Easement dispute? Right of way? Farm road by Maître Zakine, Lawyer

Easement or exploitation road?

You own a house and you have always used a path to access it. This path, which is located on the neighboring property, has existed for 70 years and, reading the previous deeds of sale that have followed one another, allows us to understand that this path already existed.

Your neighbour, whose position has always been fragile regarding your passage through his land, has sent you a letter indicating that he now refuses to let you use this path.
Logging roads, often used by farmers or forest owners, frequently raise legal issues, particularly regarding recognition, maintenance or shared use. Logging roads are sometimes poorly defined, poorly maintained or contested, leading to disputes between the parties concerned.
Your land is now inaccessible.

It is therefore necessary to take legal action to have the existence of this path recognised.

From a legal point of view, this path is called a farm path within the meaning of Article L. 162-1 of the Rural and Maritime Fishing Code which provides:
"The operating paths and trails are those which serve exclusively for communication between various lands, or for their exploitation. In the absence of title, they are presumed to belong to the riparian owners, each in their own right, but their use is common to all interested parties. The use of these paths may be prohibited to the public."
Recognition of the operating path in several stages:
1) Concrete and tangible evidence
The determining criterion for proving its existence is the demonstration of the use of the path by old plans, aerial photographs and testimonies proving that the path was used to communicate the plots with each other for the purpose of their exploitation.
In fact, the path used exclusively for communication between buildings, whether it crosses them, borders them or ends there, constitutes a farm road.
2) Request the appointment of a legal expert
The survey and recognition of a mining road by a land surveyor has evidentiary value in the context of legal or administrative proceedings.
In fact, a document drawn up by a surveyor, such as a boundary plan, may be used in court in the event of a dispute.
The expert surveyor will give his opinion on the use of the operating road and may also investigate whether another access is possible.

If it concludes that it is impossible to create another access, this could even allow the existence of an easement to be recognised in court, since the expert surveyor's report has highlighted the impossibility of accessing the land by another access and consequently the permanent isolation of the land.
The use of legal expertise is often necessary to decide on complex questions relating to operating roads or easements.
Le Cabinet Zakine intervient sur la région de Bordeaux ainsi que sur celle de la Dordogne principalement dans les problématiques juridiques liées aux propriétés foncières, à l’aménagement du territoire et aux litiges entre propriétaires ou voisins. Le droit des servitudes, qu’il s’agisse de servitudes de passage, de vue, ou encore de la gestion des chemins d’exploitation, constitue un domaine de compétence clé du cabinet dans la région du sud-ouest.
The firm's team of specialist lawyers assists its clients in developing solid cases, working with experts, chartered surveyors and other technical professionals to establish concrete evidence.