Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Virginia

Ingress & Egress

An alley runs beside two houses,

mine and the 3-unit condominium

next to my home. The City of

Richmond make the alley a ''private

alley in common'' with the condo

units. As part of the deed, the

neighbor on the other side of my

home neighbor has a ''right of ingress

and egress'' across part of me back

yard and part of the now private alley

private alley to get from his property

to the trash bins in the public part of

the alley. For safety purposes we are

putting a fence and gate at the end

of the private alley that to provide

needed security and safety. The

condo units bylaws state that

neighbor will always have the key to

the gate and that it must always be

maintained in working order. My

neighbor says that he must agree to

the fence and gate and does not

want us to have any fence or gate

located in his area of ingress and

egress. Can he force me not to put

up the fence and gate - or can I do so

and make sure that he always has

access w/ key to gate ?

Many thanks for your help...


Asked on 2/02/09, 9:23 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Jonathon Moseley Moseley & Associates Law Firm

Re: Ingress & Egress

No, he cannot prevent you from putting up a fence and gate BUT NEITHER CAN YOU PREVENT HIM FROM EXECISING HIS RIGHTS OF INGRESS AND EGRESS.

(I assume from your question that these rights are valid and in order and the locations are where you think they are, and the deed is valid, etc., etc. We just take things as you stated them for the purpose of argument. I am not even sure I quite understand the layout of things that you describe.)

If neighbor B has the rights of an easement (rights to travel across) the land of owner A, Owner A retains all the rights AGAINST THE REST OF THE WORLD.

So you have the right to tell everyone else BUT neighbor B to stay off your land.

Therefore, you have the right to put up a fence and gate necessary to or just convenient for keeping everyone ELSE off your property, or for any other reason.

Neighbor B's rights to travel across Owner A's land does not extend to anyone else.

And Owner A is still the owner of the land, and retains some rights together with Neighbor B.

However, what you cannot do is interfere with the neighbor's reasonable access through and across the easement.

SO if your gate is too narrow, or the design is an obstacle, or somehow interferes with reasonable right of ingress and egress, then it would be a violation of his rights to the easement.

Putting a lock on it may be inconvenient to him, because he has to remember where the key is. Does he have to stop and get out of his car to open the gate? That might be an obstacle.

You might consider using a combination lock so that he does not have any inconvenience of remembering the key, possibly losing it, etc.

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Answered on 2/02/09, 11:29 am


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