Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois
Easement
The house my family owns sits on a piece of land with a 3 foot easement specification. The document was drawn up in 1906 by the owners of the land right next door to us. They owned both lots and agreed to sell our family the one lot to move our house onto. They included an easement of 3 feet for their use. Our house has always violated this easement because it actually sits on about 9 inches of the easement land. We now want to sell our home and are having trouble with the next door neighbor. The easement says the 3 feet should benefit the grantor, their survivor, their heirs, and their assigns. He is not a relative of the original owners of the property next door to us, but, he wants us to pay $30,000.00 to sign a release of easement. Is there some law out there that makes the easement null because our house has always sat on this easement?
Thank you for your help. Have a great day!
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Easement
If your house was sat there 20 plus years, most likely it was with assumption of ownership, and adverse possesion law may make his easement considered abandoned, definitely would take alot further investigation and research, call a local attorney
Re: Easement
Under Illinois law, there is a concept known as "adverse possession." Typically, in order to make a claim of ownership, i.e., of "right," to what would otherwise be another's real propery, the party seeking to establish adverse possession must prove that his infringement on another's land was (i) open; (ii) continuous; (iii) exclusivre; (iv) adverse; and (v) notorious.
In other words, someone cannot "sneak" by and grab someone's land. On the other hand, if somone is openly sitting on another's land w/out the owner's permission, and doing so for a continuous period of time -- 20 years -- then the person squatting on the land may become its owner.
Factual questions in your circumstance are varied, but among them, are whether the owner gave you permission for sitting on his easement and whether you met the other requirements for establishing adverse possession.
-- Kenneth J. Ashman; [email protected]; www.lawyers.com/alo
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