Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: driveway easement law

The owner of the servient estate (your neighbor) may have the right to place and maintain an unlocked gate across your access easement, if doing so serves some legitimate purpose such as keeping his livestock in, or keeping your out, or the like. He may not place a gate across your access right-of-way if it is an unreasonable interference with your right of easy access because it serves no legitimate purpose. So, these questions are decided by courts on a case-by-case basis after weighing the value of the gate against the nuisance effects. Of course, if a written easement contract, grant or reservation instrument specifies differently, that would prevail.

As to the related issue of the gate operating poorly, I would say if it needs maintenance that should be the burden of the benefitted party, apparently the neighbor.

Finally, if by whether there is a restriction on who can come and go over your access easement, I would say that the easement can be used by anyone who is a member of your household, by your invited visitors, and others who would be calling on you via that road even if they were not invited, such as UPS, process servers, and door-to-door salesmen. There are limits, however; if the easement grant contemplated a single-family residence, you probably could not use the easement to accommodate the traffic of a bed-and-breakfast, a fourplex, or a home business that generated a substantial amount of traffic.

Re: driveway easement law

You cannot insist upon keeping the gate to your neighbours property closed. But you can put a gate on your own property and have full control of it.