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Property Easement

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cantra

Guest
We recently purchased a house and evidently didn't do our homework enough because the driveway that we thought we owned but shared was actually an easement which I asked about but was told it wasn't. Anyways we live next to a bar which I now know was another mistake. The previous owner of the bar had bought 8 feet of our property 'before we bought it' which is another item we were not told about, the 8 feet leaving our property line right in the middle of the driveway. The easement total is 16 feet, 8 feet ours and 8 feet the bars.

We have since had our garage hit on several ocassions, people parking on our property constantly, the bar owner himself has told people to park both in the easement and from what we've heard on our own personal property if there wasn't room without our permission, the driveway being completely blocked, people hanging out on our section of the driveway drinking and being extremely noisy right next to our house which is only a matter of feet away. We have put up a fence to block people from hitting our garage but it has been nocked down an average of every other night, this has only made more work for us by having to fix it and now we can't even use our part of the easement. We have called the police on 2 seperate occasions about this but they seem to feel this is something out of their juristiction.

He has started this from day one, when we bought the place we came over from signing the papers which he knew we were doing and he started having people park next to our garage on our property instead of in his parking lot so he could have live music after we told him he couldn't do it!

Anyone know if there is something we can do about this? We've only been living here 3 months and are ready to purchase another home because this new bar owner 'been there 3 months also' is making our lives miserable.
 


HomeGuru

Senior Member
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by cantra:
We recently purchased a house and evidently didn't do our homework enough because the driveway that we thought we owned but shared was actually an easement which I asked about but was told it wasn't. Anyways we live next to a bar which I now know was another mistake. The previous owner of the bar had bought 8 feet of our property 'before we bought it' which is another item we were not told about, the 8 feet leaving our property line right in the middle of the driveway. The easement total is 16 feet, 8 feet ours and 8 feet the bars.

We have since had our garage hit on several ocassions, people parking on our property constantly, the bar owner himself has told people to park both in the easement and from what we've heard on our own personal property if there wasn't room without our permission, the driveway being completely blocked, people hanging out on our section of the driveway drinking and being extremely noisy right next to our house which is only a matter of feet away. We have put up a fence to block people from hitting our garage but it has been nocked down an average of every other night, this has only made more work for us by having to fix it and now we can't even use our part of the easement. We have called the police on 2 seperate occasions about this but they seem to feel this is something out of their juristiction.

He has started this from day one, when we bought the place we came over from signing the papers which he knew we were doing and he started having people park next to our garage on our property instead of in his parking lot so he could have live music after we told him he couldn't do it!

Anyone know if there is something we can do about this? We've only been living here 3 months and are ready to purchase another home because this new bar owner 'been there 3 months also' is making our lives miserable.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Here are options:

1) sell the home and move

2) put up a block tile wall and let the bar owner have exclusive use of the 8 feet on your property.
 
C

cantra

Guest
So in other words the Bar owner can completely abuse our private property including the easement and there is nothing we can do about it but let him have our 8 feet of property which does nothing but make him even happier and us losing our main access to our garage?
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by cantra:
So in other words the Bar owner can completely abuse our private property including the easement and there is nothing we can do about it but let him have our 8 feet of property which does nothing but make him even happier and us losing our main access to our garage?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I did not say that. Since you stated that the police are not of any help, I gave you some options. Here is another one. Hire an attorney to file a complaint against the bar owner, for harassment, his customers trespassing and damaging your property, noise violations etc.. A restraining order can also be filed based on the same claims.

You knew full well when you purchased the property that a bar was located next door. You do not have to have a high school degree to know that there are certain elements that are associated with a bar ie. loud music, rowdy and drunk patrons, parking problems. late night hours, general bar noise. In addition, your due diligence was sketchy since you had no knowledge of the easement and its effect on your property. Did you have a real estate agent or an attorney help you with the purchase? Was there an escrow company that was used that gave you a title report to review that listed the easement?
There are a lot of unexplained things on your part and I realize that there are 2 sides to every story. Based on what little information that you have provided, I think that the property was sold at a low price due to the location, you thought it was a good deal despite the bar as a neighbor, to try and save even more money you and the Seller did not use a real estate agent and thus it was a private transaction between the parties with no escrow company involved. Fact or fiction in whole or in part?
 
C

cantra

Guest
I totally agree with you stating we knew that a bar was next door, price actually wasn't the issue, getting a big enough house was. The problem that stems here is that the bar and community has always been very quiet and laid back. The new owner of the bar who purchased it right around the time we bought our house has changed it from an old Mom and Pop bar into a biker style bar.

We did have a realestate agent who never stated anything about the easement only that the driveway was shared. According to old property descriptions the entire driveway is part of our property 'which is what I thought' until I contaced the surveyor who did the land last who told me about the previous owners of the bar buying 8 feet of our current property in 1977 "I believe is the date' in order to make it a shared driveway. At no point in our sale, or talking about the sale were we ever told that it was an actual easement "I thought we owned the whole section and simply gave access to the bar"

We also did have an escrow company but didn't even get to see that information until the sale was finalized, guess we realy should have had an attorney but we went through the process quite quickly and none were available at the time that we called.

Even with this in mind of course we knew the bar would be loud but they have no business parking on our actual property, hitting our property, etc. Is there anyway with this info and the police reports we could get the easement taken away in court. This is what we would realy like to do. If our house wasn't so close to the driveway I'd have no problem with simply blocking the 8 foot section, but our house is only about 6"-12" away from the start of the easement, this is where the main part of the problem is. Isn't it somehow the bar owners responsibility to make sure his customers are not parking on our property, blocking the easement, etc....

I do thankyou for all the help, we do plan on contacting an attorney in our area this week but I'd like to know if there is anything we can legally do first and how to go about it. Also we are in Wisconsin, not sure if I ever mentioned that.

thanks again
travis
 
C

cantra

Guest
I posted a more detailed responce but it didn't show up.

We did have a realestate agent, there was also a escrow company involved. I didn't find out about the easement until we went home after purchasing the house and looked at the paper work they gave us.

Yes we knew about the bar setting, however it was a small Mom and Pop operation until the new owner purchased it just before we bought the house. We didn't buy the house because it was cheap, because it realy wasn't it was because we needed a big house.

I may be wrong here, but if the bar owner doesn't make sure his customers use the easement properly, causes damage on a nightly basis and make it so we can't even use it isn't there anyway we can get the easement voided? We plan on contacting an attorney this week, but I'd like to know what I can expect and what possibly can be done first.

The bar owner has already been complaining that we put a fence up on our private property so his customers can't come next to our garage, simply because he feels that his customers should beable to use our private driveway whenever they wish to turn around and park.

Also the way it's set up, the bar is to the left of our house, the driveway goes right down the middle "16 feet easement" and there is probally 18-20 feet between the properties total. The shared driveway goes to the left in back to go to his small parking lot, the shared driveway also goes to the right onto our private property and swings around our house to the second driveway we have. The bar owner feels that since our private driveway is connected with the shared driveway he somehow has rights to have people drive and park in it. This is why we want it taken away, our fence was hit twice more last night but is still standing, I can't possibly even imagine that the law would state we couldn't void this if he doesn't take care of this 'but like I've said before I'm no expert and many times the law makes no sence'

Thanks for any help, I trully do appreciate it.

Travis

Also we live in Wisconsin, not sure if I stated this before.
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by cantra:
I totally agree with you stating we knew that a bar was next door, price actually wasn't the issue, getting a big enough house was. The problem that stems here is that the bar and community has always been very quiet and laid back. The new owner of the bar who purchased it right around the time we bought our house has changed it from an old Mom and Pop bar into a biker style bar.

We did have a realestate agent who never stated anything about the easement only that the driveway was shared. According to old property descriptions the entire driveway is part of our property 'which is what I thought' until I contaced the surveyor who did the land last who told me about the previous owners of the bar buying 8 feet of our current property in 1977 "I believe is the date' in order to make it a shared driveway. At no point in our sale, or talking about the sale were we ever told that it was an actual easement "I thought we owned the whole section and simply gave access to the bar"

We also did have an escrow company but didn't even get to see that information until the sale was finalized, guess we realy should have had an attorney but we went through the process quite quickly and none were available at the time that we called.

Even with this in mind of course we knew the bar would be loud but they have no business parking on our actual property, hitting our property, etc. Is there anyway with this info and the police reports we could get the easement taken away in court. This is what we would realy like to do. If our house wasn't so close to the driveway I'd have no problem with simply blocking the 8 foot section, but our house is only about 6"-12" away from the start of the easement, this is where the main part of the problem is. Isn't it somehow the bar owners responsibility to make sure his customers are not parking on our property, blocking the easement, etc....

I do thankyou for all the help, we do plan on contacting an attorney in our area this week but I'd like to know if there is anything we can legally do first and how to go about it. Also we are in Wisconsin, not sure if I ever mentioned that.

thanks again
travis
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thank you for the additional details. I knew my last response would get it out of you. When you contact an attorney discuss the possibility of filing a separate complaint against your real estate agent. Your agent failed miserably in the client standard of care and fiduciary duties category on many issues such as:

1. confirming the contents in the title report prior to closing

2. reviewing the survey or advising you to order a current survey

3. misrepresentation

4. completing a public record check to confirm property yard setbacks

5. not fully understanding and explaining to you the entire transaction, especially with respect to the easement/driveway issue

6. there is more but I will stop now as I think you get the picture. It appears that your agent ramrodded the closing. Is there a hint of my "sales commission comes first and the clients representation is secondary?" In this circumstance,
I would be more upset at your own real estate agent than the bar owner or those beer drinking "Born to be Wild" trashy bikers.
Lastly, if you find a biker leather jacket on your property, you can keep it.

 
C

cantra

Guest
Yep we've been debating taking the previous owners of the house and the real estate agent to court for seperate reasons. We were told the roof did not leak, well the first rain came and our kitchen floor was completely flooded, we were also told that the basement floor was wet only because they had just replaced a pipe. Well we watched this it never dried, found out they never actually fixed the pipe since it wasn't even connected but just dangling and only catching part of the water. We were also told the basement never flooded, 2 weeks after we moved in we had about 5-6 inches of water....

Again thanks for the help, do you think there is any chance of getting the driveway easement voided though? Even with the Real Estate agents lies it still doesn't remedy at least this part of the situation.

If we didn't shell out most of our money to purchase this house, which is our first we'd probally just buy a new one and leave this place. However it was a struggle getting this one, if need be we'll try and sell it and get a new place but I fear we wont beable to for quite some time.

Have a good night
travis
 

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