Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire ingress and egress easements can be tricky

Great-Grandfather gave a ingress/egress easement to a neighbor (Grantee and heirs) to access a hilltop that he wanted to clear for ag fields. This deed was entered in 1867 and it was a 1 rod wide easement and the Grantee must close the gates. There was continuous family ownership of the Grantee and heirs property until a year ago when the 320 acre property came up for sale. I was interested in buying it but my offer was topped.

Last fall I noticed trucks hauling gravel on what was the easement and stopped them, got the new owners address from the County Tax Lister officer, sent him a letter to call me. He did not like my bad news. G-Grandad put a clause in the deed saying that the easement is in effect until Grantee property is no longer owned by Grantee or heirs. The 1 rod easement reverts back to Grantor and heirs. He said that was news to him and I told him the abstract company he used should have noticed that in their title search. He immediately wanted an easement from me, but I told him I was not interested. Subsequently, I received a adverse possession petition and suit.

Did not have to go to court after the deed wording was disclosed. I am an heir of the Grantor and the deed is not transferable to anyone else.

The property went up for sale in March and I placed an offer and it was accepted. I flipped the farm house, out buildings and 200 acres and kept 120 acres with a old cabin. 80 acres butts up to my farm...prime Whitetail deer and turkey country.

I'd live in that cabin during deer season.

Do you know who built the cabin?

Needs leveled and chinked ASAP, and probably some bad logs, but well worth the work.

So the easement was his only access to the property? I’m guessing it was pretty important if he immediately sold the property at a loss?

I guess it's fun to get one by the short hairs. Not had that opportunity.

You kicked ass. Nice place!

Your Great Grandfather was a wise man, most people never think generations in advance. Neat looking place and cabin you have there.

It was a family member who came back from World War I and began farming with his folks. Yep, it is a fixer upper, but it will be full of hunters this fall.

It was the only road access to the hilltop ag fields in part of the farm. He did not loose money as I paid him more than he bought it for.

I did not look at it as fun, but when the guy called me and was demanding and uppity, I could see there was no common ground going forward.

Beautiful. Building like that are always worth saving.

Yeah, demanding and uppity really doesn't cut it does it....

So....he was a jerk to somebody he needed a favor from? There's some of that going around these days.

Pretty neat cabin. Lots of possibilities. 😊

Any ideas about its age?

The history indicates it was built by the farmer's son after he was mustered out from World War I. So, probably over 100 years old.

Easements and access can be lots of fun. Several of my cousins and I own some land on a small lake in the Adirondacks. While my uncle was the owner the state Dept of Environmental Conservation tried to close a section of the access road that passed thru state forest lands. The road was a one time listed as a township road, later abandoned by the town, but continued to get used for access to the private property at the lake. Took a reminder from my uncle's lawyer that state law protected our access and the DEC couldn't close the road. We make sure to keep a copy of that correspondence handy in case they try again.

That is a cool old cabin and glad this all worked out to your benefit, Roundoak! These situations often go south!

Never been involved, but you can legally force access here.
A court process, and a judge decides where it will be. Not necessarily
where you want, but I think the shortest route to public access roads.
That sounds good, untill you consider our hills and water.
The shortest route might be longer as you switchback up and down a mountain, or $$ when you are burying tiles or building bridges.


We came close. The property my Dad bought in the 50s was
landlocked. But we were granted access by an decent out of state owner.
(Probably one of a kind)

He died, the land came up for sale......
My step dad knew the realtor, the friendly to locals twp supervisors
somehow blocked the sale untill a 20 foot ROW was included on the
deed.

That, was a close one!

I have not read the wording of the deed nor do I know the RE law in your state. Did the case totally die? The adverse possession was a loser from the start obviously since there was no hostile possession by Grantee but rather was permissive. It would be an interesting fight over the language concerning owned by the Grantor and heirs etc. since upon partition and sale the property was no longer owned exclusively by the Grantor and heirs. Glad it worked out for you.

If you're not careful, you might have to quit farming and start maintaining your collection of cabins full time!

I'm glad it worked out for you.