Quick Claim Deed

[Big Country]

Wisconsin

I purchased a legal easement from the previous owner of a neighboring property. The easement goes across the edge of the neighbors corn field, through a creek, and a section of pastured woods. The new owner of this property is dividing it up and selling it off for hunting parcels. That's his right and I'm fine with that, even tho this new neighbor is not a very nice person. He is purposely land-locking a portion of this property and wants me to convey the cornfield portion of the easement to him so he can then allow the land-locked owner to use it as his easement as well. He has made threats to put up a line fence and stop running his cattle through our property, which would raise our taxes and add a cost of our portion of the fence, if we don't agree to do this. This also is fine with me. So he now says that he will just do a quick claim deed on the cornfield portion of my easement with the new owner of the land-locked parcel. Can he do this? I realize that it really doesn't matter in the scheme of things, I just want to know if it's legal.

Thank you for any advise...

 

[justalayman]

Presuming your easement is valid;

He cannot inhibit or prevent you from exercising your rights to use your easement.


Along with that; unless it is an exclusive easement he can grant the same rights your enjoy to the entire population of the world if he so chooses so unless he requires the use of your land to allow access to the now landlocked parcel, there is nothing preventing him from granting the exact same rights you enjoy regarding the easement to whomever he sells the landlocked parcel to.

 

[FlyingRon]

The term by the way is QUIT CLAIM not quick claim. As stated he can not quit claim away things he doesn't have the rights to. Any such deed wouldn't convey anything. As Justy says, if it doesn't interfere with your right to use and the easement is not exclusive, he can grant additional easements to others.

 

[Big Country]

Quit Claim Deed

Thank you both for the information. I guess what it boils down to is, yes, I totally get that he can do what he wishes with his land. But my understanding of a quit claim deed is that the person being granted the deed doesn't really own the land and the taxes , as well as well as the responsibility to fix any damage to my easement which may be caused by the grantor or the grantee would fall upon the grantor. Is this correct?

 

[FlyingRon]

But my understanding of a quit claim deed is that the person being granted the deed doesn't really own the land and the taxes as well as well as the responsibility to fix any damage to my easement which may be caused by the grantor or the grantee would fall upon the grantor. Is this correct?

No, neither point is correct. A quit claim is no different from any other deed on what it conveys. The only difference is that the quit claim deed makes no representation as to whether the owner has the interest that is conveyed. This is different from the warranty deeds where the grantor asserts that he does have the interest (in the case of a general warranty deed) or that he's not encumbered the property in a specified way (special warranty deed). The type of deed doesn't tell you anything about taxes nor who is responsible for maintaining the easement. You'll have to actually read the deed itself.

You need to take your easement deed to a lawyer and have him explain it to you. We can't do it from here.

 

[justalayman]

A quit claim deed can transfer exactly the same rights of ownership that any other deed does. The biggest difference is a quit claim deed makes no promise the rights transferred are actually held by the grantor and as such, able to be transferred. A general warranty deed is where the grantor warrants or guarantees the rights transferred are in fact theirs to transfer.

A quit claim deed is also used to transfer all rights that may be held by the grantor with no specific right conveyed. Such deeds are common in a divorce situation where one spouse may have some rights to a property but where there being no intent to warrantee the title, the grantor simply wishes to make it clear they are relinquishing any and all rights they hold or may hold to the grantee.


To further add;

A quit claim deed, while not generally used to convey an easement (a grant is more often used) it could be used in some situations. Off the top of my head I might use a qc deed if I wanted to convey my rights in an easement (mind you a typical easement in gross cannot be transferred in this manner since the rights are inherent with ownership of the dominant tenement and cannot usually be seperated from ownership of the dominant tenement) such as a right of easement across some persons land to access a hunting site of mine (as just one example). It is an extreme means to transfer rights but it is possible. In delivering a qc deed I would be relinquishing my rights to use the easement and transferring them to the grantee. A utility company may do something similar when transferring rights to a successor utility company providing utilities to an area.