From: vze2k6pb@verizon.net (v)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: House encroachment
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 18:15:32 GMT

On 27 Jan 2004 06:15:55 -0800, someone wrote:

>Whoa, hold the horses! What you are describing is a "public easement".
>This happens to almost any home that is adjacent to city or county
>roads, has utilities to their home, etc. All of these easements should
>be recorded at the county as such.... easements. Encroachments are
>those infringements on property that are not known by the property
>owner.
>
No, you're wrong.

1) An encroachment can indeed be known.  If it is identified on a
survey that the owner has seen, obviously it *is* known by the owner.
Don't confuse how it got there with what it is.  It could have been
accidental or it could have been on purpose (neighbor puts in fence or
builds a garage not knowing where line is, or puts in fence knowing
damn well where line is).  Originally the owner may not have realized
it, but at some point he discovers it, that's how he knows it is
there!

2) You can indeed encroach on an easement.  Perhaps I have an easement
to cross a certain 12 foot wide strip across your lawn for vehicular
access to a whatever, and you put a shed or fence across 8 feet of it,
now you have encroached upon my easement, and in this case to an
extent that I can't use it.  But even if you only encroached 1 foot on
the designated area, it is still an encroachment.

Now, there are many thing you could do on this strip that would not
interefere with my easement.  You could mow the grass, you could play
Frisbee (just so long as you got out of the way when I came through).
These would not be considered encroachments.

A general definition of encroachments is "to gain or intrude
unlawfully upon the lands, property or authority of another".
However, this is so general as to give no guidance to particular
cases.

3)  You are confused about the public easement also, in that (while
what you say does exist) there are also OTHER kinds of "drainage" or
utility easements.  These can be to run pipes across the property, for
example at a right angle to the street between the houses over to some
other pipe in the rear, or along the rear line, or anywhere, not
necessarily along a street or even from the street to that one house.
Pipes in that kind of an easement might not even connect at all to the
particular house on that lot, it might be an neighborhood storm drain
over to a retention basin in the rear.  This kind of easement will
have a specifically defined location, and can indeed be encroached
upon.  It also doesn't have to be buried pipes, it could be an open
ditch.

I can recall a particular case I am familiar with (because someone
ended up getting sued for not indentifying the easement before the
purchase).  There was a drainage easement going across part of the
lawn.  The buyer was a non-profit that planned to house the
handicapped.  They went to build a driveway loop that they needed for
their vans.  The easement holder objected and would not permit grading
and paving over of the easement area.  I believe the buyer, who had
already closed, sued their lawyers, appraisers and surveyors for not
catching this before the closing (the only one I know about is the
Appraiser, who definitely got sued also).

So easements are not always just to get the wires or pipes to one's
own house, or to run those lines along the road.

-v.