Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Tennessee

We purchased empty land to build a small office building. After the purchase, we were informed by the owner of the property next door that he has a 12 foot ingress/egress into our property where our property meets for the purpose of getting to the back portion of his office building. Our building is 12 ft. 6 inches off the property line, so we are not infringing on the easement, but the neighbor is insistent that we are blocking his easement. (The 12 ft. where the easement is located is sloped with a few trees. At one point the land slopes at 45 degrees. If ever he got to the back of his property with a vehicle it was not on the 12 ft. of easement. ) He is threatening to fill suit. He won't listen to reason - He believes he should be able to get a truck through the easement, but we have told him we are not responsible for providing him a road. He would need to pay for the making of a roadway and retaining walls (to protect our building) as just driving through as it is now could possibly cause damage to our building.

All this being said, here is the question... Since the easement was not disclosed to us at closing or on any deeds or surveys, can we collect from our title insurance for any legal fees we receive from dealing with this situation? Could the title insurance possibly be used to purchase the easement back from the neighbor, since he has made it apparent he would let us buy it for a price?


Asked on 9/17/10, 7:49 am

2 Answers from Attorneys

KJW Firm PLC

You will need an attorney to review the documents in question to give you an answer.

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Answered on 9/22/10, 8:27 am
Caitlin Moon C2Law

I agree with the previous answer - an attorney with title experience needs to review ALL of the relevant documents in order to provide a helpful opinion as to what your options are at this point. Your course of action is totally dependent on what is (or isn't) contained in the documents.

Best of luck,

Caitlin Moon

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Answered on 9/22/10, 10:18 am


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