Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Minnesota

Shared Driveway
My parents have a shared driveway that has been deemed a ''prescription'' driveway ( it has been shared for more than 10 years with the same neighbor. She recently passed away and her children have taken over the property and have now placed a ''make shift'' fence up on the property line which does go through the middle of the driveway. This fencing is causing my parents to not be able to get in or out of their garage. It also blocks our access to our back yard and any emergency vehicle access. Is there any thing we can do the children are very hard to deal with and have a poor history with authority, so we have to be careful of how thing are presented

Asked on 2/24/08, 4:33 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Steven Vatndal Law Office of Steven J. Vatndal

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Re: Shared Driveway

How was it "deemed" a prescriptive easement? Did a court actually decide a cae on this? Was something recorded against the real estate? Was it just something agreed to by the owners, and if so was there anything in writing.

A presciptive easement does not go away simply because the land changes ownership, so assuming it was a valid presciptive easement before, the new owners seem to be in the wrong.

How to most effectivly deal with the new owners is hard to answer since I don't know them. I usually recommend starting with discussion between the owners. If that doesn't work, I recommend that I send a demand letter on behalf of one owner to the other. Ultimately, the easement is enforced by brining a lawsuit that will result in a determinative easement being recorded against the property.

It's important to not let too much time pass before persuing this, because you can lose a prescriptive easement by non-use or allowing the other owner to block the easement for a sufficient time.

Please e-mail me directly with any further questions:

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Answered on 2/25/08, 6:55 am

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