Hi, in advance i will inform this thread is quite long but I would very much appreciate some legal help and assistance for this issue.
I live in a townhouse which is one of three buildings in the estate we live at the end of an L shaped easement, where there is one house on each point of contact for the L.
As in one in front with the easement to their left (consider building Z), one in the bottom right corner with the easement to their front (consider building Y), and us in the bottom left corner with the easement to our front (consider building X)(note this is the end of the easement, where it meets a 2 meter wall, and is directly in front of our house).
Both owners Z and Y are demanding we move one or both of our cars out of the easement and elsewhere, i.e. on the street.
We have 4 people living in the house, 3 of which own a vehicle. One is parked in the garage and two outside our house (we cant park two in the garage as the rest of the space is used for storage and is very full.
Note, each house has a garage, building Y (to our left) is complaining that we aren't allowed to park our two cars in front of our house (note that we own the property and do not rent). They state that were preventing them from being able to maneuver out of the garage so the can drive forwards out of the easement. (note, i have never witnessed this happen in my entire 6 year of living here and believe the reason to simply be that they dont want us parking there)
Now we've lived here for 6 years and never had an issue until recently, in fact for the first three years we had two considerably larger cars parked outside our property as we had just moved and our garage was full. And never received complaint or issue for 3 whole years until we sold one of those cars, and eventually the other (we've only had the two new cars parked outside for as of this date, maybe 1-2 months)
I believe their excuse is full of s**t, as i have video evidence that shows the owner of building Y driving straight out of their garage down the easement as they have always done for the time we've lived in the property.
For context, the owner in front (building Z) has one vehicle which they park in their garage, they are in no way effected by our parking but have raised issue in support of the owner of Building Y (I believe this to be because neither of them like us)
Now back to building Y (to our left). The owner complains they can't maneuver their car to drive forwards out, to which I suggested they reverse out.
They stated they don't want to and shouldn't have to. Our cars are parked at least 2 and a half to 3 meters away from the beginning of their garage. The two vehicles that this person owns are both small cars (3-4 meters length max by 1.5m width (reference to their mainly used car which is a Nissan Cube) and I highly doubt they need to maneuver their cars as the easement is over 6 meters wide, the space in front of their garage is maybe (conservative figure) 6m wide by 8m long this provides an area of 48m squared, ample space to perform any maneuver for such a small vehicle.
Given their reason (that they can't maneuver their cars, regardless of the fact they don't need to) do I have to move my vehicles off the easement for that?
Note. prior research (from documents for our easement, from the Queensland Land Registry, Land Title Act 1994 and Land Act 1994) for this technically we are the grantor as it is in relation to the easement attached to our property, Owners Y and Z would be the grantee, although neither need to use the easement to get out of the property, nor do either actually use the easement.
"2.2 Restrictions on grantor's use
The grantor must not -
a) Park or leave standing on the servient tenement any vehicles in a manner that would prevent other vehicles from passing or turning around by using the remaining area of the servient tenement and the adjoining easement..."
This is one section they say we are in breach of, which is ridiculous because whilst we park, we do not park in a manner that would prevent other vehicles from 1. passing, as it is the end of the easement and there is nowhere to pass to, and 2. turning around, as previously stated, there is roughly 45+ square meters for them to maneuver in and therefore it is unreasonable to suggest that they required the easement in front of our property to effectively maneuver.
The second section they say we are in breach of is:
"6 Nuisance
neither the grantor or the grantee will cause any nuisance to the owners and occupiers of any adjoining or nearby properties"
Which they have not provided any reason as to why and how we are causing nuisance
Now the worst part is these people are hypocrites, and have allowed their friends, workers and such to park in front of their properties completely blocking the easement on many occasion. Now I have photograph evidence of at least 5 events where this occurred. One of which lasted for at least 2 hours.
We've never complained about this because it has never effected us, if we needed to move our cars then we would have asked them to move. Now these events have been occurring since we moved in and cant be blamed on us parking the two cars, time stamps of the photographs can prove such.
Again with these facts, do I have the right to park in front of my property on my easement as I am not blocking access to anywhere, there is ample space for the owner of building Y to maneuver, and I am not causing any reasonable (if any at all) nuisance?
Apologies for the long read if anyone does read, but I would really appreciate some help.
Kind Regards
I live in a townhouse which is one of three buildings in the estate we live at the end of an L shaped easement, where there is one house on each point of contact for the L.
As in one in front with the easement to their left (consider building Z), one in the bottom right corner with the easement to their front (consider building Y), and us in the bottom left corner with the easement to our front (consider building X)(note this is the end of the easement, where it meets a 2 meter wall, and is directly in front of our house).
Both owners Z and Y are demanding we move one or both of our cars out of the easement and elsewhere, i.e. on the street.
We have 4 people living in the house, 3 of which own a vehicle. One is parked in the garage and two outside our house (we cant park two in the garage as the rest of the space is used for storage and is very full.
Note, each house has a garage, building Y (to our left) is complaining that we aren't allowed to park our two cars in front of our house (note that we own the property and do not rent). They state that were preventing them from being able to maneuver out of the garage so the can drive forwards out of the easement. (note, i have never witnessed this happen in my entire 6 year of living here and believe the reason to simply be that they dont want us parking there)
Now we've lived here for 6 years and never had an issue until recently, in fact for the first three years we had two considerably larger cars parked outside our property as we had just moved and our garage was full. And never received complaint or issue for 3 whole years until we sold one of those cars, and eventually the other (we've only had the two new cars parked outside for as of this date, maybe 1-2 months)
I believe their excuse is full of s**t, as i have video evidence that shows the owner of building Y driving straight out of their garage down the easement as they have always done for the time we've lived in the property.
For context, the owner in front (building Z) has one vehicle which they park in their garage, they are in no way effected by our parking but have raised issue in support of the owner of Building Y (I believe this to be because neither of them like us)
Now back to building Y (to our left). The owner complains they can't maneuver their car to drive forwards out, to which I suggested they reverse out.
They stated they don't want to and shouldn't have to. Our cars are parked at least 2 and a half to 3 meters away from the beginning of their garage. The two vehicles that this person owns are both small cars (3-4 meters length max by 1.5m width (reference to their mainly used car which is a Nissan Cube) and I highly doubt they need to maneuver their cars as the easement is over 6 meters wide, the space in front of their garage is maybe (conservative figure) 6m wide by 8m long this provides an area of 48m squared, ample space to perform any maneuver for such a small vehicle.
Given their reason (that they can't maneuver their cars, regardless of the fact they don't need to) do I have to move my vehicles off the easement for that?
Note. prior research (from documents for our easement, from the Queensland Land Registry, Land Title Act 1994 and Land Act 1994) for this technically we are the grantor as it is in relation to the easement attached to our property, Owners Y and Z would be the grantee, although neither need to use the easement to get out of the property, nor do either actually use the easement.
"2.2 Restrictions on grantor's use
The grantor must not -
a) Park or leave standing on the servient tenement any vehicles in a manner that would prevent other vehicles from passing or turning around by using the remaining area of the servient tenement and the adjoining easement..."
This is one section they say we are in breach of, which is ridiculous because whilst we park, we do not park in a manner that would prevent other vehicles from 1. passing, as it is the end of the easement and there is nowhere to pass to, and 2. turning around, as previously stated, there is roughly 45+ square meters for them to maneuver in and therefore it is unreasonable to suggest that they required the easement in front of our property to effectively maneuver.
The second section they say we are in breach of is:
"6 Nuisance
neither the grantor or the grantee will cause any nuisance to the owners and occupiers of any adjoining or nearby properties"
Which they have not provided any reason as to why and how we are causing nuisance
Now the worst part is these people are hypocrites, and have allowed their friends, workers and such to park in front of their properties completely blocking the easement on many occasion. Now I have photograph evidence of at least 5 events where this occurred. One of which lasted for at least 2 hours.
We've never complained about this because it has never effected us, if we needed to move our cars then we would have asked them to move. Now these events have been occurring since we moved in and cant be blamed on us parking the two cars, time stamps of the photographs can prove such.
Again with these facts, do I have the right to park in front of my property on my easement as I am not blocking access to anywhere, there is ample space for the owner of building Y to maneuver, and I am not causing any reasonable (if any at all) nuisance?
Apologies for the long read if anyone does read, but I would really appreciate some help.
Kind Regards