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I assumed you were kidding about locking them out. They have to go through our property (including the gate in question) to get to theirs, so I would never lock someone out of their property.
Here's an illustration to makes things a little more clear.
The red square represents our land
The yellow is their land
The green line represents the fence
The blue line is the gate
The black line is the easment
Who owns east and south of you? You, them or someone else? It looks like there should be two easements-one with you and one with the owner to your south.
I thought that the properties abutted and weren't opposed. The livestock thing is now confusing.
I still think that with some tweaking Investigation Discovery would be interested.
Can you remove the gate? Give them 1 week notice so they can secure their livestock. They don't own your gate.
And give them written notice that they may not park on or use any of your property except as deed restricted.
Of course you may wish to consult with an attorney who knows your areas land use laws.
People who act like this will generally not act better unless forced to.
Who owns east and south of you? You, them or someone else? It looks like there should be two easements-one with you and one with the owner to your south.
I thought that the properties abutted and weren't opposed. The livestock thing is now confusing.
I still think that with some tweaking Investigation Discovery would be interested.
The east block is vacant land owned by a third party. South there's a smaller block, also owned by a third party with access via a different road. But there is a thin strip of land, where the easement passes though, directly south of the gate that appears to belong to no one. Weird, I know. I've checked the county records on-line and there's nothing. Maybe it's a utility easement of some kind?
Can you remove the gate? Give them 1 week notice so they can secure their livestock. They don't own your gate.
And give them written notice that they may not park on or use any of your property except as deed restricted.
Of course you may wish to consult with an attorney who knows your areas land use laws.
People who act like this will generally not act better unless forced to.
I'm sure I'm within my rights to do all that, but I don't want to start WWIII. Maybe after they have some time to digest the situation, we can make some progress.
TBH I don't want to remove the gate, because sometimes I will be grazing cattle there and don't want them wondering off. Most of the time though, I would like the gate open.
1. Having horses myself, I can theorize the reason they put the lock on the gate, without locking it. It is to keep some very clever horse from opening the gate. If you’ve never kept horses on your own property, let me say, living with them 60+ years, I am still amazed at how they manage to open gates or stall doors. Some of them are masters at picking locks & latches, lol.
2. That said, if I were the horse owners, I would be installing a horse fence on my property boundary that does not interfere with the easement. It would be a simple task for them to add a tractor gate to have access to the easement.
2.1. Who was there first? You or them? If it was them, they may feel they have some grazing rights on the easement. I can understand why they want the gate closed but you DO own the gate. I personally would not put my livestock in such a precarious position.
3. My thought is this is becoming a sticky wicket and might be best settled by an attorney clearly documenting who has rights to what and that it would be in the best interest of the horses for their owner to install a fence with a gate on their own property and let them graze the easement as is convenient for both of you.
3.1. I’m also curious how many acres they own and how many horses they have. They shouldn’t be dependent on the easement to give their horses enough pasture. If they are, they’ve got too many horses.
1. Having horses myself, I can theorize the reason they put the lock on the gate, without locking it. It is to keep some very clever horse from opening the gate. If you’ve never kept horses on your own property, let me say, living with them 60+ years, I am still amazed at how they manage to open gates or stall doors. Some of them are masters at picking locks & latches, lol.
2. That said, if I were the horse owners, I would be installing a horse fence on my property boundary that does not interfere with the easement. It would be a simple task for them to add a tractor gate to have access to the easement.
2.1. Who was there first? You or them? If it was them, they may feel they have some grazing rights on the easement. I can understand why they want the gate closed but you DO own the gate. I personally would not put my livestock in such a precarious position.
3. My thought is this is becoming a sticky wicket and might be best settled by an attorney clearly documenting who has rights to what and that it would be in the best interest of the horses for their owner to install a fence with a gate on their own property and let them graze the easement as is convenient for both of you.
3.1. I’m also curious how many acres they own and how many horses they have. They shouldn’t be dependent on the easement to give their horses enough pasture. If they are, they’ve got too many horses.
Interesting info, thanks.
Their easement rights do not include grazing. No idea how many horses they have, I've never seen any horses. Maybe that will change as the weather warms up?
They have 35 or 40 acres, so it would be pretty expensive and time consuming for them to fence it in. I can see why they might not want to, but intimately it's up to them to do so if they wish to keep their horses on their property. What they are demanding seems unreasonable, unless I've missed something.
Their easement rights do not include grazing. No idea how many horses they have, I've never seen any horses. Maybe that will change as the weather warms up?
They have 35 or 40 acres, so it would be pretty expensive and time consuming for them to fence it in. I can see why they might not want to, but intimately it's up to them to do so if they wish to keep their horses on their property. What they are demanding seems unreasonable, unless I've missed something.
It could be they turn the horses out during the day, when you are gone and bring them in at night. Also, with that much land, the horses could be on their own grazing schedule and not at your easement at the time you are looking out there.
When I had four horses, I knew the time of day by where the alpha horse (RIP) moved everyone to graze. When he brought everyone up to the barn for water, he was rarely off on time by more than 20 minutes. Herd dynamics is an amazing and beautiful thing to observe
We have 25 acres that is cross-fenced, so I know how expensive safe fencing can be. They don’t need to fence off their entire property - just figure out how to fence off the section that borders the easement.
Even if that means jutting the fence out on two sides then running fence and a gate between those two sections, if that makes any visual sense - I’m not good at explaining things like that
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. Some of them are masters at picking locks & latches, lol.
