Any lawyers here?

So if you buy a property with deeded access that is essentially a shared driveway who owns the property and pays taxes on it. It looks like on the county website that the drive is owned and taxes paid by the property in the front of driveway.

Also there appears to be an private drive easement on the back edge of the property. So again, who is paying for the property tax and who "owns" the roads?

Do both of these terms mean that you own the land and pay taxes on it and the others have the right to traverse the property?

Functionally what is the difference between deeded access and an easement?

Both of these are gravel drives. Who's going to maintain the gravel? Is it just neighborly cooperation or are there other rules in play?

The primary difference between deeded access and an easement lies in the nature of the right granted. Deeded access is a specific right to enter or exit a property, often implying ownership or control over the access path. In contrast, an easement is a legal right that allows the use of another person's land for a specific purpose without transferring ownership. Easements can serve various functions, such as utility, drainage, or access to a property, and they typically include terms limiting use and maintenance responsibilities.

I didn't google it, but a utility or road easement is in a specific location with a specific size.

Deeded access appears to be more generic in nature. Sure there is a dirt driveway, but can they also elect to use a canoe and enter via the creek you also have? So deeded access in the favor of the owner would have to be rather specific to prevent them using your property as a sky diving landing zone.

This would compare to one of our sewer lines. They are installed and we aren't moving them unless we have to. We may occasionally check on the pipeline but we have to stay within the typical 20 feet that is given to us. If the line gets moved outside of that 20 ft, we need a new easement.

Thanks all. You're the best.

Fairly recently, I've looked at some land with easements. This is what I've learned:

Beware that a deeded easement ( like for driveway access) is different from a prescriptive easement.

If it's in the deed, it is legally binding - you MUST be given access.

A prescriptive easement is one that has just "always been that folks drive across here to get in", but no legal document behind it. So, if you don't get along with the neighbor/owner of the land, they can block you.

I had to finally send a letter to a neighbor of a property we bought 20 years ago. He kept telling us we needed to put rock on the road, we have a 20' wide deeded access driveway into our one acre landlocked parcel. The actual agreement between him, his wife(co-owners at time but since divorced), and their daughter (who lost the property).