I deeply regret not fencing my 10-ft easement. The neighbor uses it as a driveway. Even mowed it and put a no trespassing sign on my easement! And got very offended when I told him it was my utility easement, not his driveway. So just be advised they may decide it’s theirs to use. Had I fenced my easement, it would have averted a lot of grief. You can always put electric further in on your side to keep your horses away from the fenceline.
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Who owns the property the easement is on? In other words, who is the subservient property owner you or the neighbor? I have an easement on my land for the neighbors driveway. I own the land but the neighbor has the use of my land to access his property. I am the subservient property, though I pay the taxes on the acreage.
I believe after the 3rd round of neighbors livestock coming through their fence I’d be shooing them out of my front gate into freedom.
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The easement is for the utility company. I own it and I have the right to fence it. After our last words, he started to use the ten ft easement on the side of my neighbor. It’s 20 ft wide. The one using it as a driveway doesn’t own it and doesn’t have right to it.
The problem began before me. This was raw land when I bought it. The neighbor beside me purchased his land from a relative of the one using it as a driveway. They were used to using it for their own purposes before the neighbor beside me or I purchased our properties. The easement is a total of 20 ft with 10 on each side. I can fence off my side at leisure it isn’t anyone’s to use but mine and the utility company to have access for maintenance.
The reason he was mowing it was his mother uses it to get from her house to his. I don’t mind that, she drives on it once a week and this was the reason I didn’t fence it originally. But he uses it, his in laws use it as a short cut, he brings workers through there. It is a very convenient short cut for them. And I feel like I live on a corner instead of a dead end. Had he been a bit more humble and asked permission I might have granted it a couple of times. And because they were mowing and using it, it looks like a dirt road and others that are lost from an old map where there was a road around here that no longer exists, find it and think it’s a road and then go through ending up at his mother’s back yard .
I should have just fenced it with a gate for utility access. Now I would need to take down the new fence to put up a brand new fence and my body just doesn’t go there anymore.
Be aware of prescriptive easement and adverse possession. Not a lawyer, nor in your state. Get some advice quickly.
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Yes, depending on the state, the nice neighbor mowing your property can claim adverse possession and claim that part of the property as theirs. Some states the person also has to pay some taxes or otherwise establish their claim, in other states they only maintain it, and it eventually becomes their land.
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If you have title insurance, this is one way that you may be able to protect your rights as a home/land owner.
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Or the neighbor signs a notarized statement that their maintenance or use of a portion of your property does not equal adverse possession. (Judge Judy had a neighbor that was mowing a big side part of her property, and he claimed he was just being nice. When she told him that he would have to sign a statement saying he had no claim to her property, he refused, so she put up a fence, and I’m betting sent him a cease-and-desist order about trespass.).
I had a friend who owned a large farm, of which one piece was on the opposite side of the creek. It wasn’t a section of her property she used, or visited much, but it was still very much hers. She noticed that it had been mowed. She found out it was the neighbor on that side of the creek. She asked that they not mow or step on her property. They continued. She put up no trespassing signs, they disappeared. Finally she had to hire an attorney to write a strongly worded letter. She also put up some fencing and planted some plants to create a hard line. People will keep pushing…until you push back.
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Soooo… It appears they have a hard line for moving. Every outside animal but the one horse they moved here with has been rehomed/sold, and they posted the tractor and all implements for sale for $26k or “trade for dually truck or RV.”
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Very sorry for hijacking this thread. I have title insurance. Wouldn’t purchase property without it. He has stopped using my side and it is grown up in weeds. Its just the neighbor’s side they are using now. It still bothers my dogs. This isn’t supposed to be a corner lot. I’m at the very end of a dead end street but they know where I stand on this issue.
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@Redemption3 Not necessarily directed at you, but it may hold true for you as well. Generally speaking, when you get a loan to buy a piece of property, the bank requires you to get title insurance. This protects the banks investment, but it only applies to the life of the loan. To be sure you are protected even after you pay off your loan, or if you weren’t required to purchase it to protect the lender, title insurance companies sell “owner’s policies”. These protect your investment for the entire time you own the property.
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Thank you. My property was paid cash. The title insurance was through the title company.
Woohoo! 
Fingers crossed for you that the next neighbors will be excellent neighbors. Get the cookies ready to take over there after they move in, then come back and report to the thread. :winkgrin: 
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@Redemption3, strongly advise getting the advice of a local attorney with experience in these matters, and following it exactly. Don’t rely on the internet or well-meaning advice from friends/family. They mean well, but they aren’t title experts. If you want to avoid loosing rights to that part of your property.
Would you be willing to sell your intrusive neighbor that bit, just to remove potential future conflicts? That would be the easiest resolution - if it was ok with you to have them doing whatever they wished on that bit.
Because if you want to insure your own property rights, the others posting are correct, you need to take the legally correct action without delay. Otherwise you may regret not having done so now.
Don’t count on title insurance to protect you here. Not an attorney, but this is what I’ve researched about title insurance. Title insurance per my research only applies to active liens in place before the purchase. It does not apply to anything that happens after the purchase. Even if it happens only a day after the purchase. It just makes sure you (and the mortgage lender) don’t buy into pre-existing liens.
As I understand it, title insurance does nothing for liens posted after the purchase, even if the cause of the lien occurred before the purchase.
Read your title insurance document carefully. Take it at its word, don’t read anything into it that isn’t printed there. I, too, have usually had it before a purchase. But where I live, the entire title insurance document is one page and filled with restrictive limitations that confine the title insurance company’s responsibility to almost nothing.
Title insurance actually doesn’t do much. I have seen cases of title issues that didn’t involve liens, but that originated before the purchase and weren’t discovered until after the purchase, that title insurance did nothing about. That included someone selling a property that they didn’t actually own! They used fraudulent identification to get through the closing and collect the funds. No one seemed to be on the hook for this except the unfortunate buyer who had the property taken away from him. Not the closing company (which approved the “seller’s” fraudulent driver’s license and other documents) and not the title insurance.
This may vary by state, but again - get an attorney and spend a little money to make sure your property rights are securely anchored and what you want them to be.
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Do you know which company was the Title Insurance Company…not Joe Smoe Title…But Fidelity, Chicago, First American…
I’m sure you intended to direct the question to the OP, not to me.
But not sure it matters much, other than the strength of the company to settle righteous claims. These days these things are so regulated, that whatever the name on it, it reads and works in a very similar fashion.
A teeny update for those still following: I saw the tractor and all implements go by yesterday, so it sold. She posted last week about getting two of their three (tho I haven’t seen the was-wandering-now-chained “husky mix” in a few months…) dogs shots to get be ready for their trip, and I went right ahead and asked if they had an offer. She said no but “interest is picking up” and that they are moving in two weeks for his job. It has been on the market since July 19 with no open house, no offers, and they haven’t dropped the price. They owe less than a 1/3 of the asking price, so I have no idea why the resistance to dropping the price unless they are being coached by their agent. Anyone interested in moving to the island? It’s a nice house, great kitchen :yes:. I’m building my arena this fall, would be willing to share for the right person!
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Definitely following. Thinking good thoughts for your next neighbors!
If they hold out for their price, and then get it, it will help raise your property value as well. And your property taxes. :winkgrin:
A realtor told me once that pushing up a market needed an owner who would do that, stand pat for their price for a few months, when it was possible that eventually someone would pay it.
