A real estate agent purchased a land locked area of land behind my property and asked for an easement so that whoever buys it from her can access it. I have no problem with a property owner using the edge of my property to get home, but should I expect monetary compensation for giving it to a real estate agent?
Are they benefitting from your action?
If yes, then of course you should be paid.
Landlocked land is more or less worthless. They should probably pay you at least 10x what they paid for the worthless-without-easement parcel.
The only mitigating factor is if there are several adjoining parcels that could grant a reasonable easement. If so, you are in “competition” with the most clueless of your fellow property owners falling over themselves to give this person a gift.
Yes. And make sure papers state they must maintain the road in perpetuity.
Or til you don’t care anymore.
See a lawyer before you sign anything.
They are going to use that easement to make a sale. Definitely talk to a lawyer.
This.
Also agreeing that whatever you sign should specify who’s responsible to maintain the road. Also exactly where it will be and how wide it will be. And possibly what they can use the property for – some uses cause a lot more traffic than others.
Thanks, everyone!
In addition to the (probably large) increase in the value of the landlocked parcel, consider the decrease in the value of your land. It’s most unlikely that a potential buyer of what you own will not care whether there’s a driveway across the property or prefer a (potentially troublesome) neighbor to an adjacent empty lot.
I want the easement to be along the boarder of my property. Hers is behind me.
It’s certainly possible that, once an easement is granted, the owner could lease it to someone to use as a construction lay-down area or something similarly irritating. I have a friend in a rural area near here that had exactly that happen to them, though an easement was not involved. The lay-down area was in use for a couple years as a highway by-pass was constructed. Heavy trucks at all hours. Not fun.
I ain’t no lawyer. And I’ve never been to Arkansas.
But I have a question: what is a land-locked “area” of land? Do you mean a registered lot?
You definitely need a lawyer.
An “area” is not a legal term. Land is usually divided into numbered and registered units. These may be called “sections” (one-mile squares) and smaller sub-sections (such as quarter-mile squares). Or they may be called “lots”, as drawn and numbered on a plat map (usually called a “subdivision”) , which is filed and registered with the county government.
It’s hard to imagine that the county land authority would approve a plat map in which there is a registered lot that has no access. It is hard to imagine that they would grant a building permit for such a lot.
What is the legal status of the “area” being sold near you? Who owns it now, and is it legally defined, registered and numbered as a separate parcel? If so, why was no access provided at the time of registration? Is the current owner selling the area permanently, or maybe just giving a long-term lease to the buyer? Would the easement you grant also be permanent, or only for the term of the lease?
Check out the land-use which is permitted by the local authority, and see who your new neighbor will be: a private family driving a Tesla, or (as ZoneX said above), a construction company with heavy equipment?
An easement is land that you own, but are not allowed to use, but you are still responsible for. You have to pay taxes on it and pay for maintenance, etc.
If an access road is built…check local zoning ordinances very carefully. A road is not a driveway. A road has to be designed to meet codes, to carry certain loads, with proper sub-base, excavation, drainage, type of asphalt, etc. And has to be maintained.
You need a lawyer. And probably a land surveyor.
Be prepared to pay a couple thousand dollars, which may enable you to make big decisions, and avoid big mistakes.
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Make a counteroffer to buy the agent’s land. It’s likely more valuable to you than the agent without an easement. And if the agent objects that the land is more valuable than what your offer is, you can get a feel for what value of the easement is to them.
Arkansas does seem to have a procedure that the owner of the landlocked parcel can use to get the government – with compensation to you – to grant an easement solely for ingress and egress:
In 2014, Arkansas Code § 27-66-401 was enacted, allowing landlocked property owners to petition for an easement via appointed “viewers” to establish road access to and from their property.
But I’d definitely advise contacting a real estate attorney in your state for advice in this one, particularly since there’s at least a decent chance that the real estate person/landlocked parcel buyer knows more about this stuff than you do.
So, you could be in ‘competition’ with the owners of any other contiguous parcels, but you also could be at the mercy of the Court if a mutually beneficial agreement can’t be reached.
But, IMHO, you need a real estate attorney no matter how this plays out.
As this is a request for legal advice, I’ve moved this to IMHO. Legal and medical advice belong in imho, as a reminder that you are getting advise for unknown strangers on the Internet, and not from a lawyer or doctor whose credentials you can check.
I’ve considered that. She sent me (and presumably the other adjoining owners) a letter suggesting I buy it without mentioning a price.
She bought a portion of another owner’s property. I don’t know who owned it previously.
Thanks, DavidNRockies. The properties touch for about twenty feet. Perhaps I will send her that link. I imagine that a court would pick on someone that has more property contiguous with it than I.
At least in NY: a lot with no legal access to a public road.
At least in my area, it’s no longer legal to create such a lot – you can’t get a subdivision approved unless all the lots will have legal road access, and no lot will be blocked from such access by how you’re trying to draw the lot lines. However, people have been creating lots since long before such laws existed, and some landlocked lots do still exist. The property I’m on had such a lot adjacent when I bought the place – back in the 1800’s there had been a customary route of access across my property, but the access hadn’t been mentioned in any of the written deeds since, and it hadn’t been routinely used for many years (routine continous use would have established it legally.) It and my property had been passed down in two different branches of the same family until I came along. When the person who owned the small landlocked lot died, her heirs offered it to me for a small amount of money, and I bought it and incorporated it into the rest of the place, thereby solving the problem.
Check not only who they will be, but who they can be – including not only by the main zoning district but by special use (or other term) in that district. People re-sell lots. And even zoning districts may change. You can get written into the easement that it can’t be used for commercial purposes (though that may or may not prevent multiple short-term-rentals on the property; and certainly won’t, depending on its size, prevent multiple residences.)
She just now bought a lot with no access?
Check your local laws. She may not have any foot to stand on whatsoever. Self-created hardship. It may even be an illegal lot. Here, you wouldn’t be able to get it registered: you cannot create a new lot with no road access. But I’ve no idea what the laws are there.
ETA: I’m not at all sure this person isn’t trying to run some sort of scam; trying to work up a bidding war among the neighbors to buy a piece of land that was illegally divided in the first place.
yeah, I thought of this too. I didn’t mention it because I don’t know the facts. but I was surprised by the OP’s statement that the seller is a real estate agent. An agent is usually a middleman , not the owner. And in this case, it looks like she is a new owner, who doesn’t care about the property, and just very recently bought it, and is now trying to make a quick profit. Seems a bit shady.
Perhaps she feels that she will be more likely to sell it if there is an easement.
The state ownership map shows that the parcel is owned by a woman of a different name in Texas. The agent is in South Carolina. I don’t know how long it takes the state to update the map.
It does seem like a viable business opportunity to buy up landlocked lots for cheap and then try to get an easement from the adjacent properties. Either the the lot sells to one of the adjacent owners for a profit, or an easement is granted and the lot sells for a profit.