Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Pennsylvania

Re: Easment

This is kind of a complicated question as Mr. Brown indicates. If you buy the property knowing there is no access to it, that is different than if it became landlocked after you bought it. It is possible that you have an easement by necessity or by prescription:

"An easement by necessity may be created when, after severance from adjoining property, a piece of land is without access to a public highway. See Soltis v. Miller, supra at 359, 282 A.2d at 370; Borstnar v. Allegheny County, 332 Pa. 156, 159, 2 A.2d 715, 716 (1938); Restatement of Property � 474 (1944). An easement by prescription, on the other hand, is created by adverse, open, continuous, notorious, and uninterrupted use of land for the prescriptive period -- in Pennsylvania, twenty-one years. Act of March 26, 1785, 2 Sm. L. 299, � 2, 12 P.S. � 72 (1953); Lewkowicz v. Blumish, 442 Pa. 369, 371, 275 A.2d 69, 70 (1971); Restatement of Property � 457 (1944). Because it is [*415] created by adverse use, an easement by prescription is limited by the use made during the prescriptive period. Donahue v. Punxsutawney Borough, 298 Pa. 77, 82-83, 148 A. 41, 43 (1929); Jones v. Crow, 32 Pa. 398 (1859)."

Re: Easment

Yes, if you do not have the legal right to use that access road.

Where was the original access to the property?

How long had this access road been used and was permission ever granted?