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#1
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easement vs ownership
What is the difference between ownership and easement?
Our driveway goes through our front neighbor's side yard. The builder's plot labeled the driveway as 12'x200' easement. The county counted the area as part of our lot. We are paying tax, mowing on the drive sides. We also also have 30'x100' public sewage easement that runs through our backyard (60' away from our house), from the county. We are paying tax on that area. If someone hurts himself in the easement, who's insurance will pay for it? |
#2
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easement vs ownership
empty wrote: What is the difference between ownership and easement? Our driveway goes through our front neighbor's side yard. The builder's plot labeled the driveway as 12'x200' easement. The county counted the area as part of our lot. We are paying tax, mowing on the drive sides. We also also have 30'x100' public sewage easement that runs through our backyard (60' away from our house), from the county. We are paying tax on that area. If someone hurts himself in the easement, who's insurance will pay for it? Owning it means you have title to it, and should be the one paying taxes on it. An easement means someone else owns it, but the person/entity granted the easement has access to the land for a specific purpose. Typical cases are for utilities or as in your case, a driveway. The easement typically grants access needed to maintain, whatever is there, like in the case of the utilities needing to be repaired, replaced, etc. In general, unless the easement says something about liability, if someone slips and falls, it's the property owner's liability. An exception to that might be if there was something specific to the easement that created an unsafe situation. Like your drain line was leaking in the easement area, created a hole, and then someone broke a leg. |
#3
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easement vs ownership
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#6
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easement vs ownership
On Tue, 07 Mar 2006 13:22:46 -0500, someone wrote:
That was what I figured to be. I wondered why the builder/develop stated clearly that my drive way is on my neighbor's easement but county included the area in my overall lot footage. Cuz they made a mistake? Cuz for valuation purposes they felt the value was the same as if you owned it outright (being that you own the use of it)? What did they say when you asked them? (And if you haven't asked them, why ask US to explain why THEY did something????) Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file. |
#7
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easement vs ownership
On Tue, 07 Mar 2006 11:11:56 -0500, someone wrote:
If someone hurts himself in the easement, who's insurance will pay for it? The person's whose fault it was that the injury occurred. If the utility company was in there with a backhoe exercising their easement rights, and swung the bucket without looking and hit somebody, why would you the "owner" (or your insurer) have to pay for that just because it was your property? And if you caused someone to be hurt there, why would the Utility (or their insurer) pay? Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file. |
#8
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easement vs ownership
"empty" wrote in message ... Keith Williams wrote: (snip) The easement is the only way that we can get out of our lot when the subdivision was developed. It was not a fix. They shoulda made it a 'flag' lot- little strip of road front, and long skinny driveway, with the rest of the lot out back. Wonder how they will assess you for any road repaving? Have you read your easement? Are you obligated to split road assessments with the fellow up front? Personally, if I was going to be there a long time, I'd try to work a deal with the front guy to split off the driveway and attach it to your parcel, as long as that didn't put him under the minimum lot size for building. Land-locked parcels with access easements are a PITA at sale time, and they scare off a lot of people. Have you verified with front-door neighbor that he ISN'T being taxed on the driveway? Might not be a bad idea for both of you to visit assessor, and clarify things. Guy that did the workup for your place may have screwed up. The back 100' of my yard is a 'casual use' easement into the overflow area of a graveyard, with about another 20 years to run. I basically ignore it, but some of the neighbors put pole barns on their easements, which my reading of the easement paperwork doesn't allow. (About 5 lots in a row have them.) I don't think I'm paying taxes on it, but really haven't checked that hard. I think the original easement was a freebie from the megacorp that bought the graveyard, to score brownie points, but in the unlikely event I am still alive and here when it runs out, and they ask for money, I'm gonna tell them 'Mow it yourself'. On the other hand, since they will never use the land, if they offered it to me for a token price of a few grand, I might buy it just for how it could improve the resale in case the next owner does want a pole barn. Sure wish they hadn't put up that damn cyclone fence along all five lots outlining the easement area- it keeps the deer out of my back yard, which I was looking forward to when I bought the place. aem sends.... |
#9
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easement vs ownership
ameijers wrote:
"empty" wrote in message ... Keith Williams wrote: (snip) The easement is the only way that we can get out of our lot when the subdivision was developed. It was not a fix. They shoulda made it a 'flag' lot- little strip of road front, and long skinny driveway, with the rest of the lot out back. Wonder how they will assess you for any road repaving? Have you read your easement? Are you obligated to split road assessments with the fellow up front? Personally, if I was going to be there a long time, I'd try to work a deal with the front guy to split off the driveway and attach it to your parcel, as long as that didn't put him under the minimum lot size for building. Land-locked parcels with access easements are a PITA at sale time, and they scare off a lot of people. Have you verified with front-door neighbor that he ISN'T being taxed on the driveway? Might not be a bad idea for both of you to visit assessor, and clarify things. Guy that did the workup for your place may have screwed up. The back 100' of my yard is a 'casual use' easement into the overflow area of a graveyard, with about another 20 years to run. I basically ignore it, but some of the neighbors put pole barns on their easements, which my reading of the easement paperwork doesn't allow. (About 5 lots in a row have them.) I don't think I'm paying taxes on it, but really haven't checked that hard. I think the original easement was a freebie from the megacorp that bought the graveyard, to score brownie points, but in the unlikely event I am still alive and here when it runs out, and they ask for money, I'm gonna tell them 'Mow it yourself'. On the other hand, since they will never use the land, if they offered it to me for a token price of a few grand, I might buy it just for how it could improve the resale in case the next owner does want a pole barn. Sure wish they hadn't put up that damn cyclone fence along all five lots outlining the easement area- it keeps the deer out of my back yard, which I was looking forward to when I bought the place. aem sends.... I checked my files again last night. I have no easement documents. The county included the driveway in my lot footage. The driveway is not in the neighbor's footage in the state/county record. Which means I am paying the tax for the road. I maintain the driveway (asphalt). We cut the grass along the driveway side. The neighbors never step into the driveway. BTW, the driveway is in the middle of my two front neighboor's lot. It is not clear the easement is from which neighboor. Or half from each of the two front neighboors. Never the less, the builder told us it is an easement. The survey map indicated that is "Private Ingress/Egress driveway" for us. We are not worried at all that the easement will going away. The are quite a number of houses in the subdivison that are like ours. |
#10
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easement vs ownership
"empty" wrote in message
... ameijers wrote: "empty" wrote in message ... Keith Williams wrote: (snip) The easement is the only way that we can get out of our lot when the subdivision was developed. It was not a fix. They shoulda made it a 'flag' lot- little strip of road front, and long skinny driveway, with the rest of the lot out back. Wonder how they will assess you for any road repaving? Have you read your easement? Are you obligated to split road assessments with the fellow up front? Personally, if I was going to be there a long time, I'd try to work a deal with the front guy to split off the driveway and attach it to your parcel, as long as that didn't put him under the minimum lot size for building. Land-locked parcels with access easements are a PITA at sale time, and they scare off a lot of people. Have you verified with front-door neighbor that he ISN'T being taxed on the driveway? Might not be a bad idea for both of you to visit assessor, and clarify things. Guy that did the workup for your place may have screwed up. The back 100' of my yard is a 'casual use' easement into the overflow area of a graveyard, with about another 20 years to run. I basically ignore it, but some of the neighbors put pole barns on their easements, which my reading of the easement paperwork doesn't allow. (About 5 lots in a row have them.) I don't think I'm paying taxes on it, but really haven't checked that hard. I think the original easement was a freebie from the megacorp that bought the graveyard, to score brownie points, but in the unlikely event I am still alive and here when it runs out, and they ask for money, I'm gonna tell them 'Mow it yourself'. On the other hand, since they will never use the land, if they offered it to me for a token price of a few grand, I might buy it just for how it could improve the resale in case the next owner does want a pole barn. Sure wish they hadn't put up that damn cyclone fence along all five lots outlining the easement area- it keeps the deer out of my back yard, which I was looking forward to when I bought the place. aem sends.... I checked my files again last night. I have no easement documents. The county included the driveway in my lot footage. The driveway is not in the neighbor's footage in the state/county record. Which means I am paying the tax for the road. I maintain the driveway (asphalt). We cut the grass along the driveway side. The neighbors never step into the driveway. BTW, the driveway is in the middle of my two front neighboor's lot. It is not clear the easement is from which neighboor. Or half from each of the two front neighboors. Never the less, the builder told us it is an easement. The survey map indicated that is "Private Ingress/Egress driveway" for us. We are not worried at all that the easement will going away. The are quite a number of houses in the subdivison that are like ours. If the tax map shows that the property is your property, then I believe that you own it. Also look at the deed, where they detail what the property lines are in surveying terms. I have a flag lot too, and both the tax map and the deed are clear on this. Tomes |
#11
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easement vs ownership
One can own a piece of property and have an easement across that same
property. An easement is for legal access to land for a stated purpose--in your case, the driveway. However, your neighbor COULD actually own the land (or a part of it), and you still have easement rights to gain access to your out-parcel of land that would have no entrance from a dedicated street/highway. When a builder sub-divides an area, he must grant easements for those lots without access from public thoroughfares. The ownership of the property will be stated in your deed in "meets & bounds"--described in feet from a "POB"--(point of beginning), usually an iron pin hammered into the soil, and often covered by a few inches of soil. At the county seat/courthouse/hall of records, etc. there will be a plat map of the land area that shows the lots and blocks of a subdivision. With that information one can find the exact points where his property joins another's. The public sewage easement might also be YOUR property, but you would be enjoined/prevented from building on that space (as in the case of your driveway, too). You should contact your insurance agent for verification of coverage for accidents/injuries, etc. on your property. In my own case, I own about 3/5ths of the 12' alley at the rear of my property. There is a "utility company easement" for utility company workers, but the land is still private property owned by me and my neighbor on the other side of me. I must maintain the grass, just as people do for that area between a sidewalk and a street. Hope this helps. My business degree in real estate from No. TX State Univ. was in 1981, so I'm a bit "rusty" on some specifics. |
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