Background
Little did I know when all of this started that I’d be writing a series on it. As you’ve been able to read on the main page and the second page of this subject, we are now on page three of this debacle. In short, we sold some land and provided an easement on our land (this is crucial) for the buyers to access their property, and then the new owner tried to take us for a ride by claiming the easement as their property. To understand this sequel better, please read the main and second articles first (see links above).
So, what’s up this time then?
In December of 2025, one of our oldest friends paid us a visit with his RV, as he has done for a long time, a few times every year when he’s out travelling and passes our home. His RV is quite large and requires some space for navigation – especially when executing a three-point turn. In practice, this three-point turn looks more like a five or a six-point turn – not due to bad driving but limited space in our parking in combination with the length of the RV.
Anyway, the next morning we had breakfast before our friend left. Aware of the hassle around the road, he asked me if he should back out or use the shortcut of the easement road. Of course, we still own the easement road, so I told him to use that for driving off our property, which was by far the easiest way out for him. Slowly, he drove his RV through the grass and turned left onto the gravel of the easement road. He backed about a meter and then drove out on the asphalt to continue his travels north.
No surprises so far. I can mention that the reason we’ve always given for why we need access to the easement road was this very specific situation: we got guests with an RV or there’s a trailer that needs to leave our parking space in an easy manner. And this is via the easement road.
Nothing happened the rest of the week – until Friday came. My daughter was out with the dog and asked me if I knew that the neighbors’ car was back. Notably, she did not have to tell me which car, or where it was, only that it was back. This, of course, meant that the neighbors again started using their car to block the driveway so we couldn’t use the easement road. Additionally, a piece of wood was stuck in the hole in the middle of the road, dug there previously – allegedly to stop folks from using the road.
Where things had been quiet since the summer, we now realized we’re suddenly back again in the situation where the neighbor, despite the previous almost court case (see previous pages in this series), continues to claim the easement road as his own property. Where I assumed they had been informed by their own lawyer, had accepted the settlement, and finally understood that they did not own the road, it was now very clear indeed that this thing wasn’t over – far from it!
‘Where will this go?’ you may wonder – as do I. We do have some options:
- Let it fly and don’t use the road
- Use the road more often and force the neighbors to show their cards
- Send an email asking him to remove the car, as it is blocking our driveway
- Escalate and ask the lawyer to inform the neighbors of their infringement on our rights as property owners to use the road
Don’t know yet what we’ll do, but it will not be the first point.
Clearly, the next time our friend arrives in his RV will trigger the neighbors to block the road once more, forcing his RV to turn around in our limited parking area. While this may be doable in the summer, as soon as snow and ice come, turning the RV will no longer be an option. Our parking area slopes down and becomes icy, and with that, impossible to use for advanced drivers exercising with vehicles without studded tires, as the RV. Obviously, before that, things need to escalate once more…
A question that may have puzzled you is how the neighbors manage to never miss any instance of us using our road. The only answer must be that they most likely have a camera in their home security system covering all of the road, and storing the footage for later use. While I don’t mind this, it is still illegal in Sweden to have camera surveillance of someone else’s property without their approval, which has never been given by us.
And then, things got worse!
One evening in December, when our daughter was walking the dog and picking up the mail on her way back, the neighbor decided to inform her of the following:
- Are you retarded? (Är du dumm i huvudet?)
- You have to go around; you have no right to be here. (Du måste gå runt, du har inget att göra här!)
- Have you had a stone on your head, or what? You can’t go here! (Har du tappat en sten på skallen eller? Du får inte gå här!)
In order to inform our daughter of these obscene and false comments, he came running from his house, flashlight waving as it was still dark. Our daughter did not lose her cool and responded ‘Oh, how nice of you, you can’t talk to me. Talk to my parents!’ (Oj vad trevlig du är, du får inte prata med mig. Prata med mina föräldrar.) She may have sounded calm, but we sure noticed she was quite shaken by the encounter.
Obviously, we cannot let this slide. The guy is totally unhinged and enough of a coward to bully our daughter. Notably, he’s not brave enough to face my wife (whom he met the day before when she was walking the dog) or me. As you may recall, earlier this summer, he told our daughter not to use the easement road; even at that time, he was afraid to tell me that personally, as I had driven a car over that road.
So I emailed our lawyer asking if he could call me – the call will take place tomorrow at 10:00.
The next thing that crossed my mind was to report the incident to the police. Not that it will lead to anyone being arrested, but to get it reported for future reference. I’ll wait with this until I’ve spoken with our lawyer. Notably, our daughter was not opposed to the plan to involve the police.
A few things are abundantly clear now:
- This behavior has to stop!
- We need to be able to use the road!
- The hole in the road must be filled in!
- Their cars can no longer be parked on the road and block it!
No doubt, the defence for parking and blocking the road is that the car is not parked on our property, which is true, but on the second part of the easement from the Golf course, they claim they have exclusive access to. Obviously, as with our earlier judicial encounter, that is not true.
Before filing a police report, we decided to check with our lawyer first. During a telephone call in which I explained the new situation as described above, he assured me that reporting the incident to the police was the right thing to do. Additionally, he advised me to gather evidence of the car blocking the road. In its simplest form, this would be taking a photo for every day the road is blocked. He finally assured me that the neighbors have no right to block the road, wherever they park their car. The only right they have to the road is to use it to get to and from their property. Blocking the road wherever they park infringes on our rights as property owners to access and use the road.
We will contact the local police next week to find out how we need to file our formal complaint. It is my impression that law enforcement is more about gathering data than actually pursuing issues on site. In our case, a personal visit from a police officer at the neighbor’s doorstep would probably lead to his behavior rerouting from our daughter to me, which I encourage.
Simultaneously, we’ve started to list the days the road is blocked by the neighbor’s car. Obviously, this will be followed up on later.
To be continued…
Editor’s comment:
As always, the above is an as-exact-as-I-can representation of the facts as we experienced them, and not fancied up in any way. It is not derived from any of my books, though the longer it goes on, the more I’m tempted to have it end up in one I will write in the future.
Paul
2025-12
Sweden
You can read the complete line of events here:
https://www.allegedfacts.eu/?s=easement