Website design By BotEap.comThis is a common situation. A private easement is a legal right to use another person’s land for a certain purpose. It is not uncommon for owners of landlocked properties without access to a road to obtain an easement in order to access the road, which is often over a driveway. Your property may be encumbered with an easement from years or decades in the past, and now is the time to repair the property that is covered by the easement.

Website design By BotEap.comYou were probably aware of the easement when you bought the property. His attorney or his title insurance company probably told you about it. In many cases, there is also an easement maintenance agreement on file with the county clerk’s office. This agreement would address the issue of who has to pay for driveway repairs. If no such agreement exists, unfortunately you have no good way of forcing your neighbors to pay for resurfacing since you own the land.

Website design By BotEap.comHopefully, if there is no easement maintenance agreement on file, you will be able to reach an agreement with your neighbor. You should approach your neighbor in a friendly manner, discuss the problem and offer to split the cost of resurfacing the driveway. You might even offer to pay a little more than your fair share to show a good faith effort to compromise and get the neighbor to agree more. If your neighbor refuses, you have a few options.

Website design By BotEap.comFirst of all, you can choose to do nothing. If you do nothing, the driveway will obviously deteriorate. This could damage your vehicles and could basically force the neighbor to bargain with you and offer a reasonable contribution for driveway repairs. However, this will take time. Your neighbor may be stubborn and may continue to refuse to help with repairs, which means you have to use a poor driveway as well. You may have an alternate path you can take, and you might consider using it and letting them use only the rough driveway.

Website design By BotEap.comAnother option is to hire an attorney. The attorney could write a letter threatening to cut off the neighbor’s access to the driveway unless the neighbor agrees to a contribution. However, that is usually just a threat. They cannot be forced to pay the driveway, although a letter from a lawyer could go a long way in scaring them enough to pay a portion of the driveway.

Website design By BotEap.comFinally, if friendly negotiations, inaction, and the letter are of no avail, you could choose to block the neighbor’s access to the driveway. However, it is very likely that if they went to court, a court could force you to remove the gate if the neighbors’ easement is legal. To go to court, your neighbors may need to hire a lawyer, and the neighbor may realize that the money would be better spent on repairing the driveway rather than taking legal action. It is also possible that a court may find that the neighbor has a valid easement, you improperly denied the neighbor access to his property, and therefore you must pay the neighbor’s legal fees.

Website design By BotEap.comIt can be very frustrating to own property that is subject to an easement. Easement holders can be completely inconsiderate in their use of the property in multiple ways. Unfortunately, once an easement is established on property, it can be very difficult to get rid of. You can have the easement holder release it, which is unlikely if the easement is needed to gain access to a road. You can also take action in court, which could legally terminate the easement.