My question involves real estate located in the State of: Virginia
Hi, we bought our house about a year ago and a few months later, the neighbor told us they had an easement to use part of the parking area on our property. It seems in the past, one person owned both of these properties and built a parking area on one of them (ours). When selling the other (the neighbors) property, an easement was included on the deed. This easement is not mentioned on the deed/title of our property but I understand it is still legally binding if it's only on the neighbors deed. Anyway, this was not discovered in the title search prior to us purchasing the property and we obviously have title insurance. We filed a claim, the insurance company said it was a valid claim and low-balled us on the compensation. We haven't accepted the compensation yet.
However, our preference would be to make the easement go away and we believe there may be scope to challenge the validity of the easement...
The wording of the easement, from the neighbors deed, is as such:
"Together with an easement to use the parking area located on the property at XXX. Said easement is to be seven (7) foot in width beginning at the edge of said property line, and is to continue as long as two feet of said parking area remains on the property herein conveyed. Making the total width of said parking area 8 feet."
So... this raises a couple of questions ...
7 foot + 2 foot = 9 foot, not 8 foot. So that's the first strange thing, at least to me.
The parking area is not exactly perpendicular to the road / parallel to the property line. At the road, the parking area is 6 inches on the neighbors property and this grows to a maximum of 1 foot 7 inches. We actually have two surveys, one saying the parking area is a maximum of 1 foot 6 inches and the other 1 foot 7 inches on the neighbors property.
At no point, is it 2 foot, or more, on the neighbors property.
So, to me (not legally qualified), it would suggest that if 2 foot of the parking area is not on the neighbors property, the easement would not be valid. Any thoughts on this?
I've been told that even if the wording of an easement was not good, a court would consider the 'intent' of the easement. However, I would then argue, the '2 foot clause' was included for a reason.
I guess the second part of my question would be, could we dig up and reconfigure our front yard, effectively doing away with the parking area? Our yard has this massive bit of asphalt (two parking spaces) and the neighbors yard is all landscaping. We'd prefer more landscaping ourselves and would reduce the parking area if we thought it legal, but we obviously don't want to be sued by the neighbor. I also heard that since the neighbor has an easement to the parking area, we can't simply get rid of, thereby denying them access to it.
Would appreciate any advice on this. We've spoken with a lawyer and he said that we may be able to challenge the wording of the easement and he's checked that it is the only wording of the easement on the history of the property.
We are thinking of getting another survey done and asking them to focus on the placement of the parking area specifically. The title insurance company also said that if we can get another appraisal, they will consider it. Unfortunately, we're struggling to find an appraiser who's willing to take the job as apparently it's likely to be difficult to quantify the diminution in value.
Many thanks,
S
Hi, we bought our house about a year ago and a few months later, the neighbor told us they had an easement to use part of the parking area on our property. It seems in the past, one person owned both of these properties and built a parking area on one of them (ours). When selling the other (the neighbors) property, an easement was included on the deed. This easement is not mentioned on the deed/title of our property but I understand it is still legally binding if it's only on the neighbors deed. Anyway, this was not discovered in the title search prior to us purchasing the property and we obviously have title insurance. We filed a claim, the insurance company said it was a valid claim and low-balled us on the compensation. We haven't accepted the compensation yet.
However, our preference would be to make the easement go away and we believe there may be scope to challenge the validity of the easement...
The wording of the easement, from the neighbors deed, is as such:
"Together with an easement to use the parking area located on the property at XXX. Said easement is to be seven (7) foot in width beginning at the edge of said property line, and is to continue as long as two feet of said parking area remains on the property herein conveyed. Making the total width of said parking area 8 feet."
So... this raises a couple of questions ...
7 foot + 2 foot = 9 foot, not 8 foot. So that's the first strange thing, at least to me.
The parking area is not exactly perpendicular to the road / parallel to the property line. At the road, the parking area is 6 inches on the neighbors property and this grows to a maximum of 1 foot 7 inches. We actually have two surveys, one saying the parking area is a maximum of 1 foot 6 inches and the other 1 foot 7 inches on the neighbors property.
At no point, is it 2 foot, or more, on the neighbors property.
So, to me (not legally qualified), it would suggest that if 2 foot of the parking area is not on the neighbors property, the easement would not be valid. Any thoughts on this?
I've been told that even if the wording of an easement was not good, a court would consider the 'intent' of the easement. However, I would then argue, the '2 foot clause' was included for a reason.
I guess the second part of my question would be, could we dig up and reconfigure our front yard, effectively doing away with the parking area? Our yard has this massive bit of asphalt (two parking spaces) and the neighbors yard is all landscaping. We'd prefer more landscaping ourselves and would reduce the parking area if we thought it legal, but we obviously don't want to be sued by the neighbor. I also heard that since the neighbor has an easement to the parking area, we can't simply get rid of, thereby denying them access to it.
Would appreciate any advice on this. We've spoken with a lawyer and he said that we may be able to challenge the wording of the easement and he's checked that it is the only wording of the easement on the history of the property.
We are thinking of getting another survey done and asking them to focus on the placement of the parking area specifically. The title insurance company also said that if we can get another appraisal, they will consider it. Unfortunately, we're struggling to find an appraiser who's willing to take the job as apparently it's likely to be difficult to quantify the diminution in value.
Many thanks,
S
Termination: Questioning Neighbors Easement
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