Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Maryland
Obtaining an Easement
Someone is building a house for his daughter on an empty lot next to ours. During excavation he hit our sewer line & damaged it. Our line turned out to be 2 feet over our property line. The lots were legally subdivided in the 30's & the city failed to record the line and he didn�t know the line was there.
We asked him to wait on his work while we contacted our insurance to find out what should be done & who was liable. He chose not to, excavated around the pipe, which collapsed & broke. He called a plumber & had them come to fix the pipe. Then he told us if we did not pay the plumbing bill he would not grant us an easement & he would make sure that we could never get on the property. We repeatedly told him that we were waiting on the insurance co.�s (his & ours) to get back to us with an answer.
Can he stop us from obtaining an easement for the sewer line? If we have to we will take him to court to get the easement. To complicate matters, our lot is very narrow & we only have 3 feet of property on the side that adjoins his (where the sewer pipe is). I want to make sure I will always have access to that side of the house for repairs, painting, etc. And who is responsible for the damage to the pipe?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Obtaining an Easement
You may have a prescriptive easement, or another form of implied easement, depending on the circumstances under which the line was built. Each party may also have a claim under your title insurance (if you bought it when you bought the house or refi'ed). You need to see a lawyer about how this can be resolved, as it may be very fact-specific.
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