Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Abutter's Rights

You have options. The State, the former owner, and the title company may be liable to you for the devaluation of the property which was not disclosed to you. Whether or not the easement was recorded and the current use of the property may determine whether or not the easement is valid. Call me directly at (619) 222-3504.

Re: Abutter's Rights

1. Parcels can and do become deadlocked through situations such as yours, inadvertence, neglect, etc.

2. Landlocked parcels are greatly disfavored by the courts, and judges will be pretty liberal in creating 'easements of necessity' or finding 'easements by implication' to cure a landlocked situation where any facts support such a finding.

3. However, courts are under no compulsion to create 'high quality' access, and unless the parcel is truly landlocked, the fact that it isn't buildable or that the access is rough, narrow and circuitous will not greatly impress the judge.

4. The surrender of rights of abutment is quite common in negotiated or condemnation-created highway easement practice. CalTrans' lawyers have loads of experience here. Mistakes can be made, but contesting any position they take is not going to be easy.

5. Your title company may have been negligent in not picking up the other easement, but on the other hand you don't say whether it was ever recorded. The State is sometimes lax about recording easements. Perhaps the sellers should have handled this.

6. Unrecorded easements are valid against the parties thereto any anyone else with constructive notice of the easement. Constructive notice usually occurs when use is being made of the easement -- the use being deemed to constitute notice of the easement to a buyer or anyone with an adverse claim.

7. You quite likely have no rights in a subdivision road that ends at your property line if your parcel was never part of the subdivision. However, this isn't a 100% certainty, because you may have an implied easement based upon certain facts in the history of subdivision.

8. Right of abutment generally refers to the right of a landowner along a public road to traverse the boundary between the road and his parcel. Normally, this was a right everyone took for granted. However, when roads became high-speed and later limited-access, it became necessary to limit the traffic entering and leaving the highway. These rights were taken by the highway authority for compensation, either by contract or by condemnation. Once sold off, the abutting landowner could cross the boundary only at an established driveway, and/or was limited to residential traffic only (no winery tasting room traffic, for example), or no access whatsoever in the case of a limited-access highway.

I think you need the assistance of a real-estate lawyer to go over your deeds, the state contracts, and your title insurance as well as the county recorder's records.