Doug's private road
Fire chief plows a private road through neighbors land without permission.
We do not know exactly what was going through Chief Matthews’ mind when he decided to build a private road through the middle of his neighbor’s property, why he felt it was acceptable, or why he even needed to be done in the first place. What we do know is his neighbors informed us that permission was not granted for him to do so, and they were lead to believe he was only going to move one piece of equipment one direction only once.
Currently, it has been four years since the road’s construction, it has never seen a stop in use. All the promises Chief Matthews had made to the landowner were never fulfilled, and obviously the story he told to the landowner was not truthful. Not only has he practically ruined someone else’s property, he has considerably destroyed the market appeal of the property.
Matthews is recently separated. The road begins at his house and ends at the home owned by the widow of one of his firefighters. It obviously has seen use as nothing has been able to grow back from it’s clearing, and the landowners have complained about hearing traffic on it late at night.
What if a new neighbor asked if he could borrow a particularly rare and expensive piece of equipment? You are not familiar with this person, who has only just moved into the house next door a few weeks prior. The cost to replace the particular piece of equipment is around $8500, but he does promise to return it to you when finished. How would you respond?
Generally, there are three responses to this type of question. One being a polite yet definitive, no. Which understandably, is the most popular response. After all, you do not know this person, and the equipment is very expensive. A less definitive, but more subtle response, would be to respond with you were using it at the moment. Which is true, you were using it to hold onto the ground. Lastly, the saintly but more risky affirmation of, yes.
Assuming that you did say yes, what would you expect to happen? When would you expect to have the equipment returned to you, and in what condition? Instinctively, because of how the neighbor mentioned returning the equipment upon completion, you would naturally assume that it would be returned momentarily. At most, one or even two days. Since its use would only be for a moment, one would expect it to be returned to the exact shape, if not better shape than it was before. This is after all the decent thing to do.
Unfortunately, in our hypothetical situation, your expectations did not come to fruition, your new neighbor did not return your prized equipment for over six months, and when it was finally returned, you found it completely demolished. Then your neighbor let it slip he had the exact same piece of equipment all this time, but just preferred to use yours.
The above scenario is an analogy, but something nearly identical happened to an extremely kind family nearby. The mother and father had found themselves in extremely poor health in the later part of their life, and even their son is in diminished health. At the time, the father could barely move due to difficulties with terminal cancer. The couple’s primary asset in life was their land, which they had already passed over to their son as inheritance. No one in the family was capable to traverse through the heavy brush of the property they lived on, which had been recently timbered.
One day, the family was approached by a new neighbor, someone they just recently met, and inexplicably the neighbor asked if he could move a piece of equipment across their land. At that time, every waking moment of their existence was dedicated to the welfare of a terminally sick family member, nothing else mattered to them, so they allowed it instead of asking why he couldn’t use road.
Around a month or so later, the new neighbor approached them again, and went a little further by asking if he could move some stuff out of the way to get the equipment through. This was a red flag for them to inquire why the logging path could not be used, but the health of their loved one had taken a critical turn for the worse, they didn’t want to be bothered with it, and told him whatever he wanted to hear. The customary empty promises were made to put things back and close off any entrance. The neighbor had gotten what he wanted and was on his way.
Six months later the family discovered the new neighbor had built himself a rather nice private road through the back of their land. It was used regularly by heavy machinery, sat at the bottom of a hill obscured from view, and was cut directly through their land connecting the new neighbor’s property with an adjacent lot. The road was clear-cut, graded, and appeared to have had an application of topsoil. In order to clear it, trees were toppled, massive boulders weighing hundreds of pounds were moved, and sections of the hill were completely dug out. It is exactly the last thing anyone would want someone else to do to their property.
The new neighbor only had permission to move a solitary piece of equipment once, in one direction. Permission was never given to construct a private road, use it repeatedly, or without knowledge of the owner. Payment or compensation was never offered for its use, and no reimbursement was offered for the damage done. To this day, the new neighbor he has never even acknowledged its existence to the couple, and surely has never apologized for taking advantage of their courtesy, because he felt justified in his actions.
Admittedly, why the new neighbor built the road to begin with makes little sense. The now joined property can easily be reached by public road, which was more accessible for use. Then there is the preexisting path created by the logging company that runs parallel, follows the exact same as the private road. The only difference in the two being, the path cut by the logging company sits on top of the hill and is visible. Where the new neighbor’s private road sits at the bottom of the hill and is obscured from view. Regardless of this difference in visibility, there was no real reason for a new road to have been built. That is, unless, it was built in order to dissuade the couple from selling their land to anyone else, by effectively diminishing the value of it to potential buyers.
On numerous occasions, the new neighbor has insinuated to the couple they were too old to live where they do, and has offered to place them in an apartment in exchange for their land. What is not mentioned, is who is going to make payment on rent for this apartment, or if the apartment is going to be as comfortable as the place they have called home for well over twenty years. So, there is a verbal-expressed interest in moving the couple out in order to acquire the land. Also, having been caught poaching the same year he arrived, we know he has no problem trespassing when it suits his interest as well.
Furthermore, how the new neighbor came to be is suspicious in its own right. As the previous owner of the residence simply disappeared, and the new neighbor was discovered, already moved in without any indication of what had happened to the previous owner. Rumor has it, the previous owner was placed in a nursing home after relinquishing over his property to the guy, and before actually owning it, the new neighbor had promised part of it to one of his buddies in exchange for “favors”.
The fact is, some people work on the beliefs, “it is better to ask for forgiveness, than permission” and “Everything is legal as long as you don’t get caught”. It is something that we all must watch out for, because not everyone functions with the same value system as ourselves. To some this is unconscionable, to others it is a way of doing business.
As of today the entrance to this private road has never been closed, nor has anything been put back, and what is left is a mess no one really wants or asked for. It is still suspect of use, and prevents the couple from being assured no one is using their land without their permission. Which might have been one of the new neighbors intentions, we do not know. What we do know is the couple will endure a difficult time if they ever decide to sell the land. As, not many people are interested in land with someone else’s private road across it.