What is a Driveway Easement?
Driveway easements are legal agreements that grant the right to use part of a property for a specific purpose, in this case driveway access. These easements are commonly needed when a property is landlocked, meaning it has no public road access. This lack of access can be due to a road that has been discontinued, never completed, or any other reason that effectively leaves the property without a direct route to the public road system.
In the context of California law, easements like this belong to the underlying land. This means that even if a property owner sells their land, the easement remains as part of the deed, allowing the same rights of use to the next owner. Moreover, such easements do not transfer with the sale of the property on which they are located. They remain with the servient tenement, or the burdened property , and are not part of the dominion or ownership rights of the property owner on which they are physically situated.
The rules and restrictions of these easements will generally be contingent on the purpose for which they were granted. For driveway access, the owner of the dominant tenement, the land benefitting from the easement, usually has the right to enter the servient tenement, the property the easement crosses, to use the particular path for ingress and egress. This right is often limited to non-exclusive use, meaning the property owner whose land the easement crosses maintains the right to use the same access as long as that use does not burden the existing owner’s ability to use the access in a reasonable manner.
The availability of an easement will depend on whether it is necessary to provide a practical route of egress and ingress to a piece of land. Where a driveway easement exists, the grantor of the easement has the right to pass through the burdened land in order to reach a road or other area where the property can be accessed.
Easement Types Relevant to Driveways
Driveway easement encroachment disputes arise in California property line disputes between neighbors over cars parked on one property that encroach the property line. Driveway situations are also common when a homeowner builds a new driveway onto a neighbor’s property without an agreement. These driveway situations typically arise with granting the driveway easement by one neighbor to the other neighbor. Driveway encroachment conflicts often arise when a new home was built where the builder created an encroaching driveway. But what are the types of driveway easements that are recorded or implied as applicable to driveways between neighbors? Express: Express easements are those that are specifically stated in writing and signed by the property owner who creates the easement. All express easements must be recorded with the County Recorder’s Office and cannot be longer than 30 years, unless it is created for a utilities company. An example of an express easement is when the deed to a property transfer states that an easement is reserved for ingress/egress.
Implied – Implied easements are those that are not expressed in writing, but rather arise automatically by the law. This type of an easement is typically referred to as an "easement by necessity" where there is no other access into a piece of property. For example, a road goes from your driveway to the highway and the road is built and maintained on your property by your neighbor to access his property. Prescriptive – A prescriptive easement arises when usage is established over time without permission, nor without any adverse intent. A prescriptive easement is where the property owner does not allow someone to cross their land but in all other respects he/she exercises no control over it. A prescriptive easement only can exist if the properties are contiguous, meaning adjoining, such as side by side properties.
Legal Requirements for Establishing a Driveway Easement in California
While some states allow informal easements between neighbors without the necessity of legal requirements, in California, the creation of a driveway easement generally requires a written document that both parties sign. Usually a court must also agree to the granting of an easement. Easements in California are created by express grant, where the owner of the land grants a specific easement to a neighbor; or express reservation, where a person who sells a piece of property reserves an easement upon it for his own use. In either case, the grant or reservation must be in writing and signed by the parties and is typically recorded with the county recorder where the property is located. In many cases, the owner of the property in favor of which a driveway easement is granted will also want a new parcel map, subdivision or lot split for the creation of new easements over the property to incorporate the easement into the existing financial structure of the properties. If a court is involved, time delays must be taken into account in any agreement. In most circumstances, if a court approves an easement, the court will allow for a transfer of property interests or covenants in exchange for constructing the driveway. Such a transaction would be documented in a form sufficient to be recorded with the local land office.
Disputes Over Driveway Easement Location
However, what happens when a neighbor refuses to allow the other homeowner access to the easement? Or, worse, the owner refuses to maintain it altogether? Although an owner has the right to use that space to access their property at any time, problems (including physical confrontations with the neighboring owner) arise when someone moves into the other home and the new owner does not want to allow another resident to enter their property. Or, the other homeowner drives a different vehicle onto the driveway than that which was on it when the easement was created . When these issues arise, an owner has legal options for resolving them. These may include mediation or even taking legal action. While the California courts are reluctant to get involved with resolving easement disputes, some issues related to easement use require judicial intervention. For example, when the owners of adjoining properties cannot agree as to the location or width of the easement, they may ask a judge to determine the issues. Likewise, a person who owns the easement might file suit to require the owner(s) of the dominant tenement to cease illegal or unreasonable use of the easement.
Impact of Easement on Property Value and Ownership
Driveway easements can have a significant impact on the value and ownership of property in California. In some cases, a garage or parking structure may be rendered useless if it lies within an easement area, resulting in significant costs associated with the relocation or reconstruction of such improvements. Alternatively, the construction of new improvements may be limited by the presence of an easement, impacting saleability of the property. The impact on other land uses will depend on the deed or grant of easement itself. If the easement permits full enjoyment of the right, then it is likely that the value of the land will be marginally reduced. However, if the easement is restrictive in some manner, such that the use of the property will have to be limited in certain ways, then the value of the property will suffer more considerably.
Easement rights are transferred along with the underlying property, and such rights cannot be terminated unilaterally by either party, unless the easement is reserved for the express purpose of ingress and egress. If a property that is subject to an easement is sold, the property will be sold along with its attendant rights and obligations under the easement, unless explicitly excepted from the sale.
Changes in California Law and Case Precedent
Recent case law and changes in the law related to driveway easements in California include a recent unpublished California Court of Appeal decision, Hedstrom v. Hawkeye Group LP (2105).
In Hedstrom, the court confirmed that an easement for parking is a property interest that requires a writing to be enforceable. The case involved an allegation that the seller of the back lot had granted the buyer of the front lot an easement for parking on the rear lot for ingress and egress to the front lot of another buyer of the front lot. The buyer of the front lot sued the buyer of the back lot for a prescriptive easement and an easement by necessity to continue parking on the back lot because Davis disclosed that a local real estate broker told him that there was an easement that existed for the benefit of the front lot to park on the back lot during his due diligence but he could not find a record of the easement . The court denied the plaintiff’s claim for an easement by necessity because the undisputed facts showed that an easement existed in writing that allowed parking on the back lot and the plaintiff had an adequate legal remedy to locate it (i.e., a title search). As such, the plaintiff was not entitled to a prescriptive easement. Although Hedstrom was an unpublished opinion, it nevertheless remains authoritative as persuasive authority to California courts and real estate practitioners. It makes it clear that, absent a property interest in writing, unless there is an easement by necessity, which requires more than one lot for a common use, there can be no easement granted for parking. Therefore, buyers and sellers need to protect their interests in the easement during the due diligence period in order to avoid a fight in court.