Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
I own a property accessed only by easement where utilities were granted a permanent right of way. The utility companies are constantly driving heavy vehicles on the access road but do not contribute to maintenance.
What can I do to force them to contribute to maintain the road? Can I terminate the easement because they will eventually end my ability to access my property do to damage to the road surface?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Having the right to an easement also requires that you do not unreasonably damage the easement. You need to contact the utilities and demand that they fix the easement from the damage caused by their vehicles as it will soon prevent you from using the same area that you were given a different easement to.
I basically agree with Mr. Shers. However, I think some nuances need to be pointed out here. From the facts you gave, I assume that both you and the utility company have easements over some of the same land, and that the land is actually owned by a third party.
The rights of the owner whose property is burdened by having an easement on it, with respect to the users of the easement, are different than the rights of one non-owning user (easement holder) against another non-owning user.
If the utility and you are both in the "non-owning user" category, you have a right to demand that the costs of maintaining the easement are shared in proportion to "use." Determining what those fair proportions are is an often-litigated issue. The fair shares must be determined not only with reference to the number of trips each user makes, or the average length of their trips, but also the size and weight of their vehicles and the relative impact on the need for repairs.
An owner may have a right to terminate an easement if it is overburdened by a user, and if you are indeed not the owner, maybe you should talk to the owner as well as the utility. On the other hand, I have never heard of one user of an easement being able to terminate the rights of another user.