Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Pennsylvania

private alley as perpetual right-of-way

Our deed states there is a 20 ft private alley, owned or previously owned by someone's estate, and that it is a perpetual right-of-way for us. This alley runs along our property line. The driveway to our garage was on this alley. About 5 years ago, the garage doors were closed off and put on the other side of our garage and a driveway was established so that we no longer use that alley to access our garage. However, we would like to have access to that alley. The alley is now grass and our neighbors claim it's their property. They planted a tree behind our garage to prevent us from parking there and to claim it as their land. We' d like to have additional parking behind our garage. Our neighbor claims that is their property and prior to having a new entrance to our garage, they ALLOWED the prior owners of our house to access their garage through this alley- meaning they could prevent them from entering their garage that way if they wanted to. However, access to our garage was established prior to when they bought their house. They say we cannot use that alley now. It states it is an alley on our deed. Our neighbor's deed does not show there is an alley there. Do we have any rights to it now?


Asked on 6/10/08, 11:04 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Roger Traversa Arjont Group (Law Office of Roger Traversa)

Re: private alley as perpetual right-of-way

You asked about a deeded piece of property.

You'll really need to speak with a local property attorney. Depending on the landmarks used by the previous surveyor you may need to have the property surveyed to make your argument. If the landmarks are still in place then the a reasonable intelligent person should be able to (approximately) measure off the metes and bounds with a tape measure.

Very likely the alley doesn't appear on the neighbor's deed because it isn't part of their property. The deeds are instructive as to the property each party owns but the town plats should show the relationship of the properties to each other.

My guess is that when you start measuring the metes and bounds your neighbors will like you even less (because it will be demonstrated that the property they have been treating as theirs is actually not theirs at all.

Regards,

Roger

Read more
Answered on 6/10/08, 11:37 pm


Related Questions & Answers

More Real Estate and Real Property questions and answers in Pennsylvania