Property owners may face legal disputes with neighbors and owners of nearby parcels. Some of the most frequently occurring property disputes involve easements. An easement may cover a driveway or shared private road access. If you own property in Oregon, you need to know what easements are. Neighbors can disagree over their rights to use an easement or the scope of a party’s use of it. If you find yourself in a dispute over an easement, how can you go about resolving the dispute?
What Is an Easement?
In property law, an easement is the right to use another party’s property for a specific purpose without owning it. Easements have “dominant estates” and “servient estates.” The dominant estate refers to the party or parcel that has a right to use the easement. The servient estate refers to the parcel on which the easement sits.
The law recognizes several types of easements, including:
- Easement appurtenant: An easement appurtenant involves two separate parcels of property, with one parcel being the dominant estate and the other being the servient estate. Easements appurtenant “run with the land,” so a buyer of the dominant estate typically can continue using the easement.
- Easement in gross: An easement in gross refers to an easement held by a party, such as an individual or corporation, which benefits that party rather than a parcel the party owns. Easements in gross typically constitute personal rights belonging to the easement holder.
- Easement by necessity: An easement by necessity refers to a court-created easement that arises to facilitate beneficial uses of the dominant estate. For example, a court may create an easement by necessity to give a parcel of property surrounded by other private parcels access to a public road via a driveway over a neighboring parcel.
Common Easement Disputes
Some of the most frequent examples of disputes that arise over easements in Oregon include:
- An easement holder uses an easement more frequently than permitted or with excessively disruptive activity
- A resident overfishes a pond to which they have easement access
- The owner of a servient estate blocks access to or use of the easement, such as by installing a fence across the right of way
- The owners of the easement and servient estate disagree over responsibility for maintenance
.
- The servient estate owner disagrees with the location or path of an easement.
- The servient estate claims that the easement holder has abandoned the easement due to non-use.
How Oregon Law Resolves Easement Disputes
Parties may pursue various claims under Oregon law to settle disputes over easements, such as:
- Declaratory judgment actions: A party in an easement dispute may file a declaratory judgment to establish their rights to use an easement or determine the scope of permitted use.
- Quiet title actions: The owner of a servient estate may file a quiet title action to establish an easement’s location or a holder’s abandonment of an easement.
- Claims for injunctive relief: Parties may pursue injunctive relief to bar another party from improperly using an easement or interfering with use.
- Damages claims: Parties may file suit to recover compensation following disputes over maintenance costs.
Oregon courts may consider various pieces of evidence when resolving an easement dispute, including the language of the document that created the easement, the history of the parties’ use and maintenance of the easement, and feasible alternatives for an existing or proposed easement.
Contact Our Law Firm Today for Help Protecting Your Rights in an Easement Dispute
If you own an easement or a property on which an easement sits, you need to know your legal rights, especially if disagreements arise over the easement’s use. Contact Wayne A. Lamb Law today for an initial consultation with a knowledgeable litigation attorney to learn more about easements and discuss how to resolve a dispute you may have over easement access or use in Oregon.