Q: Can my neighbor put a shed, coop, etc on my 60’ foot wide private ingress/egress easement that cuts across his property?
My easement is a 60 foot wide, private easement for the purposes of ingress and egress and public and private utilities. It goes through my neighbors property back to mine. He currently has a greenhouse, chicken coop, shed that he has put within a few feet of the driveway Over the past couple of years
A: Generally speaking, the owner of the easement is responsible for keeping the easement in good condition. The owner of the dominant estate is the one who has an easement over another landowner's land. The proprietor of the servient estate is a landowner whose property is traversed by an easement. One of the most frequent disagreements centers on the extent of the easement and whether its intended use has improperly grown over time. Similar disagreements frequently occur over cost-sharing plans for easement upkeep. An action for declaratory relief addressing the scope of an easement may be required if a dispute cannot be settled outside of court. Depending on the situation, a claim for monetary damages or injunctive relief may be justified. To learn more, see ProvenResource.com
Kenneth V Zichi agrees with this answer
A:
The SHORT answer is that the owner of the land cannot put anything on the easement that would impair the use of the easement by the other party.
So. plant grass? Sure.
Put gravel down to improve the access? Absolutely.
Put in a fence or building that prevents using the easement? Not so much.
BUT as Mr Soble mentions, it is up to YOU as the person who has the right to use the easement to complain about such things. And you can't wait 'years' for that complaint. It doesn't START with that court action but as he mentions 'resolved outside of court' is the first step. But don't think that means 'I don't need an attorney'. It will almost ALWAYS be better if a local attorney helps you through this and perhaps makes the first contact with the neighbor by letter. I find people tend to take 'letters from an attorney' far more seriously than chatter over the back fence.
But in any regard, don't wait longer. "Over the past few years" already makes me nervous!
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