My question involves real estate located in the State of: CA
As the title states, I have a question about who is responsible for maintenance of an access road to a landlocked property in Kern County, CA.
Specifically, when we purchased the property about 10 years ago, we were told that a dirt road (about 1/2 mile long) on the adjacent property can be used by us to access our property. The title company confirmed this at the time of purchase.
About two years ago, parts of the road got washed out from the rains. We talked to the owner of the adjacent property on which the access road is located, and she told us that since the road is an easement to us, it was our responsibility to maintain it. To avoid arguments, we paid someone about $2000 to fix the road.
That lasted less than 8 weeks, before severe rains flooded the area, washing away about 1/4 mile length of the road and keeping it under water for the next few months. We resorted to walking from our car to the property, which was tolerable since we only visit the property about once a month.
After the area dried out, we ended up with a 1/4 mile stretch of sandy "road", along with several dry river beds across the road, about 25' across and 2 feet deep. Obviously, the road is completely impassable to most vehicles.
We're estimating that the repairs at this point would cost close to $50,000 (no one has been willing to tackle this job or give us an estimate); but the worse part is that short of adding properly engineered drainage channels, any repairs could be washed away the very next year. Review of the local maps showed that the road is in a known floodplain, so similar situations can be expected in the future.
We talked to the adjacent landowner again. She initially said that she will take care of it, but has since become non-responsive and nothing has changed on the road, it is still impassable.
I started digging into the legal documents to see what our options were, and this is where I would like to get some feedback to see if I understand things correctly.
First is the Parcel Map document for the adjacent property on which the access road is located (1991). One of the statements there is as follows:
- "The maintenance of the access road shall be the responsibility of the subdivider until time as responsibility is transferred to a homeowner's association or similar entity"
Next is a document from 1990 (so a year earlier) that states the following:
- "FOR A CONSIDERATION, receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, XXYYY INC, a California Corporation, hereby grant to the PUBLIC IN GENERAL an easement for ingress, egress, and road purposes on, over, and across the following described real property in the County of Kern, State of California: (See attached Exhibit "A"). This grant shall be irrevocable, and shall be binding on the grantors, their heirs, executors, administrators, successors and assigns. Said easement to be kept open, clear and free from buildings and structures of any kind". The attached "Exhibit A" identifies the access road in question as an easement, along with a couple of other roads that lead further down along the overall parcel mentioned in the 1991 document.
Given this background and documents, I am reaching two conclusions - one, the access roads described in the easement must be open to the public (as a matter of fact, the owner has erected gates at the entrance). Second, and more importantly, it is her responsibility to maintain the road per the 1991 document, since she is the subdivider. And moreover, we not only have no duty, but probably no right, to maintain the road, since it is not an easement that was granted specifically to us, but to the PUBLIC IN GENERAL.
Am I interpreting this correctly?
As the title states, I have a question about who is responsible for maintenance of an access road to a landlocked property in Kern County, CA.
Specifically, when we purchased the property about 10 years ago, we were told that a dirt road (about 1/2 mile long) on the adjacent property can be used by us to access our property. The title company confirmed this at the time of purchase.
About two years ago, parts of the road got washed out from the rains. We talked to the owner of the adjacent property on which the access road is located, and she told us that since the road is an easement to us, it was our responsibility to maintain it. To avoid arguments, we paid someone about $2000 to fix the road.
That lasted less than 8 weeks, before severe rains flooded the area, washing away about 1/4 mile length of the road and keeping it under water for the next few months. We resorted to walking from our car to the property, which was tolerable since we only visit the property about once a month.
After the area dried out, we ended up with a 1/4 mile stretch of sandy "road", along with several dry river beds across the road, about 25' across and 2 feet deep. Obviously, the road is completely impassable to most vehicles.
We're estimating that the repairs at this point would cost close to $50,000 (no one has been willing to tackle this job or give us an estimate); but the worse part is that short of adding properly engineered drainage channels, any repairs could be washed away the very next year. Review of the local maps showed that the road is in a known floodplain, so similar situations can be expected in the future.
We talked to the adjacent landowner again. She initially said that she will take care of it, but has since become non-responsive and nothing has changed on the road, it is still impassable.
I started digging into the legal documents to see what our options were, and this is where I would like to get some feedback to see if I understand things correctly.
First is the Parcel Map document for the adjacent property on which the access road is located (1991). One of the statements there is as follows:
- "The maintenance of the access road shall be the responsibility of the subdivider until time as responsibility is transferred to a homeowner's association or similar entity"
Next is a document from 1990 (so a year earlier) that states the following:
- "FOR A CONSIDERATION, receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, XXYYY INC, a California Corporation, hereby grant to the PUBLIC IN GENERAL an easement for ingress, egress, and road purposes on, over, and across the following described real property in the County of Kern, State of California: (See attached Exhibit "A"). This grant shall be irrevocable, and shall be binding on the grantors, their heirs, executors, administrators, successors and assigns. Said easement to be kept open, clear and free from buildings and structures of any kind". The attached "Exhibit A" identifies the access road in question as an easement, along with a couple of other roads that lead further down along the overall parcel mentioned in the 1991 document.
Given this background and documents, I am reaching two conclusions - one, the access roads described in the easement must be open to the public (as a matter of fact, the owner has erected gates at the entrance). Second, and more importantly, it is her responsibility to maintain the road per the 1991 document, since she is the subdivider. And moreover, we not only have no duty, but probably no right, to maintain the road, since it is not an easement that was granted specifically to us, but to the PUBLIC IN GENERAL.
Am I interpreting this correctly?
Maintenance and Repair: Who is Responsible for Repair of Access Road to a Landlocked Property
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