Help with right-of-way managment

Ya but...I got a bully and I am not backing down...

 

Wife and I will be visiting our attorney on Friday to help clarify our rights and responsibilities (and the neighbors'). Bread-and-butter law around here, but being on the East Coast, we have crazy legal precedents that make no sense in today's world. One of my friend's farm parcel was originally laid out by William Penn's brother before the revolutionary war. We've only been able to by alcohol on Sunday for a year or two now. Thankfully, the lawyer is very smart, reasonable and doesn't overcharge.

 

What?...no name calling, back stabbing and hurtful innuendo?...that'll never work just ask less than half of the voting public!

 

I have a right away across one of my properties . Walking trail.
I don't know the answer ,,,, but,,, you still own the dirt they tread upon. Doesn't give them the right to be a nuisance or cause problems.

 

Not sure why I didn't think of before....is surrendering the road to county or township a possibility?

 

NOOOOOOOOOO! It is my property and I pay taxes on it. My neighbors have the right to cross 15' of it to get to their property. Ooops, did I say 15'? That's what the legal right-of-way document says. Yesterday, I located a boundary pin and measured 15" from it. Whoops, the new pavement goes another 6' past the ROW onto my private property. Looks like my neighbor should have sprung for a $500 survey, before he decided to do a $15K pavement job. To quote Key and Peele "You done messed up A-A-Ron. Now take your @zz down to O'Shaq-Hennessey's office... Insubordinate and churlish" Thank you Mr. Garvey. I'm feeling much better tonight.

 

Excellent.

"So, I'll forgive this mistake you made in paving my property. I'll even let you use that portion of my property, even though you have no right to do so. BTW, the speed limit is 10 mph. If I see problems with respect of that, I will first put the speed bumps back. Then it that doesn't work, I will have my lawyer ask you to restore my property to the original state, as it was before you paved it without asking me."

 

The local telephone company went ahead and planted one of their junction boxes on my property, about two feet off the ROW without my consent. I kept trying to accept it as "hey, this is the way things are.." but after a few months of it gnawing at me, I finally went to the phone company and asked to speak to someone in management. Once I had someone, I explained the situation, and what I had to do in order to work around the thing. Then in the sternest, firmest voice I could muster, I told them to "Get it off my property! and restore that area back to the way it was," then added, y'all have 30 days to comply. If not I will remove it for you! A week later it was corrected, and my account was credited with a few months of free internet for my angst.

I figured it was MY property regardless of the small footprint, and I did not authorize it. I thought maybe encase it in rebar and cement and make a bird bath out of it, or load it up with tannerite and eliminate it completely!

So, you know what you need to do, now just do it! Sparing someones feelings, or keeping the peace, has nothing to do with set boundaries, of which she has violated in a big way.

Just think, had she kept her speed down and cooperated, you would not have looked at the boundary lines to begin with!

 

If you surrender it, you no longer pay taxes on it, maintain it or have to enforce speed limits...the Sheriffs Deputies will do that.

Just a suggestion. I'm not one to give up any property either.

 

[QUOTE="Star Gazer
Just think, had she kept her speed down and cooperated, you would not have looked at the boundary lines to begin with![/QUOTE]
Good point there.

 

Love it! You played your hand right with that one!!! The problems start once you look away and the stuff become permanent. You loose your right to appeal after you allow it.

 

If you post the speed bump you reduce your liability. Signs are available that read "CAUTION SPEED BUMP REDUCE SPEED RAISE PLOW" . In most rural areas the ambulances are off road capable, 4 wheel drive, adjustable suspension, etc... That with the limited length of your ROW the speed bumps should not delay them.

Thought you tried that already and it didn't work? She said it was a "Parenting issue." I will go back to my original post and suggest a consultation with a local attorney.

KaptJaq

 

I think that's a good idea for the OP, but most towns, especially if they are rural won't accept the responsibility. And for good reason on the towns part.

There is adverse possession law "squatters" rights especially if improvements or maintenance have been made. It Varies.

 

Admittedly, I have little to no knowledge of Law on the subject. In my area, many of the township roads are old farm trails/roads that the township or county took over....many years ago, likely before the litigators became abundant.

 

I think there is a bit of agreement that it is a good time to get a lawyer's viewpoint. With his/her help, you probably will come up with an amicable resolution.

 

Wife and I had a nice discussion with our attorney today. He is actually a very smart and decent person. Before hand, I had said that I wanted to know what were the black-and-white rights, responsibilities and liabilities for everyone involved and also, what are the "gray zones", e.g. are small, rubber, removable speed bumps considered a "barrier" to "unhindered" passage. The long and short of his assessment was "Your ROW agreement is a very poor document, so almost everything is a gray zone." His advice was to get every family together and come up with a new "amicable" agreement that benefits everyone. He also agreed, that the Smith's are slowly, but surely overstepping their rights and that we need to put our feet down now. One more point of leverage he identified for us, is that black-and-white we have the exact same rights of ingress, egress, regress, and the right to make any improvements we want on the ROW on their property, as the document currently stands. I think this should give some motivation to update the document. Especially, considering he has a gate across the ROW on his property, so legally, he can never close it to impede our ingress. Or, we could "improve" the ROW by installing blazingly bright streetlights on his property. Obviously, these are only hypothetical considerations, of course we all just want fair use.

P.S. "Adverse possession" absolutely doesn't apply here. In our state, it has to be on private property without an ROW, and even then it takes 21 years of open and notorious use before you can even think of claiming ownership. We are black-and-white safe from that.

For now, wife and I are going to take care of dogs, cat, chickens, turkeys, bees, sheep and trees until after Thanksgiving. Then, ugh, we need to start to address this issue in an amicable and permanent fashion.

 

So, it spent about 6 hours and $130 in paint and supplies putting warning stripes in from of our driveway. "Hidden Driveway" signs are on the way as we speak. Speed limit, childen and animal crossing sings are also on the way. I have very little hope that these measures will do much for the speeding problem, but the Smiths said we could put in the speed bumps if signs and stripes fail...
I could think of about 1000 things I would rather have been doing this weekend. Ugh!

 

Here is Rosebud showing off her daddy's handy work.

I finished painting literally at the last minute, about 1.5 hours before the rain/snow/sleet storm blew in last night and the temperature dropped from 65F to 35F in obout 2 hours. PHEW!

 

Fingers crossed for how long it lasts. It's right where we, visitors and deliver trucks will be turning. Time will tell.

 

Had a similar issue. Within 5 houses here there are four kids and seven dogs. Dude keeps racing his 4 wheeler down the alley, so fast the front keeps hopping. So I caught him at the end of alley and we had a talk face to face