Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Tax maps are for refernce only and are not a legally binding depiction of metes and bounds or title. If the court ruling was not recorded with the county recorder, it is not binding on anyone who bought affected property after the ruling without actual notice that the ruling existed. If it is recorded, then I would have to review your deed, your title insurance policy, and the judgment to tell you what your rights are. In any case you should make a claim to your title insurance company about this. They are the experts. If you would like assistance in dealing with them, I have over twenty years of real estate law experience, including six years as a vice president and associate general counsel to the parent company of Chicago Title and Fidelity National Title, among others. I served as Northern California litigation counsel for the various title companies we owned. So I litigated dozens of cases like this and I "speak the language."

I have litigated quiet title, and related property issues. I have to take a look at your deed, and the maps. I also need to know the history of the properties and I need to see the judgment, which I can look up. The sooner you look into this, the better your chances are of having the law on your side.

Best,

Daniel Bakondi Esq.

The Law Office of Daniel Bakondi

870 Market Street, Suite 1161

San Francisco CA 94102

Daniel Bakondi, Esq. [email protected] 415-450-0424

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San Francisco Litigation Attorney

The thought that property can be abandoned and that no one owns it is fallacious. Someone owns every square inch of California, even if it is the King of Spain as the result of a faulty or abandoned land grant back in 1720.

This will probably turn out to be an easement issue. As you probably know, the right to use private roads is often as much a matter of whether an easement for your use exists than it is a question of ownership.

"Grandfathering" in the easement context often invokes the concept of an easement by prescription, but sometimes other theories.

Also, easements such as the right of a property owner to use a road belonging to someone else "run with the land" and the mere fact that you are a new owner does not mean much; you inherit the same road-use rights your seller had. Of course, the seller may not have had rights - in which case you probably were defrauded by the seller by failure to disclose the lack of road access. However, I think more likely than not you succeeded to a perfectly good right to use the road and circle under a pre-existing easement, and maybe someone is just trying to "buffalo" you into thinking you lack such rights.

The road association becoming "non-functional" probably did not have any impact on anyone's ownership or easement rights.

If you end up shopping for an attorney, please contact me as well.

You need to establish your right of way via an easement. Contact me directly.