I need to build a path beside my house that will cross my neighbors property line by 3ft for a length of 50ft. I think he’d be willing to sell me an easement. I have no idea what a fair price would be to pay him for the easement. Any ideas?
How much is having that path run across his property worth to you? Not the cost of the path, but the location of it. $500, $1,000, $2,000?? That’s your high end of negotiation.
He of course may not want your legal infringement upon his property forever, as legal easements normally pass along to subsequent buyers. It may also make his property worth less to a future buyer if he needs to sell his property. So his price may be significantly more than yours.
Also don’t forget the legal costs of preparing and filing the easement with the county.
I think this would be rather dependent on the specifics of the situation. A 3x50 ft strip off of a 100 acre wooded parcel well away from the neighbors house so you can more easily access your woodshed is a different situation than the same from a 1/4 acre lot a stone’s throw from the neighbor’s house so that you can move equipment back and forth for your landscaping business.
First of all, check with your town’s building department to see if they will even allow this.
Second of all, find out the assessment of your neighbor’s land and how big the plot is. This information is on his tax bill or tax map, available at your City Hall. Figure out how much you are buying and offer him a fair price for it.
And prepare to be turned down.
I was in the neighbors position about ten years ago. I was offered a fair amount, then double that offer. I turned down both. Unless the neighbor plans to live there forever, it won’t be worth it to him.
The price is entirely negotiable. Offer what you think it would be worth to you and settle for no more than you can justify spending.
Remember that you will be decreasing the value of his property, as the easement will probably (depending on how you word it) be perpetual and transfer to any subsequent owners.
An attorney should be consulted to draw up the papers.
If you and he are both 28 years old and both plan to live there forever and your children after you, then buy the easement. If the lawyers/buy/sell/recording/deed route seems challenging, ask him for a written permission to cross for a period of time and a right to buy the easement if he sells. Poo happens…people move, die, change their minds, forget. You will need a surveyed legal description, drawing, recording, deed modification, etc. in addition to the price/agreement.
will he also benefit from that walkway, or will you have exclusive use?
Instead of an easement, which would entail all the lovely (and expensive) steps detailed by andyleonard, TALK to your neighbor. Propose the walkway, which you would build entirely at your expense and ask for the use of it, perhaps at a nominal annual fee. Include in the walkway a plaque which reads something like “right to pass revocable at any time.”
As a property owner, I would be loathe to grant an easement to anyone, no matter what the offer would be. I’d be giving up full rights to my land to somebody else, and the ownership, liability, and TAXES would still be mine.
~VOW
As people have suggested, an easement is permanent, transfers to new owners, involves legal expenses, and would scare off many owners.
Another option that your neighbor might like better is just an annual rental contract, where you agree to rent that part of his property during the year 2011 for use as a path, and to pay him $x for the annual rent.
Of course, you have the risk that he (or a new owner) won’t renew it some year down the line.
Who says an easement can’t expire? Is it not a private contract between two willing parties?
No, it is a public document, recorded on the deed to the property. The legal presumption is that an easement is perpetual. It can be terminated, but that requires specific action, and a revision & re-recording of the deed to the property.
It’s a much more restrictive legal document than a simple contract.
Reviewing applicable statutes here in California, it’s evident that easement expirations are common. I don’t believe there is any presumption to make. For example, if the terms of the easement state it expires when either party sells their property, how does any draw any presumption that the easement is perpetual (unless, of course, neither party ever sells the property, but again, nothing is presumed).
Do you have a cite that confirms your assertion that all easements are perpetual?
Stuff like this is rarely simple.
For example, the city may require that buildings must be N feet from a property boundary, and if your neighbor sells that strip to you, then his house will become too close to the boundary. That is a totally made up example, but it is the sort of thing you and the neighbor have to look out for even if you are both agreeable to this.
Question: does an easement mean that the land is still your neighbour’s property, but he is allowing you use of it, or does the easement actually transfer ownership of that property to you?
IANAL, but an easement gives you certain rights to/on someone else’s property. It does not change ownership.
While I can see a clause that changes or cancels the easement upon ownership transfer to either party, because that would come to light upon a title search, I know of no mechanism at our county that will expire a provision without a new filing by a private party. Banks maintain trust departments that will handle this for you, for a fee, and some attorneys will do it.
In Colorado, Mrs. Cad owns 40 acres that is 20’ from the county road i.e. landlocked. The person who sold her the property (had to?) put in an easement for access from one side of their property to the other. BUT in the contract for sale, that easement is wiped off the books if she gets an easement from a land owner on the other side of the property.
You can have contingency clauses in an easement. And there is such thing as a Temporary Construction Easement, for the purposes of building something. This will have an expiration date, plus usually a clause stating that the easment expires once construction is completed.
This is legal folderol. Do not step into this soup unless you know what you are getting into, and you have all the bases covered. Something screwed up today can result in those nasty damage claim lawsuits you hear about.
~VOW
Most likely the title company would not insure the property if it didn’t have legal access. And a future title company will find the easement (if it was filed with the county) and handle the “wipe off the books” as a condition of insurable sale.
Title companies make their money by insuring only properties that they expect to never have an ownership problem or future conflict, so they watch these kinds of legal angles pretty carefully. There’s nothing wrong with buying property without paying for title insurance, but it’s your ass that is taking the risk, and the risk could be complete loss of the property and 100% of your investment.
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Or in this case an easement “so long as” condition X is satisfied. When condition X is no longer satisfied, then the Easement terminates on its own.
Also, I don’t believe that you would need resurveying and the like. You would need a lawyer, but a simple easement created “from the (whichever) corner of (my property) extending 20 feet along the boundary of (neighbor’s property) and then intersecting (neighbor’s property) at a line parallel to (my property) to the boundary line of (guy behind neighbor) thence 20 feet back to (my property) and running at a line parallel to (neighbor’s property) back to the beginning point.”
At least here, all the description has to do is sufficiently describe the property so as to be unique from any other piece of property in the world. This is a relatively simple for an attorney. The hard part is getting the neighbor to sell.