I have a client that has a driveway over his neighbors property with the benefit of an easement. The current easement allows for him to have a 12 foot wide driveway to access his home. He would like to build a new garage on his property and add a driveway to it, a portion of the driveway will need the benefit of an easement.
The current easement covers the area of the new driveway however the language in the easement restricts it to a 12 foot wide easement, the new driveway will need to be wider than that. My client and his neighbor have been in conversation and it seems the neighbor will allow him to modify the easement or record a new easement for his driveway. I am just curious of ideas on how to best handle this. Can the existing easement location be re-recorded with modified language to allow for the additional driveway?
Thank you in advance for any input.
If the driveway is currently paved and within the easement and any additional pavement will be within the same easement, I see no need for changes in the easement wording. If the easement needs to be widened, then yes. If the easement needs top be extended in length, then yes. A sketch and/or the easement wording would be helpful.
Paul in PA
I personally wouldn't alter the existing easement, just add to it with an addition easement. I base that on nothing extremely technical except for the fact that long-established rights seem to fare better in the title world.
One example I can think of with a similar situation:
During construction in the early sixties the highway department was instrumental in obtaining a dedication for a 10' wide and quarter-mile long driveway access easement for a parcel that would be otherwise land-locked after the highway improvements. This was upon private property and ran adjacent to the actual highway right-of-way. 10' may have seemed OK in the '60s but due to a few issues the owner of the dominant estate wished it to be 25' and the servient estate was willing to allow the easement to be widened.
The original 10' easement was vacated and a new 25' easement was dedicated. Should have been the end of the story but it wasn't....Some years after the original conveyance the area had been included in the city limits of a local municipality. Their statutes and ordinances required any new access drives to include a weather surface (the original drive was dirt) with cul-de-sacs that would allow emergency vehicles ample room to navigate. Since they were now dealing with a new easement the city required the drive to be brought up to code at a considerable expense. The ordinance contained wording that allowed existing accesses to be dealt with in a not-so-harsh manner. Vacating the original easement in lieu of one newer and wider cost the owner a lot of money.
City Hall and its infinite wisdoms.
Could you get in trouble for practicing law if you do anything other than provide the client with a revised description?
Have your client hire an attorney would be step one. As Andy has pointed out, us surveyors survey. Leave the deed language and preparation up to the attorney. We have been cautioned in the past about this in WA and ID and now have a very strict policy on easements, deeds, etc....creation or involvement. Their attorney can and should consult you about the preparation of the easement or revision of said easement but you should not be the one leading or preparing it.
WA-ID Surveyor, post: 451276, member: 6294 wrote: Have your client hire an attorney would be step one. As Andy has pointed out, us surveyors survey. Leave the deed language and preparation up to the attorney. We have been cautioned in the past about this in WA and ID and now have a very strict policy on easements, deeds, etc....creation or involvement. Their attorney can and should consult you about the preparation of the easement or revision of said easement but you should not be the one leading or preparing it.
We certainly shouldn't be writing the easement deed, but we are doing the public a disservice ifbwebdo not advise. Surveyors have a unique body of knowledge that almost all attorneys lack. For example, not many attorneys would have Padden Cash's experience and realise the surprising consequence of creating a new easement in that locality.