Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Virginia
Easements
Property is owned by a party that has been using our path to get to the property for more than 30 years. Nothing has ever been put in writing and recorded at the courthouse granting an easement. Now the owners of that property are selling it and need us to sign an easement and have it recorded at the courthouse. First, do we have to grant them an easement? Second, if we do have to grant the easement, are we entitled to be compensated for it and how much should the compensation be?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Easements
Assuming that there is no other practical path of ingress into this property and folks have been openly using the path which you've described,
for some 30 years, then it would appear that the owners of this other property have already legally acquired what's called a prescriptive easement which simply hasn't yet been recorded in the land records of the local circuit court.
If the above is correct, then the answer to your first question is no, you don't, since the easement has apparently already been established as a matter of law, and because of this, your second question is what lawyers refer to as moot.
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