Easement - Reason not to purchase?

[Jordan Mandel]

Hi BP Family -

A property I'm interested in purchasing as a short term rental has an unsolved easement on it due to the neighbor having built their driveway 2 feet over their property line - into the one I'm considering.

Would this be a reason not to purchase? Any major red flags to close on a property with this easement unsolved?

Huge thanks for any POVs.

[Jenifer Levini]

Hi there, I am a real estate attorney who does a lot of easement work. First, real estate laws are specific to states, so to answer a question like this you always have to explain in which state your property is located. In general, it's a good idea to solve encroachment and easement problems as soon as affordably possible. This is because another person who is difficult could buy the nextdoor property and make your life miserable, as someone here eluded to.

There are many ways to solve this problem: You could ask the neighbor to remove the part of the drivewy on your property. You could sell that property under the driveway to the neighbor and do a lot-line adjustment (this involves hiring a surveyor and probably an attorney). You could write and record an easement giving the neighbor official control and responsibility for the maintenance of that driveway. Generally, that neighbor would pay for the easement since they are taking control of your property, even though you still have to pay property tax for it. They may say that they already have an easement because it has been there for many years. This is where you'll need to look at (or have a lawyer explain) the laws in your state to determine if this is true.

Overall, it's not a difficult problem at the moment. Somewhere down the road it could end up costing tens of thousands of dollars to remedy. So the best things to do is to try to use it as a bargaining point to get a lower price for the property now. Then, when you spend the money, you wont feel jipped.