how to prevent an easement from casual use

California

I purchased a country property last year. One of the neighbors use a part of my property as a second access to their house. there is no easement for this, nothing on the title report. How do I prevent a defacto easement in this situation...what is the correct legal term for this?What is the name of your state?

Presecriptive easement is the term you are searching for.

You can do one of two things:

Give the person a written license (not easement) to use the land and make it specific to that person only and make it clear that the license cannot be sold, transferred, conveyed, etc.

OR

Put a gate up across the road.

In California the prescriptive time interval is 5 years. If your neighbor has been using the road for less than 5 years, you can give him permission to use the road by posting signs on both ends of the road that read:
PRIVATE PROPERTY
PERMISSION TO PASS OVER REVOCABLE AT ANY TIME

There is a statute in California that tells you exactly what must be printed on the signs. Find it and verify that I am giving you the correct wording.

If he has been using the road for 5 years or more without the permission of your prior property owners, there is a good chance that a prescriptive easement has already formed on the road. In CA it does not have to be recorded to be valid. If you put a gate accross it, your neighbor could successfully sue you for blocking his easement. On the other hand, if he does nothing for 5 years after you block the road, you get your land back.

When searching the Internet, restrict your research to your state because rules concerning prescription vary from state to state. The time interval is short and use of a vacant lot is assumed to be without permission in California which means it's easy to get prescription.