mending fences

But really, you should be asking this question of an attorney who is familiar with property law, not in a forum like this. The laws are different in every state.

The way a easement deed works in my area of Texas-- my property deed would not show the easement but the other landowner will have a deed for the ROW he is using that has been deeded to him from the previous owner of your property that transferred the ROW to the other(his) property to begin with.

If I wanted to have a good neighbor and wanted to be a good neighbor I would just fence off to the established easement and let it go. You said the realtor explained it to you before the purchase did'nt you???

If you still just absolutely have to have the 32' why don't you fence the whole thing and put cattle guards at each end instead of gates. That way cattle and horses won't cross it and there is no gate to be left open or closed when driving thru.

The only boundary or easement problems I've ever had was when yuppies from town decided to buy the ground adjoining me. Know-it-all yuppies moving outtuh town get slam stupid some times.

I guess they figger if they raise enuff ruckus with you or send enough certified letters a country hick should cave in and do whatever they want.

As I understand it, I, as the present right of way owner, am the one who controls the access and determines who can travel over the road and when, not the property owner. I am, as the present owner of the right of way, the only one who can put a gate across the road, not the property owner. I believe that I could even prevent the property owner from using the right of way to reach portions of his property because he supposidly already has access to all of his property through his adjacent acreage.

Imagine if it were not so and the property owner could put locked gates and other inconveniences across my right of way just because he didn't like the kind of car I drive. Or think if the property owner could start building condo's and using my right of way for access to them. I don't think so!

It is up to the property owner to know about easements and rights of way through his property and if you are buying property, you should ask. Easements and rights of way should be shown on a survey map of the land. Rights of way transfer with the property when a property with a right of way to it is sold. My right of way is dated August 21, 1945

Rights of way can be dissolved only when it can be shown that it is no longer needed. It's very confusing, but there should be a legal agreement registered somewhere. Deeds and other property info are public record documents and that info should be available to anyone. If it is not registered with your local government, it probably isn't worth much and may not really exist. There usually is an exception if an access has been used openly for so many years. In PA it's 21 years before it becomes legit. But that's another can of worms.

If you wish to email take (remove) from my email address.

PEM

If all the other property owner uses the easement for is occasional hunting, just put a gate at each end and let them drive through the pasture; there's no reason for you to mow or otherwise maintain it. They might try to tell you that you have some obligation to mow it, but that's nonsense; they have a right to maintain it but you don't have to do anything except let them cross your property.

In a nutshell, it is a land locked tract that iwhen my ancestors bought it there were conflicting surveys as to where the boundary should be. It was settled at trial and a judge ordered an easement accrosss farmer X. In the 1950's farmer X's decendents closed the easement. My ancesters went to court and got an injunction stating the validity of the origional court order. The easement appears on no ones deed but is filed with the deeds as a court order in the county clerks office. It has been a source of trial and trouble. It apparently ended in the 1970s when one of my ancestors and one of farmer X's heirs (who were the last direct decendents) got into first a shouting match and then a shooting match. It ended with a death and prison sentence.

Last year the issue reared its head again when we found the easement closed and cable accross it. The land owner was not aware of any easement. It took a court order and the sheriff to open the easemetn again. Also, here, the holder of the easement is under no compulsion to fence any of it.

We own a boundry line along one field that has been in dispute with another family since my G-G-Grandfather bought in the late 1800's. No one is real hotheaded about it, but there have been a lot of words and grumbling about it.

I would say that the original poster needs to contact a good attorney! If the neighbor has access by other means {that is not an undue hardship} then the landowner can close the second access {easement} regardless of whether the other family owned it previously or not.

Get a lawyer!