My question involves real estate located in the State of: Virginia
We own one of about 11 lots on an ingress-egress easement. The easement is a dead end, and all property deeds have an ingress-egress easement to get to the main public road. The covenants in the deed say that those who have a right to use the easement pay for maintenance of the easement in proportion to their distance from the public road. This apportionment of financial responsibility makse perfect sense when we were talking about routine grading, snow removal, of the road surface.
The final three lots on the ingress-egress easement are on the other side of a stream. The bridge/culvert over the stream recently experienced storm damage and needs very extensive repairs. The three property owners on the other side of the stream want to make a bigger culvert and add more concrete. They are the only three of the 11 landowners use the bridge/culvert.
The three lots on the other side of the stream were the last to be subdivided and sold. Their covenants include a slightly different language, four extra words, requiring those who have a right to use the easement "and who do use" the easement to pay for maintenance in proportion to their distance from the public road. We are not sure what the intent was of adding those words or whether it is relevant to the issue of responsibility for maintaining the bridge/culvert.
Our question is twofold. (1) if the covenants say the obligation is "maintenance" of the easement, does it mean we have an obligation to pay for repairs and capital improvements? (2) if we are located on the side of the stream that does not use the bridge/culvert, does our responsibility for ingress-egress easement maintenance end at our property? The rationale being that our property only has a right to use the part of the easement that leads to the road.
Thanks!!
We own one of about 11 lots on an ingress-egress easement. The easement is a dead end, and all property deeds have an ingress-egress easement to get to the main public road. The covenants in the deed say that those who have a right to use the easement pay for maintenance of the easement in proportion to their distance from the public road. This apportionment of financial responsibility makse perfect sense when we were talking about routine grading, snow removal, of the road surface.
The final three lots on the ingress-egress easement are on the other side of a stream. The bridge/culvert over the stream recently experienced storm damage and needs very extensive repairs. The three property owners on the other side of the stream want to make a bigger culvert and add more concrete. They are the only three of the 11 landowners use the bridge/culvert.
The three lots on the other side of the stream were the last to be subdivided and sold. Their covenants include a slightly different language, four extra words, requiring those who have a right to use the easement "and who do use" the easement to pay for maintenance in proportion to their distance from the public road. We are not sure what the intent was of adding those words or whether it is relevant to the issue of responsibility for maintaining the bridge/culvert.
Our question is twofold. (1) if the covenants say the obligation is "maintenance" of the easement, does it mean we have an obligation to pay for repairs and capital improvements? (2) if we are located on the side of the stream that does not use the bridge/culvert, does our responsibility for ingress-egress easement maintenance end at our property? The rationale being that our property only has a right to use the part of the easement that leads to the road.
Thanks!!
Maintenance and Repair: Responsibility for Repairing Bridge/Culvert That is Part of Ingress Egress Easement
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire