# Letter of Demand re: easement
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [October 26, 2023, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137 "2023-10-26T17:36:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/61 "2023-10-27T13:56:15Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#):
>
> Is it always 18 years? That’s the sort of detail i would expect to vary by state.
It varies by jurisdiction.
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### Author:  [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/62 "2023-10-27T14:30:26Z")
Honestly, everything this attorney told you sounds reasonable. It’s also not clear to me from the OP – did you actually ask her these questions that you have regarding obtaining an easement? You say she “didn’t mention” certain things and “made no attempt to explain” certain things, but did you press her on your unanswered questions?
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### Author:  [@Tride](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tride)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/63 "2023-10-27T14:45:11Z")
I have some experience with prescriptive easements in CO, and they are a PITA and very rarely upheld. It seems trivially easy for a landowner to get a rejection of a PE. It would require a real lawyer and scads of documentation and you probably won’t get it. Far far easier to buy an easement or improve the established access. You haven’t said how large the parcels are, but if they are large enough that your easement wouldn’t affect the eventual building site, it may be an easy sell. Plus, you will certainly make a dire enemy of the neighbor if you pursue a PE, win or no.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/64 "2023-10-27T15:51:35Z")
> [@Dorjan](#):
>
> So you DO have an easement of your own? Why not upgrade it to a drivable condition, instead of spending all the legal effort to use someone else’s easement?
It is literally off-roading in a 4x4 to use that easement. It was put in place so that the property is legally not landlocked but as a practical matter it is UNLESS we use that 90 yards of beautiful flat (and no cactus) land from the county road to our property line.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/65 "2023-10-27T15:52:59Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#):
>
> At first I thought he described driving across, but I sensed later posts described walking.
We have to walk since the property owners deeper in the canyon closed off the county road. When they leave it unlocked (about 50% of the time) we open the gate and drive on the strip.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/66 "2023-10-27T15:55:58Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#):
>
> Is it entirely clear from the prior discussion whether the desired access route is along the edge of the neighboring property, or across the middle of it?
Along the north boundary line.
> [@Dinsdale](#):
>
> If you are able to obtain and record an easement at no cost (other than some legal fees), why would you then seek to buy the land?
A few minor reasons but the man one as I’ve said a few times. We want to buy that strip of land so how do we avoid “No, I’m not selling anything.” My thought was, “We already have an easement and can use it. At least if you sell it to us you can get $250 instead of nothing.”
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/67 "2023-10-27T15:57:29Z")
> [@PastTense](#):
>
> So when the previous owner put the land up for sale why didn’t Saint\_Cad offer to buy a small strip on the edge?
It was a private sale. We never know about it despite me telling that owner we were interested in buying that strip.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/68 "2023-10-27T15:59:46Z")
> [@flurb](#):
>
> It’s also not clear to me from the OP – did you actually ask her these questions that you have regarding obtaining an easement? You say she “didn’t mention” certain things and “made no attempt to explain” certain things, but did you press her on your unanswered questions?
I said before, she didn’t talk to me but Mrs Cad. And despite making a list of questions my understanding is the attorney controlled the conversation and Mrs Cad has no clue what easements are or how they work.
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/69 "2023-10-27T16:03:48Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#):
>
> My thought was, “We already have an easement and can use it. At least if you sell it to us you can get $250 instead of nothing.”
Oof. How would you respond if, tomorrow, someone came to you with that language about your own land?
Setting aside the legality, that sounds like a sure way to get yourself into a nasty fight. Once you factor in the costs of litigating the matter, would you come out ahead if you made a much more generous offer for the easement without the threat of taking it without their consent?
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/70 "2023-10-27T16:04:28Z")
A local property owner wanted to bring a gas line to a property he was trying to sell. He needed to cross a small area of our property and a larger area of a neighbor’s property. We were looking into discussing the request with a real estate lawyer, but it became a moot point when the neighbor said no way.
The property owner then said he’d pay $2500 to each of us for the easement. The neighbor still said no way.
How much were you thinking of offering, OP?
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/71 "2023-10-27T16:06:22Z")
> [@Tride](#):
>
> I have some experience with prescriptive easements in CO, and they are a PITA and very rarely upheld.
That might explain something. The lady that owns the property north of us also has an easement on some raw land in the canyon. Similar situation to us, landlocked but the county road gets her close. Thing is, her easement is on record with the county and so when the property owners closed off the county road she went to complain (not sure if to the sheriff or court) that they were cutting off her legal access to her property. She was told by the county Sucks to be You.
Note: There is another answer for you Dinsdale as to why the end goal is to buy that strip.
Note: the property that we want the easement for is 160 acres and the strip we want is 90yds by 10 yds
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### Author:  [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/72 "2023-10-27T16:10:47Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#):
>
> I said before, she didn’t talk to me but Mrs Cad. And despite making a list of questions my understanding is the attorney controlled the conversation and Mrs Cad has no clue what easements are or how they work.
I’m sorry it went down that way. Good attorneys should obviously ensure the client understands what they’re saying (and why), but they also can’t be mind readers and divine what specific questions or concerns a client has if they’re just sitting there nodding along with everything the attorney says. Good luck.
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### Author:  [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/73 "2023-10-27T16:26:54Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#):
>
> property owners closed off the county road
This is something that doesn’t make sense to me - if it’s truly a county ( or otherwise public ) road how do the property owners have a right to close it off, whether there is an easement or not ? I know of plenty of streets that might seem to be public, that the public can drive on or walk on - but they are in fact privately owned and maintained and it is not legal to park on those streets without a permit from the entity that owns them. And some of them get closed once a year in a rather old- fashioned custom specifically to defeat any claims of adverse possession or easements ( This is also the reason some sidewalks have plaques essentially saying that the owner has given permission for people to cross the property but that permission can be revoked at any time.) Are you sure these are county roads?
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### Author:  [@Mikkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikkel)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/74 "2023-10-27T16:30:21Z")
I’m sure it will be more expensive than buying a 10 by 90 yards piece of ground, but should the cheaper solution be impossible, can the easement from the private road be bulldozed, drained, planed and gravelled, so that you can pass it with a normal car?
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/75 "2023-10-27T16:45:14Z")
> [@doreen](#):
>
> This is something that doesn’t make sense to me - if it’s truly a county ( or otherwise public ) road how do the property owners have a right to close it off, whether there is an easement or not ?
That is an awesome question, one our neighbor never got an answer for. It seems the owners in the canyon just declared it a private road one day and the county said, “Sounds good to me.” What makes it even weirder is that road eventually connects to another set of roads that are a back way into the town. The road is miles long so not sure how they maintain it or if they do. Small town (county) politics I guess.
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/76 "2023-10-27T16:45:51Z")
> [@doreen](#):
>
> I haven’t found anything but I’d be really surprised if the 18 years didn’t require a single owner - otherwise you could get an easement on the property I’ve only owned for 6 months if you were driving over it for 17 and a half years under previous owners.
I don’t know about the jurisdiction this is happening in, but in English land law, use of predecessors in title count in favour of successors in title for the purposes of establishing prescription. So if owner A owns land and continuously and openly uses B’s land to get there for 17.5 years, and then A sells his land to C who keeps using B’s land the same way for another six months, then the 18.5 years for A and the six months for C will, put together, make up 18 years which count towards prescription, provided that A’s and C’s use otherwise qualify for this purpose. See under 4.2 [here](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/easements-claimed-by-prescription/practice-guide-52-easements-claimed-by-prescription) (where the prescription period is twenty years). The point is that it’s use of someone else’s property which establishes prescription, irrespective of who is the one doing it.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/77 "2023-10-27T16:46:38Z")
One of the questions the attorney never answered. Part of wanting to eventually buy the land was to ensure we had the legal right to make a road/driveway.
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/78 "2023-10-27T16:50:06Z")
I _think_ you’re misunderstanding @Mikkel here. They’re asking, not if you can make a road on the easement you _want_, but on the easement you _currently have_–the one that’s only passable with a 4x4 currently.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/79 "2023-10-27T16:55:34Z")
I didn’t misunderstand.
It is miles over hilly terrain through the middle of someone else’s property. Could it be done? I’ll get you the price estimate as soon as I win the next $1B Powerball.
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2023, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-of-demand-re-easement/992137/80 "2023-10-27T16:58:35Z")
Okay. I’m totally unclear how your first response addressed this, but this post _does_ address @Mikkel’s question, so there we go.
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