Here is a crude drawing of the setup: https://i.imgur.com/M8M5vAJ.png
We are looking at the lot in the bottom left corner. We would not own the path to the street, but it is included as an easement through the property in front of us. It is not a shared driveway, they have their own driveway. In fact it is already roughed out as a driveway with electrical poles ran and the lot is somewhat cleared.
We are first time land buyers, would this be a good idea or is there some potential gotchas that we might get bit by?
by MyOgre
5 Comments
No thanks!
The wording of the easement is extremely important, you must have it worded where they cannot deny you access in the future otherwise it could be very hard to sell the property, or if they sell and a new owner isn’t as friendly as the last.
If it was priced at a discount for the hassle and I had a lawyer look it over, I’d consider it.
I just bought a property in VA… It has an easement…
In Virginia it is illegal to block another from their property…. The person who the easements benefits … Owns the easement… Therefore they have to maintain it.
Look up your county/ state laws on easement.
I have a property that has a shared easement driveway. Honestly, if I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t do it. Not that the people I share with it are bad per se, but anything involving the easement always ends up needing a discussion with other parties. It drags simple processes out. Example: A tree branch is growing over the top of the driveway so mailman doesn’t want to come up it anymore. Simple solution, cut the branch. But neighbor 1 wants the tree to stay healthy as is. Neighbor 2 say cut the whole tree down. Me (neighbor 3) eventually convinced everyone to just cut the one branch. Multiply that minor inconvience by mowing needs, hole fixing, snow plowing and I just spend an annoying amount of time dealing with others for things I’d like to do myself.