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.

Happy for you, Roundoak. Nice that it not only worked out, but with family history and future family usage to boot.

I'm not sure how it works in your state, but in MS an easement can't be denied to a landowner needing access. I don't believe it even goes before a judge here, I believe a hearing before the board of supervisors is all it takes. Someone can't be kept from accessing their property. Most of them are settled as gentlemen's agreements, but a few have to go before the board who will record the easement.

Interesting.....I own 2 properties in northern Wisconsin.

1 property is a cabin onna lake, have egress/ ingress in the deed. Could be trouble with the other owners as they are heirs and can be a PIA. , without it.

The other property is Chippewa River Frontage . Put this road / trail in last summer.Have never had egress/ ingress and crossed the property of a lawyer / freind that we sold couple acres to years ago.

We had the lawyer write in egress/ ingress for the new road/ trail in the deed.

Glad is was easy for you to deal with.

Have a buddy that surveys in MS.

Said dealing with colored folks can be interesting.


They’ll have a 10 acre estate with 10 heirs in 5 different states.

Always one in Detroit and Chitcargo.

I had a neighbor out jockeying around with his 5th wheel in my fresh, soft, planted pasture. I ran out and ask exactly what the hell he was doing and he told me he had an easement.

This was odd since I just had my survey and deed showed no such thing. Neighbor had access to his place from 2 roads, but preferred to use my property because he had landscaping he had placed in the LEGAL access route.

I let him back in, then as soon as he was on his property I dumped 10 yards of rock in front of the gate he'd built. He was FURIOUS.

He messed up by telling me how he had rights on my ground. Had he asked, I would have told him I didn't mind as long as he asked first and it wasn't soft.....but he didn't.

He threatened adverse possession and prescriptive easement....but he was all hat and no cattle.

Good for you roundoak! And God bless your great-grandpappy!

I love a happy ending.

As others have mentioned here and I understand it could vary state to state but if a landowner has a piece that is landlocked and no road access to it he will get an easement one way or the other. It's just much easier to be able to pick your road and make a nice gentleman's agreement and roll on.

We paid dear to get into an inside eighty years back.

Well done, roundoak!
Gonna be more big deer posted in the deer hunting forum I see.

That may be the case if the the parcel was land-locked. The original easement was a matter of convenience to allow the neighbor to access a ridgetop to develop ag land. The neighbor could walk or ride a horse to the ridgetop within his property. The new owner of the farm had an option to access the ridgetop via motor vehicles by spending the money to put in a road. It would have been thru some rough terrain, but it was feasible.

Beware of cartway law. You may be covered or not.

KY is similar. I had a landlocked landowner to the south of me that claimed he had a gentleman's agreement with the previous owner and wanted to make it permanent with me. When I deferred, he claimed a right to it. I investigated and found his forebears had been given an easement on another property and allowed it to lapse because it involved driving over a ford in the nearby creek. I told him to take it up with that landowner.

The way it was finally resolved was that I heard some adjoining property was going to auction on the nearby ridge and put a bug in his ear. He ended up buying 5 acres and now has permanent access.