Community Driveway Dispute

[whimsicaltype]

I live in the LA area of California. I own a home which was built by the same builder who built the two houses to the north of me. I legally own 6 feet in front of my garage (not enough room to park a car) and have an Easement which was recorded on 1979 while the houses were being built, to ingress and egress my garage. The property that the easement consists of belongs to my neighbor. About 9 months after the Easement was recorded, an additional document, called a Covenant and Agreement for Community Driveway was recorded lising my property as Parcel 2 and my neighbor's property as Parcel 1. Since the definition of Community Driveway is: "A driveway which is jointly owned, used and maintained by two or more persons. Usually, a portion of each owner's property is burdened by the driveway." Does this second recorded document give me any ownership rights, even though I'm pretty sure that I don't pay the property taxes. The Covenant also includes the wording "general driveway purposes" which refers to my use.
My neighbor wants my car off the easement which I've been parking on for 16 years...he has only lived there for 2 years. My question is; when this second recorded document was recorded, does this give me owner shiprights to the driveway also? This is a very difficult situation because the original owner of all 3 lots was the builder and gave himself the initial Easement and subsequently the Community Driveway Agreement which was recorded 9 months later. The are single family homes and there is no association involved...just two feuding neighbors. Thank you in advance for any light you can shed on this subject.
Pat

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I'm not sure of the law specifically on this but there is also another kind of easement -- easement by prescription -- which is an open and notorious use of the land . I believe that it is California Civil Code Section 1007 and that the period of time is five years.

I live in the LA area of California. I own a home which was built by the same builder who built the two houses to the north of me. I legally own 6 feet in front of my garage (not enough room to park a car) and have an Easement which was recorded on 1979 while the houses were being built, to ingress and egress my garage. The property that the easement consists of belongs to my neighbor. About 9 months after the Easement was recorded, an additional document, called a Covenant and Agreement for Community Driveway was recorded lising my property as Parcel 2 and my neighbor's property as Parcel 1. Since the definition of Community Driveway is: "A driveway which is jointly owned, used and maintained by two or more persons. Usually, a portion of each owner's property is burdened by the driveway." Does this second recorded document give me any ownership rights, even though I'm pretty sure that I don't pay the property taxes. The Covenant also includes the wording "general driveway purposes" which refers to my use.
My neighbor wants my car off the easement which I've been parking on for 16 years...he has only lived there for 2 years. My question is; when this second recorded document was recorded, does this give me owner shiprights to the driveway also? This is a very difficult situation because the original owner of all 3 lots was the builder and gave himself the initial Easement and subsequently the Community Driveway Agreement which was recorded 9 months later. The are single family homes and there is no association involved...just two feuding neighbors. Thank you in advance for any light you can shed on this subject.
Pat