Private Property Right of Way on the Brandywine

Jack,

The attorney I hired gave me advice to not buy the parcel, because he was of the opinion that an easement was not guaranteed by the landowner surrounding the property. The parcel was totally landlocked by this one property owned by one party. There was a logging road to the parcel, running through that person’s property, with no public road or no other way to access the property.

One interesting fact is that the price of the parcel was easily half of what you would expect it to be, since at the time, I looked at and priced a lot of other properties in the area. The realtor fessed up after I spoke to my attorney, and told me that they tried to get an easement written into the deed from the landowner, and failed. Apparently, the attorney from the real estate agency must have had reservations about access too, since the price was discounted so heavily.

Jack, I appreciate your research, unfortunately I don’t know what law, case, or legal theory the attorney I hired used to render his opinion. He may have been flat out wrong for all I know. DANG them lawyers!!!
 
The problem may have been that you were looking at buying a lawsuit. Nonetheless, I really think that unless an easement was specifically excluded from the grant that created the parcel you were interested in buying, the law would imply an easement. Your attorney looked at all the facts and I only am considering the facts as you have revealed them, so I cannot say that your attorney made any kind of error. However, if the property is still available and you remain interested, you could always seek a second opinion.
 
One of my friends in OH has property that is landlocked that we hunt on. For years, an oil company drilled on it and had an easement to their drills. Two years ago this well dried up and the road was fenced. We ended up having to buy an easement. There were five adjacent land owners and only one was agreeable. I don't know what we would have done if he didn't agree.

I grew up in rural area generally without a lot of fences. People didn't care if you trespassed generally if you didn't trash things. However, these days, when I buy a piece of land, I might post it, and definitely wouldn't grant permission to anyone, for fear of someone suing for injury while on my property. Trial by jury means civil law by jury.......if someone is hurt, someone must pay despite what the law says at times. I just don't trust a group of my "peers" to not play class warfare or be bleeding hearts in the courtroom. If I had absolute immunity from civil suits, I would of course not post. Regardless, I would not enforce my posting. Until this issue is addressed, posting will be an increasing problem.
 
The basic easement that Jack is referring to is for walk in only. It doesn't give the landlocked owner the right to put a road across somebody else's property without that persons approval. That would go for any utilities, power lines etc. So, although you could walk into the property it would be very difficult to build a camp for example if you had to pack in all the materials. Unless you wanted to airlift it in. I've been down this road, right to a court decision with my neighbor. His claim was the road across his land into my camp was an easement and not a right of way. He lost.
 
If you don’t own the mineral right to a property, you can be in for a nasty surprise when said owner decides to put an oil well in your back yard or worse yet, a strip mine. :-o
 
Somehow I doubt that an easement of neccessity is limited to walk-in only whether in PA or OH, but I don't have the resources at hand to tell you if there is such a limitation to the doctrine.
 
My landlocked grandmother excercised her easment rights for both a driveway and a sewer system within the past two years. A legal stink by one of her neighbors affected the routing of the said piping and driveway.

Regardless, none of the "easements" I mentioned ended up happening for free.......in each case someone was paid for some land rights. Turned out to be a quicker, and possibly cheaper solution, than a court battle.
 
JackM wrote:
Somehow I doubt that an easement of neccessity is limited to walk-in only whether in PA or OH, but I don't have the resources at hand to tell you if there is such a limitation to the doctrine.
Click to expand...

Just to be clear, I meant the implied easement on a landlocked parcel in general that you mentioned in an earlier post and not the “easement of necessity” that may apply in the Brandywine case.
 
Good news

I see the Daily Local, which covers Chester County from West Chester, had a front page article 17Aug covering the Sheltons (developer) interaction with the Uwchlan township board of supervisors. And on 23Aug the paper editorialized that the Shryrock property, where access to the creek and the Struble Trail was restricted, ought to be reopened up to the use of the residents, anglers, bird watchers and other enjoyers of the area. Evidently the township has discontinued the "concept committee" which could have led to the advancement of actual construction for a development project.

Over the summer (while other anglers and I were giving the trouts in the creek a rest - temps are likely way over 70ºF) there apparently was a petition with over 600 signatures. Sounds like the walkers and other trail users were pretty fired up over the gratuitous blocking of the upper access.

Did anyone here catch up with the activity on the trail? Maybe all those other folks did our work for us.

tl
les
 
That's great news! Congrats to all those who fish it and to everyone who fought it. Good stuff :-D
 
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