 10 or so houses)

Where do we stand in this? Can this he block me from my property legally? What about his barn over the road? Do I have a chance of legally reclaiming my only access?

LJP

Does your deed list an ingress/egress easement or Right of Way?

I'll dig through the papers later tonight when I get home. Thanks for the quick reply!

lee patzius said:

I'll dig through the papers later tonight when I get home. Thanks for the quick reply!

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Come back when you have that answer.

And by the way, in what part of Missouri is the land? I have some around Clinton that sounds just like this.

Hi BelizeBreeze,

Even though various documents, surveys, and photos of our land have been borrowed and shared within our immediate family, my parents have all of the original deed paperwork. So I called them by phone, and asked if there was any ingress/egress easement or right of way listed, and they said no.

I asked "are you sure?" And my mom assured me there is absolutely no mention of any easement or right of way on the deed.

By the way, my parents had initially contacted a lawyer a couple of weeks ago. Our lawyer sent a letter to our neighbor (who's been blocking our access). Our neighbor then acquired a lawyer which he responded by asking my parents how often we visited our property.

My initial thoughts are who cares, it's our property. So now I gotta ask, what's he trying to pull now?

Anyway, I can assure you we visited our property at least once or twice a year, maybe skip a few years, and return every so often. But we definately couldn't visit as often as we like due to the fear of not knowing what our neighbor may, or may not do, as he has consistently demonstrated aggressive blocking tactics towards us for many years.

I, my wife, and children, have personally cut through deep ravines, creeks, and thick woods around his property line on a few occasions this year alone. He claims I'm a "bold faced Liar". But sure enough I'd walk right up to our property line near where his barn is now located, dead ending our road's access. Our road continues on through our property, and onto other properties behind us and spreads out. I have yet to contact landowners behind us (who have other access through private roads, trails, valleys, and creeks anyway). Never the less, the road on our property is now choked off at our property line, except for a small arched passage way through his barn.

He denies we have ever been to our property as often as I claim because he says the dogs would've barked, (which they did) and that he would've known how many times we've been there, (but obviously he don't). I feel he is at least trying to convince somebody that we've abandoned our land or something.

Is there some sort of "squatters rights" or "land grabbing tactic" he's pulling on us? Just what is he trying to prove? Any thoughts?

Anyway, after what happened with us last Saturday, I immediately contacted my parents again and they contacted their lawyer again today. I'll find out more very soon.

To answer your question about the location, our 40 acre property sits on a beautiful mountain top peak (actually it's a hill) at approximately 800+ feet, one of the highest peaks in the area, with a near complete 360 horizontal veiw, looking through thick woods, and is approximately 45 miles west of St. Louis between Labadie and Grey Summit, Missouri.

After reading this there are only two options that I can see your parent's attorney having. 1. advise you to build a road completely ON your property and if need be, petition the court to allow you to connect to the existing road, or; 2. file a petition for prescriptive easement.

I doubt, since he's already put up the barn, that the court would make him take it down. It is on his land after all.

lee patzius said:

Hi BelizeBreeze,

Even though various documents, surveys, and photos of our land have been borrowed and shared within our immediate family, my parents have all of the original deed paperwork. So I called them by phone, and asked if there was any ingress/egress easement or right of way listed, and they said no.

I asked "are you sure?" And my mom assured me there is absolutely no mention of any easement or right of way on the deed.

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You need to look beyond your deed. Many easements are not shown right on your deed, but are part of the "chain of title",

Now, review, or have your parents review your TITLE POLICY or Abstract to look for a recorded easement. It is not even always a sperately recorded doc, it could just consist of a few lines in a deed when this land was first divided.

If there is a properly recorded easement that they have built across, while a judge may not order removal of the structure, it is very possible a judge could order a new, alternate easement be created across their land to replace the now inaccessable easement. So dig through the COMPLETE title records.

BelizeBreeze said:

After reading this there are only two options that I can see your parent's attorney having. 1. advise you to build a road completely ON your property and if need be, petition the court to allow you to connect to the existing road, or; 2. file a petition for prescriptive easement.

I doubt, since he's already put up the barn, that the court would make him take it down. It is on his land after all.

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I agree...stay away from that idiot as much as possible.

Beautiful site by the way...I am quite familiar with that area.

Thanks VERY much to all who have posted great info!

In addition to our attorney's guidance, I will personally research all the above items mentioned, and brush up on the terminology too.

It looks like I better keep things under wraps for awhile.

Sincerely,