My question involves real estate located in the State of: Georgia
We purchased a property through HUD auction, paid cash and received a copy of the limited warranty deed at closing. As part of the deed describing the property, there is also a conveyance of an easement, described specifically as:
"Together with a non-exclusive easement and all rights contained in that certain agreement dated ***** between ****** and ******** as recorded in Deed book 000, Page 000, **** County Deed Records, to which reference is hereby made for a more specific description of all the rights contained and conveyed herein. This deed is given subject to all easements and restrictions of record."
Warranty Deed Right-of-Way Easement and Maintenance Agreement. (Easement is specifically defined by survey coordinates in R/O/W description and depicted on Survey.)
"Said Right-of-way is for the purpose of ingress and egress and the maintenance and installation of utilities, to be maintained by the grantee herein, his heirs and assigns."
**************
When the property was purchased several years ago, the legally defined easement was entirely blocked by fallen trees and unaccessible at the time. The fallen trees were cut by us, the debris cleared throughout the 12' wide easement from the paved road to the purchased property so that it could be used per the legal permissions. The Grantor owns property on either side of the easement and rents mobile homes to tenants, each of those properties having a clear, unobstructed and independent easement or driveway. The Grantor recently approached us and plainly stated that his tenants were now going to use our easement for access to and from their trailers instead of their own driveways. Indeed, when we walked down to our mailbox, the Grantor had installed barricades across the perfectly traversable easement to the mobile trailers. (It should be stated here that any point of contention that the Grantor seems to project in this matter is felt pursuant to the fact that he used to own our purchased land and home at one time and was the only other bidder at HUD auction, ultimately losing to our winning bid amount and an outcome that appeared to never fully settle in his mind to date.)
We now find ourselves being made to share our easement with rental tenants to the adjacent property, traversing our easement that is only 12' wide legally but actually only wide enough for one vehicle to travel in either direction all the way to the paved road, some 900 feet away. The vehicle(s) at the rental property have also begun to back their vehicles in reverse upward along the easement and into the portion that extends up into our actual yard before proceeding forward along the easement to the road. It will certainly come to a point where we find ourselves waiting in line before our ingress/egress easement is clear of oncoming vehicles before we ourselves can proceed. Prior to the Grantor's recent announcement, renters used their own easements.
Our question centers upon not only our rights to this easement as legally defined, but the Grantor's unwarranted barricade of their tenant's rightful easement and instructions to strictly use our easement to access their rental property, which constitutes a longer route. By what we've been able to discern, GA law seems to establish the ruling that easement grantees have the right to "reasonable enjoyment" of such an easement, translating to "full enjoyment." Our easement appears to be specific in its use, with no language that would permit proximal renters or other persons to use our easement as their ingress-egress as well. Moreover, we are specified as legally responsible for maintenance of the easement, now to be used by multiple others according to the Grantor. Since the renter's easement has been barricaded, we can reasonably presume that all persons being welcomed to the renter's property must also use our easement as well, creating a potential concourse of vehicles being diverted to our easement. We have also found any element of privacy and mental tranquility that we once enjoyed is now truncated by the fact that renters vehicles and their guests are passing directly in front of our home on our driveway, that would otherwise be using their own easement and driveway.
Where does the law stand with respect to this type of easement and its use being changed by the Grantor that creates what we feel is intentional deprivation of our enjoyment and privilege of the easement? Can the court order a change in our specific easement to exclusive and require others to use their own easements?
We purchased a property through HUD auction, paid cash and received a copy of the limited warranty deed at closing. As part of the deed describing the property, there is also a conveyance of an easement, described specifically as:
"Together with a non-exclusive easement and all rights contained in that certain agreement dated ***** between ****** and ******** as recorded in Deed book 000, Page 000, **** County Deed Records, to which reference is hereby made for a more specific description of all the rights contained and conveyed herein. This deed is given subject to all easements and restrictions of record."
Warranty Deed Right-of-Way Easement and Maintenance Agreement. (Easement is specifically defined by survey coordinates in R/O/W description and depicted on Survey.)
"Said Right-of-way is for the purpose of ingress and egress and the maintenance and installation of utilities, to be maintained by the grantee herein, his heirs and assigns."
**************
When the property was purchased several years ago, the legally defined easement was entirely blocked by fallen trees and unaccessible at the time. The fallen trees were cut by us, the debris cleared throughout the 12' wide easement from the paved road to the purchased property so that it could be used per the legal permissions. The Grantor owns property on either side of the easement and rents mobile homes to tenants, each of those properties having a clear, unobstructed and independent easement or driveway. The Grantor recently approached us and plainly stated that his tenants were now going to use our easement for access to and from their trailers instead of their own driveways. Indeed, when we walked down to our mailbox, the Grantor had installed barricades across the perfectly traversable easement to the mobile trailers. (It should be stated here that any point of contention that the Grantor seems to project in this matter is felt pursuant to the fact that he used to own our purchased land and home at one time and was the only other bidder at HUD auction, ultimately losing to our winning bid amount and an outcome that appeared to never fully settle in his mind to date.)
We now find ourselves being made to share our easement with rental tenants to the adjacent property, traversing our easement that is only 12' wide legally but actually only wide enough for one vehicle to travel in either direction all the way to the paved road, some 900 feet away. The vehicle(s) at the rental property have also begun to back their vehicles in reverse upward along the easement and into the portion that extends up into our actual yard before proceeding forward along the easement to the road. It will certainly come to a point where we find ourselves waiting in line before our ingress/egress easement is clear of oncoming vehicles before we ourselves can proceed. Prior to the Grantor's recent announcement, renters used their own easements.
Our question centers upon not only our rights to this easement as legally defined, but the Grantor's unwarranted barricade of their tenant's rightful easement and instructions to strictly use our easement to access their rental property, which constitutes a longer route. By what we've been able to discern, GA law seems to establish the ruling that easement grantees have the right to "reasonable enjoyment" of such an easement, translating to "full enjoyment." Our easement appears to be specific in its use, with no language that would permit proximal renters or other persons to use our easement as their ingress-egress as well. Moreover, we are specified as legally responsible for maintenance of the easement, now to be used by multiple others according to the Grantor. Since the renter's easement has been barricaded, we can reasonably presume that all persons being welcomed to the renter's property must also use our easement as well, creating a potential concourse of vehicles being diverted to our easement. We have also found any element of privacy and mental tranquility that we once enjoyed is now truncated by the fact that renters vehicles and their guests are passing directly in front of our home on our driveway, that would otherwise be using their own easement and driveway.
Where does the law stand with respect to this type of easement and its use being changed by the Grantor that creates what we feel is intentional deprivation of our enjoyment and privilege of the easement? Can the court order a change in our specific easement to exclusive and require others to use their own easements?
Use and Enforcement: Georgia Landowner's Rights Subject to Non-Exclusive Easement As Prescribed by Deed
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