Right of Way: Your Questions Answered

Questioner

Our neighbours have the right of way to get to the public road in the least burdensome way. It concerns a piece of land that the neighbours have bought to park their cars. However, they drive their car over half a parking space that we must always keep free according to the neighbours. The parking spaces are our land. We bought the house and immediately had a conflict about this. In our opinion, the least burdensome way is to walk between our cars. They can also drive onto their property via the other side. Are we right and can we close it or are the neighbors right?

Lawyer

A right of way (or right of way) is the right to use someone else's land. Think of someone who walks across a piece of his neighbour's land to his house because this land is located between the public road and his home. The right of way is an easement and can arise through establishment (explicit permission from the owner of the servient property) or prescription (the user has been using the land for years). The owner of the servient estate may not simply take a measure that conflicts with the easement to the dominant estate. An easement constitutes an infringement of the right of the owner of the servient estate and the owner of the dominant estate must exercise an easement in the manner that is least onerous for the other owner, pursuant to article 5: 70 of the Dutch Civil Code. You can therefore request that the most practical method be adopted for the right of way.

Questioner

Thank you very much for the feedback. So if I understand correctly, if it is burdensome for us that he drives his car over our piece. We can ask him to only do this on foot from now on so that we can use the parking areas again. When does an easement expire? We have only lived there for five months, the agreement was with the previous owner.

Lawyer

Therefore, if you wish to obtain an easement of way by liberative prescription, following the introduction, you must have had possession of the right of easement for at least twenty years.