Expert Legal Help for Easement Disputes

Protect Your Property Rights and Resolve Easement Conflicts with Professional Legal Support

An easement is a piece of land that belongs to one party, but may be freely used by another. A common example of this is the section of a sidewalk that crosses the driveway in front of a home. Technically, that strip of concrete belongs to the homeowner, but pedestrians may freely use the sidewalk, crossing the homeowner’s strip of property without committing a trespass. In more complicated cases, a landowner might carve out a specific area of land for another person to use for a specified purpose. For instance, the owner of a large meadow containing a lake may allow his neighbors to enter his land to go fishing in the lake.

Problems with easements usually arise when the limitations on the use of the land are exceeded. In the above examples, such violations could include a person setting up a tent and barbecue on the section of the sidewalk directly in front of his neighbor’s house and kids entering the meadow to hunt deer rather than access the lake for fishing. Since these actions deviate from the allowed use of the easement, the property owner may seek a legal remedy.

The law of easements can be extremely complicated, especially when property deeds contain language designating an easement, but later after a subsequent sale of the same land, the easement is not reflected on the deed. Or when two neighbors have an unwritten agreement regarding usage of an easement, but then one neighbor sells his property and the new owner refuses to honor the previous owner’s agreement.

At Webb Law Group, we believe that the best approach to settling this type of dispute is to determine the ultimate desires of each involved party and try to establish a workable agreement that promotes long-term amiability and avoids unnecessary legal expenses.