WA State
Part of my property is a 30ft wide private road, approximately 500ft long, that connects with a county road. Two neighbors live along this private road and use it to access their driveways. Our house was built in 1971 and there exists nowhere in writing that the neighbors have easement rights, but we have let them use it freely.
One of these neighbors, whose property starts where our private road intersects with the county road, has become increasingly aggressive in harassing my family, particularly my young son who waits for the bus, often in the dark, at the end of the road. He has also claimed a 10ft wide strip running the entire length of our road, adjacent to his property, as his own and has planted grass on it. The access to his driveway is right at the intersection with the county road and, although he has no reason to be milling around up at our end, he has taken to driving up to the end (to our house) several times a day and doing burnouts in the gravel and on the grass.
In addition to this, before this man became senile and just generally nasty, we had discussed with him on several occasions his lack of any upkeep on the portion of the road he uses. He has never once agreed to either lift a finger to help with the upkeep or chip in for the routine maintenance. I was told by an attorney that he is legally obligated to do so but I don't know what the legal precedence is for this. While the other neighbor, like ourselves, work to keep the road in good condition, this individual has let the section in front of his house become rutted, muddy, and heavily pot-holed. I became stubborn and stopped doing the upkeep on that portion a few years ago since he would not agree to help. Now the reasonable neighbor, my family, and visitors all have to deal with driving through a very unpleasant section of road to access our properties.
Between the relentless harassment (the Snohomish County Sherriff's department will not respond to such problems and are notorious for this), the refusal to respect our property boundaries, and the refusal to help maintain the road, I am wondering where his actual easement rights, if any, fall. Does he by definition have easement rights, even though they exist nowhere in writing, because he has used the property for so long to access his driveway? If we are proactive can we forbid him from using our road at all (and perhaps fence it off, forcing him to either commit vandalism, which I have little doubt he will do, or cut his own road to his driveway off the county road)?
Thanks so much for any help/advice!
Part of my property is a 30ft wide private road, approximately 500ft long, that connects with a county road. Two neighbors live along this private road and use it to access their driveways. Our house was built in 1971 and there exists nowhere in writing that the neighbors have easement rights, but we have let them use it freely.
One of these neighbors, whose property starts where our private road intersects with the county road, has become increasingly aggressive in harassing my family, particularly my young son who waits for the bus, often in the dark, at the end of the road. He has also claimed a 10ft wide strip running the entire length of our road, adjacent to his property, as his own and has planted grass on it. The access to his driveway is right at the intersection with the county road and, although he has no reason to be milling around up at our end, he has taken to driving up to the end (to our house) several times a day and doing burnouts in the gravel and on the grass.
In addition to this, before this man became senile and just generally nasty, we had discussed with him on several occasions his lack of any upkeep on the portion of the road he uses. He has never once agreed to either lift a finger to help with the upkeep or chip in for the routine maintenance. I was told by an attorney that he is legally obligated to do so but I don't know what the legal precedence is for this. While the other neighbor, like ourselves, work to keep the road in good condition, this individual has let the section in front of his house become rutted, muddy, and heavily pot-holed. I became stubborn and stopped doing the upkeep on that portion a few years ago since he would not agree to help. Now the reasonable neighbor, my family, and visitors all have to deal with driving through a very unpleasant section of road to access our properties.
Between the relentless harassment (the Snohomish County Sherriff's department will not respond to such problems and are notorious for this), the refusal to respect our property boundaries, and the refusal to help maintain the road, I am wondering where his actual easement rights, if any, fall. Does he by definition have easement rights, even though they exist nowhere in writing, because he has used the property for so long to access his driveway? If we are proactive can we forbid him from using our road at all (and perhaps fence it off, forcing him to either commit vandalism, which I have little doubt he will do, or cut his own road to his driveway off the county road)?
Thanks so much for any help/advice!