Private access easement

[jac4565]

What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania

My home sits on the side of a hill that was a cow field 16 years ago. The land was divided into 4 lots, 2 at the bottom, 2 at the top. My lot is one at the bottom along the public road. There is a Private Access Easement between the 2 bottom lots. The easement is 50 ft across 25 ft from the center line on both sides. Eight years ago the 4 property owners paid to have the easement paved, the paved part of the easement is approx. 15 ft across, leaving approx. 17 ft on either side of the paved easement. The easement goes up 250 ft from the centerline of the public road, the 2 lots above have driveways leading from the easement to their homes. 2 lots below approx 1.5 acres, the 2 lots above approx. 3 acres. The parts of the easement that are not paved is grass, the easement grass runs into my grass. There is no visible sign of where the easement grass ends and my grass begins. For 15 years I have mowed the grass that technically is part of the easement. My deed states that the Private Access Easement is to be shared and maintained by all 4 lots. I have maintained the part of the easement (grass) that borders my lot and the same goes for my neighbor that lives directly beside me.

Now for the problem!

My neighbor that owns the lot directly behind me (up on the hill), has decided that he owns the easement on our side (from the centerline 25 ft to the right) and the other neighbor at the top owns the easement on the other side. I have located his deed on-line and it reads the same as mine. "The Private Access Easement is to be shared and maintained by owners of all 4 lots."

I have had friends and family over to my house, and sometimes if my driveway is full, (it can only hold 5-6 cars, I own 3 cars myself), they have pulled off the paved part of the easement and parked in my front yard, many feet away from the paved easement, never blocking the easement, never blocking my neighbors above from being able to get up to their houses. My neighbor does not like this, he says whoever parks in my front yard is tresspassing because they have to pass over the easement grass in order to get to my grass in my front yard. He called me 2 weeks ago because I had to park my car in my yard because it had snowed and I couldn't get all to way up to my driveway, the kicker is that his son had to do the same thing in his yard. This neighbor has called the police 3 times for this, last Saturday being the most recent, a friend of my sons stopped by for 30 minutes and parked his car in my front yard. Sunday morning I had a PRIVATE PROPERTY, NO TRESSPASSING! sign posted at the bottom of my yard. The State Police have come to my house, asking what the problem is. We have explained that this is a easement to be shared by all lot, I take that to believe that I have equal ownership as the other 3 owners, how can I or anyone who visits my home be called a tresspasser if they have my permission to be here? The Police were clearly confused, and annoyed to be bothered, but they told me they could fine anyone parking in my front yard $300 for tresspassing.

I think this is insane, how do I get this guy off my back. I have my deed and I have his deed, although they are hard to understand, the technical measurements of the lots, but I have a drawing with my deed that I got when I bought my house that clearly shows my lot bordering the easement, and states that the easement is a shared private access easement. I do not have a drawing of his deed, just the measurements, so I have no idea why he things he owns the easement. He has never come down and mowed that grass, nor would I want him to. I can't even see his house from mine because his house is on top of the hill, there are 3.5 acres of land with trees between our houses.
Is this really a matter for the PA state police? I am not a common criminal, but all of this is making me feel like one.

Sorry so long, any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Jeri

 

[danggoods]

You are not restricting his access on the maintained roadway. Therefore he has no beef with you. The 17 ft that you own is technically an "easement area" and that can not be restricted or parked on, ingress/egress only. He is attempting to halt any future claim by you for a prescriptive easement to park there since you have been doing so (your presumed future claim years from now) for 7, 10, 20, whatever your states statute of limitations is for adverse possesion/prescriptive easement. If your visitors park in the grass area that you own and not the easement area he can say nothing, you cant tresspass on your own property. But the easement area, 50 feet shouldnt be parked on, ever, by anyone including this complainer. Start taking daily walks up the road for exercise and photograph his parking on the easement area and then there is your out. Any complaint he ever has with the court or police, you have proof. Include the date on your digital camera as you'll want to get several of these over a period of time in order to show if he ever takes court action, which it appears he is building a trail for with police calls etc. As Im sure you already know, this guy has control issues he is playing out on the road. He is not to be trusted.

 

[jac4565]

Thanks for your response, so is it your opinion that anyone who would need to park in my yard, including myself, has the right to pull off the paved part of the easement and drive over the grass part of the easement to get into my yard, this does NOT constitute tresspassing? That's his whole case. Even if someone is parked more than 17 ft off the paved easement and clearly in my yard he still says they have tresspassed to get there.

You hit the nail on the head when you said he was a control freak. He originally called the township about all this last summer, who told him they have no say on this issue because it is a private easement, so he had them send me 4 citations about other things, like having weeds over 6 inches around my bushes (citations totalling $1,200). I took the township infront of the District Justice who quickly withdrew the citations.

I will do what you suggest, it's good advice. I am also thinking about talking to a Real Estate lawyer so if the Police come again I can be more convincing and maybe even have a letter that they can hand deliver to my insane neighbor.

Thanks Again,
Jeri

 

[danggoods]

Who actually owns the property that the easement runs over? Do you have a survey or recoded plat map that shows the actual property lines? If your contemptuous neighbor who claims to own this 50 foot wide roadway area that the easement runs over actually does own it, then you are curb cutting his roadway for a new or different access path. If he owns it , has he offered to provide you with a copy of his survey? Does he have any proof to support his claim that he owns it? He could just be misinturpreting the information. Even if he owns it he cant park on it either because that isnt consistent with the purpose of the easement which is ingress egress only.
It sounds like you have a harrassment claim against this guy if he doesnt stop hounding you or cough up some proof to support his claim.

 

[jac4565]

I have found a copy of his deed on-line, the only problem is I can't understand it. The deed gives measurements, latitude/longitude but I have no actual drawing. I do have a survey drawing of my property, there are 2 lots, mine being on the right, with a 50 ft easement right down the middle of the 2 lots, I would think that if anyone owns the property the easement is on, it would be the 2 bottom lots, why would they give property to the 2 top lots that the easement isn't even on, their 2 private drives branch off the top of the easement. The easement is about 250 ft from the centerline of the public road. The one thing his deed does just like mine, is the Private Access Easement is to be shared and maintained by all 4 lots. Meaning I have just as much right to claim it as he does.

What I did realize is that just because the 4 property owners decided to pave the center portion of the easement 15-17 ft across all the way up, it doesn't mean that the grass that has grown up along the sides of the paved part isn't still easement. Like you said the easement is for egress/ingress, wouldn't I have the right to drive on the grass part of the easement to get up and down from the private road if I chose to? That would really make my neighbor mad, which wouldn't bother me at all. Just because we paved part of the easement he thinks the 10-13 ft of grass along both sides is up for grabs now, even though I have been the one mowing that grass for 15 years. He has placed 2 NO TRESSPASSING, PRIVATE PROPERTY SIGNS, on the easement now, one at the bottom of my yard and one on the other side of the paved drive where my driveway comes out. He has also put a post there with 2 cinder blocks over it, I guess he is trying to stop me from going in the grass when I back out of my drive onto the easement to leave my house. I have hit the 2 cinder blocks 3 times already. Wouldn't these 2 signs and the post with the cinder blocks be considered blocking the easement?

I am going to take pictures of all of this, print out a copy of his deed, and take my deed and survey drawing to a Real Estate Lawyer to get his opinion. If a lawyer says I'm right I am going to put an end to all this nonsense. I will also ask about harrassment charges too, I'm sick of being bullied around by this idiot.

Thanks for all your input on this subject, it has really helped me think it through. I will post again after I have talked to a lawyer.

Thanks again,
Jeri

 

[Pinewood]

I live in Massachusetts and this is what I have been told about right of ways by a real estate attorney and by the town's engineering department:

1. Whoever owns the land next to the easement owns to the center line of the easement.

2. The people above you only have the right to pass, nothing else, on your part of the easement.

3. You cannot block their access and THEY CANNOT BLOCK YOUR'S.

By placing those signs on your part of the easement, they are blocking your access to it.

I know in regards to the right of way beside me, I have no rights to his part as I have no need for it (dead end). I would assume the same would be for you, too, as you have no need to pass by his house (this is a dead end, correct?), so legally, you cannot be driving on his part of the grass which is the easement.

But you have every right to drive over your part of the easement to get to your own property, you own it.

You should go to your town's engineering department and have them give you a copy of the laws of rights of way or maybe have them mail this guy behind you a copy of it. If they won't do it (mine had no problem explaing to us all the rules) hire a real estate lawyer and have him send them a letter.

I'm dealing with the same kind of person over a right of way...and the more I read here, the more I think these people are all the same

 

[jac4565]

Thanks for the information, I will look into it. All this seems like just good commonsense, if the easement goes all the way up my property line, then it should belong to me, at least on my side, the 25 ft from the centerline, like you said.

1. Whoever owns the land next to the easement owns to the center line of the easement.

I will never understand people like this, control freaks, with no life, I guess. It takes 5 seconds for him to pass my house.

Thanks again, I didn't now I could talk to the engineers about this.
Jeri

 

[jac4565]

A little update, I had another visit from the police again this morning (4th time). Lastnight my son had to drive into the yard to park my jeep in my drive because some friends where over and thats the only way his could park in the my driveway. My private driveway is lined with bushes on 1 side and railroad ties along most of it on the other. In the morning my daughter told me the neighbors where outside taking pictures of our driveway, there was snow on the ground so they could see that someone drove into my yard the night before, big deal! Anyway I was prepared for a knock at the door and of course there was one a few hours later. The police officers where very nice, I showed them my plat drawing, they didn't really want to see it saying they know nothing about it, but I showed them that there was a 50 ft easement clearly marked, and I have just as much right to drive on it as the other 3 lot owners, they pretty much agreed with me, I also told them I am going to talk with a lawyer about all this and that it is a civil matter and they shouldn't bother with these stupid tresspassing calls that they are responding to, they adviced me to go talk to the local distric justice and see if he would put an end to it, which I will be doing.

I did finally find out who exactly owns property under the 50 ft easement, and it does technically belong to my neighbors above, 25 ft from the centerline left and right belong to the 2 lots above/behind the 2 lots bordering the public road. It seems that in PA a house cannot be built on a lot that is landlocked, so they had to give that 25 ft strip to the lots above that would have been landlocked, they must abut a public road.

I am giving a link to pictures of my property, the private access easement I'm talking about and the private property signs posted by my neighbor. My house is on the right, as you can see I have a huge yard that I believe I should have access to if I need to. The neighbor in question is the one way up at the top on the right of the picture labeled "private access easement from the public road". As you can see in these pictures some of the easement is paved (10-15 ft) like I said, but the grass on the sides is what he is saying I'm tresspassing over when or if I drive off the paved part of the easement to get my yard. No one has ever parked on the easement all 50 ft of it, we have NEVER blocked there passage up to their house and never would have a reason to.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jac4565/PrivateAccessEasement[srl] Take a look and let me know what you think. Thanks, Jeri

 

[jules3699]

Thanks for your response, so is it your opinion that anyone who would need to park in my yard, including myself, has the right to pull off the paved part of the easement and drive over the grass part of the easement to get into my yard, this does NOT constitute tresspassing? That's his whole case. Even if someone is parked more than 17 ft off the paved easement and clearly in my yard he still says they have tresspassed to get there.

You hit the nail on the head when you said he was a control freak. He originally called the township about all this last summer, who told him they have no say on this issue because it is a private easement, so he had them send me 4 citations about other things, like having weeds over 6 inches around my bushes (citations totalling $1,200). I took the township infront of the District Justice who quickly withdrew the citations.

I will do what you suggest, it's good advice. I am also thinking about talking to a Real Estate lawyer so if the Police come again I can be more convincing and maybe even have a letter that they can hand deliver to my insane neighbor.

Thanks Again,
Jeri

I bought a house on a private drive with an easement too. I have a neighbor that has been doing the same thing to me! Even the city citations for weeds and down branches on my acre of land. Only my driveway is about the length of one car or truck to fit in so if there is a car parked in my driveway it is half in the ingress egress of the road easement. Therefore he is sueing me for obstruction of his enjoyment of the easement. He was sueing the sellers who sold me the house (who btw didnt disclose this or the pending lawsuit and now I am attached to it because title didnt catch the pending lawsuit.) ugh...but he has been harassing me and my children continuously. Not to mention our two dogs went missing within a two week period in which we put up posters for the missing pets and he took them down and now puts them on his car window as he drives by yelling out the pets names. Our dogs had names tags on them with my phone number on them and we got a phone call that said I killed your dogs. My sympathy is with you Jeri....

 

[jules3699]

I bought a house on a private drive with an easement too. I have a neighbor that has been doing the same thing to me! Even the city citations for weeds and down branches on my acre of land. Only my driveway is about the length of one car or truck to fit in so if there is a car parked in my driveway it is half in the ingress egress of the road easement. Therefore he is sueing me for obstruction of his enjoyment of the easement. He was sueing the sellers who sold me the house (who btw didnt disclose this or the pending lawsuit and now I am attached to it because title didnt catch the pending lawsuit.) ugh...but he has been harassing me and my children continuously. Not to mention our two dogs went missing within a two week period in which we put up posters for the missing pets and he took them down and now puts them on his car window as he drives by yelling out the pets names. Our dogs had names tags on them with my phone number on them and we got a phone call that said I killed your dogs. My sympathy is with you Jeri....

here is a link to photos of my property Picasa Web Albums - Julie Wright - easement

 

[divona2000]

jules, please start your own post, don't tack onto someone else's thread (especially when it is 2 years old!).