Buying a house, looking for opinions

The wife and I are looking to buy a house and found one we love, made an offer and it was accepted. I should have done more research before hand though, there is an easement from the road to the back of the property to access a small pond/drainage area and while looking at aerial and sat photos it looks like the driveway is actually part of the easement and not actually on the property plot according to town records.

The history behind the drainage pond is that a developer back in the late 80's bought several acres of property and was planning on developing it but fell behind in payments. Most of the planned property now either belongs directly to the town or has liens on it.

I don't think anybody could build on the land directly behind the house because it's all wetlands or pond, but should I be worried about the easement and the driveway?

I guess 1 possible solution would be to try to take out a second loan and buy the property but I don't know that we have the money to do that.

Thoughts and opinions?

 

This is what I'm talking about, any thoughts would be appreciated, I'm getting it inspected next week.

 

If the land is owned by the town, what is the possibility that someday it might become a park? Then you will have to tolerate traffic in your driveway. I would look for a way to void the easement or to buy the property.

 

That doesn't look like an easement in the plan plot , it looks like the property behind yours has a dog leg out to the road in which case unlike an easement over your property , that isn't even your property

 

Agree with Oz, that doesn't appear to be the property in question, meaning the drive isn't on the correct land.

However, if we are wrong about that..........

The ownership goes with the property, they just have the right to use it to access their property. (easement) Very much like utility easements that are needed to maintain your services on your land.

The key will be to determine if they have other access methods. If they do, start talking with the town about the possibility of them being willing to abandon the easement on your property.

Barring that, the next thing to determine is what you can and cannot do within the easement (like the existing drive) and if whatever is in the easement is damaged when they use it if they are liable for restoration. Normally is a condition of an easement, but you want to be sure it's in writing.

All of this should be provided you by a title search and a known quantity before closing. Hopefully your contract is written in a way that lets you walk away w/o penalty should objectionable title/deed restrictions be found.