Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois

There is a land locked piece of property, 1/3 acre, that backs up directly to the southern portion of my property. The 10 plus acres surrounding us, has has been in my wife's family since the early 50's and was parceled out over the years for other family members to build on. This piece of property however was designated the "sewer" area and has multiple sanitary laterals run below. This piece of property was sold at a tax auction 5 years ago, with the status "land locked" written across the deed. My question is, can the owner of that property "force", by court order? any of the surrounding property owners to allow him access to this property.

Thanks for the help and if I need to elaborate more I will do my best.


Asked on 5/28/15, 11:16 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Messutta

Illinois does not have a statute that forces anyone to allow landlocked property to have access. However, it sounds like what has happened over the years has been a "prescriptive easement" which would allow the continued use of those sewer lines, effectively forever, but ONLY as-is -- ie. they can't be expanded, etc. But since there may be covenants and restrictions that accompanied the various deeds that parceled the property out, this is only a 'beginning' answer and there may be other allowances and requirements of record you are not aware of, that could 'force' such use. These could be in subdivision plats, deeds, and other instruments of record. Time for an astute real estate attorney to get involved with at least a good title search.

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Answered on 7/07/15, 7:32 am


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