Different details, but I let a house go up near me 4 - 5 years ago that I could have easily prevented. Everyday I look at that house and regret that I didn’t spend a bit more to prevent it from happening. It aggravates me every single day. Just say no.
@Consolation - good for you. I think you are making the right decision for you.
Now all I have to do get my H to agree.
Shoe your H this thread—one of the few that are unanimous for college confidential!
If the land is in both of your names, its a non-issue.
I find it odd that the attorney for the party attempting to create two building lots out of one would accuse anyone of “profiteering”.
Given that it will be at best expensive and possibly impossible for the neighbors to obtain access by securing the consent from, compensating, and paying expenses of seven different property owners, @Consolation has a lot of leverage here, and shouldn’t hesitate to use it.
If it were me, I’d tell them that we have reconsidered and are not interested in granting additional access at any price, and only negotiate when the inevitable significantly higher offer arrives.
I would politely tell them to pound sand. If/when consolation and DH sell their home/land, the people owning the other land can negotiate with the new owners. IMO, at present there is nothing good that can come from this, at any price.
Really, the more I think about it the more amusing and ludicrous the stance of their attorney is. He was acting as if we had initiated the deal and had some actual interest in seeing it happen. The reverse is true.
Nevertheless, I am really glad that he wrote that awful email, because of the effect on my H.
You folks are not going to believe this. H can be rather quixotic, to say the least:
Originally, I was willing to do it to help the neighbors out. (A familiar story…I guess I am quixotic also. 
) H did not want to do it. I told the wife, who was the person who came over and spoke to me–oh, and by the way, this is literally the first time I met her in the time they have lived there!–that she had to talk to H herself. So she spoke to H, who decided to seek legal advice. He called a lawyer he knew who specializes in such matters, but due to scheduling he had someone else in his firm handle it.
Meanwhile, I thought about it some more and told H that I had changed my mind and I was tired of being asked to be the nice guy in this situation, and I wan’ted to just say no. He contacted the lawyer and told her to suspend activity.
Our lawyer(s) said that we would be “very generous” if we considered doing this for them without any compensation and we really should consider that before proceeding. They also suggested a list of possible restrictions. We started thinking about it and realized that indeed, compensation was reasonable. It occurred to me that if we could get enough money to fix up the bathroom in question, that would counter any potential loss of value, so I said that if we could get $10K in compensation plus certain restrictions.
So at this point, H tells me that if we proceed but I change my mind again, he will insist on paying not only our legal fees, but THEIRS that were incurred in regard to dealing with us!!!
So the great thing about the awful email is that H is no longer planning to cover their expenses. We both feel that they have forfeited our consideration.
I am quite sure that some of you are peeling yourselves off the ceiling at the idea of our covering their legal expenses if I changed my mind.
=))
You mean you are still considering doing it at all? $10k is peanuts, especially compared to their other only alternative. There are so many downsides to this. What if one of their construction workers hurts himself n your road? Just, no.
I’d just say no, even if they offered $100,000-200,000 PLUS all legal fees. Toxic folks like them are just BAD news.
@jym626 , no, no. This was the backstory.
For that kind of money, HImom, I’d sell them the ROW strip of land.
I wonder if they knew the lawyer was going to say the things he did. If like to be a fly on the wall of they didn’t b =))
Oh good!! Whew.
"For that kind of money, HImom, I’d sell them the ROW strip of land. "
That’s another way to shut down the conversation. “Thank you, I’d prefer not to modify the existing easement. If you’d like to purchase the land, we’d be willing to sell it for $xxx,xxx.”
Oh, their lawyer floated the idea that we should deed it over to them for the $5k. Um, no.
Wow! He sounds very unreasonable. Does he not realize the cards are all in your hands? You don’t play hardball with someone who doesn’t really have anything to gain or lose.
I think I would make sure your lawyer tells him this is not going to happen and you are not interested in any further discussion on the matter.
I wouldn’t start throwing out amounts or they will see it as an invitation to haggle about price and WILL run up legal fees.
Unfortunately, I’ve known a lawyer like this. No integrity, thinks everyone is stupid RUN just run.
Don’t worry, @HImom. We won’t.