I would ask the attorney what you can do about the trespass, and the road access.
I would refuse any offers that would allow them to trespass, opening you to liability, and expenses maintaining a road you don’t even need.
My guess is you’ll need to send a cease-and-desist letter to all involved, and anyone who is using the road. Probably with fencing and t-posts, and No Trespassing signs. With cameras filming the fence and former road access.
How important is that part of your property containing the road and extra to you? Could you offer it to them (at a price satisfactory to you, of course) to buy, That way it’s their problem not yours. It may require subdivision and the legal/bylaw/planning hoops to jump through. Alternatively, if they don’t have access, you could offer a minimal price to the sellers for their now ‘worthless’ property and expand your holdings; then you keep control of the road…
I like this!!!..
The lots can then be subdivided to provide access for the land-locked parcel and sold for a profit.
Did the road go in after you owned the property or was it there when you bought?
How long have the neighbors been there using the road? Are they aware they don’t have a legal easement? Do they think they do? Wondering if you have a title insurance avenue if they think they have an unrecorded easement.
Do you block two people from their property if you shut down the road or is there another way they can access, it didn’t really sound like there was…
I understand removing the road and not having any easement across your land is ideal for you since the easement does pull down your property value a bit. Not sure how difficult it would be to do in practice with existing homes there. If you could sell that bit to the neighbors and new buyer all together and you wouldn’t miss it it might be the best soluation (as was mentioned above). If you keep ownership of the land you might see about enforcing a road maintenance agreement among the users so that the road is maintained property and doesn’t get wider and wider as the years go by, as part of a recorded easement. It would certainly make for happier neighbors; I hear that you don’t like the potential buyers but not sure how you feel about landlocking your existing neighbors.
All of this is fodder for your RE attorney to pick over, just giving you some thoughts to think and make note of while you sort it out.
Honestly I think this might be the route we might look into next. I definitely won’t miss that part of my land. If we could sell it and be done with it that would be ideal. If I could get enough out of it to put up a nice privacy fence on that side of my land I would be all for it.
They don’t seem very agreeable and not sure that they actually have the cash to make any sort of deal but we will see.
They don’t really have much choice though, do they?
It’s YOUR land, and price/access would be based on agreeableness, at least it would be to me, but I’m mean that way…
If it were me they would buy it or they would have to go to court to try and get an easement. Do they have another way to get to the land, or are you it? If there’s another way, I’d make sure they’re harassing that land owner, too.
Close the road immediately. They want access, they need to follow legal routes, no access until they do. Them being butt heads is now going to bite them.
Fence it all off and let them figure it out on their own land .
I also like the idea about carving out a place for the road and selling it to them
I’m just going to say, suddenly blocking access that has been allowed to be used for some time is probably not as easy legally or neighbor-ly as it might seem to some. I’d never recommend she go to war by suddenly making it so people can’t even go to their house that evening or next week without having an air tight legal stance already nailed down and highly recommended by her attorney (which none of us are). It’s not like the road appeared and was used by neighbors overnight, it’s a frustrating situation right now but it could and should be resolved legally, especially for OP’s sake.
This should be an anthem.
First you need to get your legal ducks in a row. Find out about prior easements, etc. Then find out how to “carve out” (subdivide) an access lane from your property that can have a separate deed, then offer the land locked property owners that you are willing to sell the access road to their buyers.
Price it “high” if neighbors are being buttheads. Price it “fair” if you want them gone…but you don’t know who your new neighbors will be. It is your show since you own the land. Unfortunately you will have to pay $$$ for attorney’s opinion.
Somethings in life are so immensely gratifiying,
Make sure you wrap up the cost of the subdivide into the cost of the parcel. That’s on their dime.
You might want to find out if it’s even possible to subdivide the road section out. You definitely don’t want to end up with the neighbors having an easement on your property, or subdivide out the road, and then a bunch of houses are built on their properties.
The problem is if they have the money to lawyer up, it’s highly likely they will end up with the easement.
We have landlocked property in a rural state/area and will eventually need a prescriptive easement to get rights on a logging road to get up there. It’s low priority and hard to handle from afar, so my mother who is an attorney hasn’t even gone after it. But she knows they will have no option, they will have to agree.
We don’t plan on blocking access. I do think we might “post” it to make it clear it is private property until this all gets worked out.
In some places a prescriptive easement doesn’t need to be formally applied for if they can prove they’ve been using and maintaining it for X amount of time.
I’d block it asap and put the ball in their court.
I think it’s covered in that great Gen Z phrase: F** around and find out!* 
I only wish someone had come up saying with this 30 years ago!
Mortgage banker here - for them to get a mortgage, they have to have legal access to the parcel and some kind of agreement on who is maintaining that access. If you are on good terms with your neighbors, and they have a mortgage, they likely have title insurance which covers this very circumstance and may pay you for the market rate of what that easement is worth. I would have them talk to their title insurance and the attorney they provide, and you should call your title insurance policy as well. Everyone involved has already paid for an insurance policy to cover this circumstance, use it!
Edit: I will also note the road maintenance agreement is not something you are obligated to in Virginia, at least. There is likely some legal right of an easement somewhere, but they have no legal right to make you maintain it. That is mortgage specific, and on all my transactions where someone is buying a property with a private road, I set the expectation with my client that in order to get a loan on this, the bank needs to know the collateral is going to be accessible in a way that maintains the value of the property. This benefits them by being able to get a loan and benefits their neighbors zero by being legally obligated to do something that they were not previously obligated to do. Occasionally the neighbors will sign such an agreement to record, particularly if one is already in place that simply needs to be modified in some way, but 9 times out of 10, the borrower just records an agreement with their deed saying they agree to maintain the private road sufficient to provide access to their own property and moves along. Expecting people in a residential real estate transaction to conduct a whole city planning project and get people on board for unknown future expenses is not real life and I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen it actually happen. If anyone thinks you’re going to sign something agreeing to maintain that road that you don’t need in any way, they are either crazy or new at selling rural properties.
Here a road maintenance agreement on a private road is super common to have the road plowed in the winter. All home owners on the agreement pitch in to hire a plow truck so they can drive in/out of their place all winter and improve the road so it doesn’t turn into a mosh pit in the spring. The agreement prevents one owner from paying the plow truck or doing all the work while all the others use the road. They are on nearly every private road in my area and they have nothing to do with our tiny cities or county because it’s a PRIVATE road. As I mentioned above, if OP kept possession of the land and did the easement she could attempt to stipulate that the users of the road, not her, maintain it. I’ve also repeatedly said “in my world” and “consult an attorney” b/c things are different around the country.
OP already said that the neighbors paid in cash and do not have a mortgage but the potential buyers do need a mortgage. In my state, the neighbors could have paid in cash, skipped the title policy, and not have their home or property insured, and not have the money to buy the easement or hire an attorney. As always, in my world and in my state.
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