| 1. |
|
| 2. |
|
| 3. |
|
Ratings. Guidance. The Right Lawyer.
Easement dispute with neighbor, WA State
Bellevue, WA
Viewed 939 times.
Posted about 1 year ago in Real Estate
Flag as objectionable
Hi,
I am in Washington State. I bought a lot subject to an easement. The easement was on the northwest corner of my property and was basically a driveway so that my neighbor could get to his property. Originally when the city conducted a survey the driveway was 490 square feet. When I built the house I enlarged the area and repaved it. The easement was supposed to be maintained by my neighbor but he wanted me to repave it and I figured that I would enlarge it and he can use his half and I would use my other half. The entire area is now 2000 square feet. We are now having a dispute because my neighbor wants to use the area to park his cars and basically thinks that its his property. He wants to go to arbitration. The language that is now in dispute says: 1(a) Grantor grants to grantee an easement for ingress and egress across, over and on Parcel 2 (my parcel) for the benefit of Parcel 1. 1(b) The easement shall exist as it existed as constructed on August 1999 on the northwest corner of Parcel 2 2(a) The Grantee shall be responsible for maintenance of this easement 2(b) Grantee shall have exclusive use of the area within the easement. I have three questions: I thought that this meant that he has a “right of way” easement. All sample easement language that I looked at regarding ingress and egress say “ingress and egress across, over and on” He thinks this means that he basically owns the land and I think that this just means that he can cross over and on my land to have access to his property. Who is right? Regarding 1(b) can I not add and enlarge it to use my property for myself? Does 2(b) mean that I cannot go on that area? Does it mean that he can keep me off of that area of my property? I thought that this meant that I can’t sell it to anyone else and he has exclusive rights to use that area to use that area to drive on and off of his property. Am I wrong? Answers (1)
Roy Earl Morriss
This attorney is licensed in Washington.
Posted about 1 year ago.
Flag as objectionable
Your situation is all about the word 'exclusive'. The vast majority of easements are 'non-exclusive', most easements don't even mention those words because there is a presumption that an easement is non-exclusive unless it is stated otherwise.
In this case, the grantee apparently has an exclusive easement - though there might be some question of that based on the way the easement is worded, it should probably state clearly that it is an exclusive easement. But, if he does have an exclusive easement it does usually mean that he can exclude all others from that property - BUT, he probably can not exclude the grantor. The way these are usually interpreted is that the grantee can exclude all others but not the grantor. There would need to be a clause in the easement that specifically excludes the grantor - I don't see that here. As for his use of the area - it appears that he does ONLY have an ingress/ egress easement across your property. Which means that even though he can exclude others from the property because of the exclusive easement, he also can not use the easement area for any other purpose - no other use, no parking, no planting, no basketball - nothing. If he does so, it would be a misuse of the easement and you might be able to either end the easement (unlikely) or at least enforce the easement. As for 1(b), generally the easement area takes up the same area it took up in 1999 and the grantee doesn't have a right to use area added to the driveway - but, I've seen this challanged by someone saying that the grantor enlarged the easement area. But, for the most part, I'd say he only has a right to use the 1999 area. How to solve this? Non-binding arbitration might be OK. But, you probably should still have this looked at by an attorney...so that you have a fuller idea of your rights than I can give you in this forum with this amount of information. If you have more questions feel free to email me. |
