[Indydealmaker]

Originally Posted by Carl in Tampa

There may be, but need not be, an easement along the front of a piece of property. Easements are usually, but not necessarily, along the back of the property. There are also usually easements along the edge of the property abutting the neighbors property, which will also have an easement. All these easements are to facilitate getting gas, water, electricity, cable service, etc. into your house.

The utility easements are not available to the public for their use.

There may be an easement along the front of your property, but this is not the justification for the public walking on "your" lawn.

The fact is (as you note) that your front property line does not extend to the edge of the street. When a developer plats a new development, he retains ownership of the area from the front property line to the street (and the street) so that he may put in utilities before the utility companies become involved. Then, because at some point the developer wants to withdraw, he conveys ownership of that property to the County.

If, in your case the easement is in the front it may be that it was impractical to put the easement in the back. An example of this would be houses that back directly on a multi-modal path along Buena Vista. You will see houses that have birdcages built right up to the wooden fence that is probably the property line. There is no space for a back easement on those lots.

As I often say.........check your individual plat map.

The part that seems to trouble most people is that they are responsible for properly maintaining the strip of property from their front property line to the street and they cannot charge people with trespassing if they walk on it.

I can't answer your question about imperfections in your driveway that is not on your property. It may be that maintaining your driveway is in the same category as maintaining your lawn---you have to do it even though it is not on your property. See what your documents say.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, down in Tampa my front sidewalk suffered major upheaval from oak tree roots and the County came in and repaired the sidewalk because my property line ended on the house side of the sidewalk.

But, my only point, reaching back to my first entry in this discussion is that property lines do not extend to the edge of the street. The area from the property line to the street (usually 10 or 15 feet) is available to the public. Not because it is an easement, but because it does not belong to the property owner.

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Incidentally, when the developer proffers the property, including the paved roads, to the county, the county is not obligated to accept the offer. The offered property must be up to county standards for the county to accept ownership.

My church in Tampa offered the county several hundred yards of paved roadway to be a connector between a dead end street and a major highway. The offer was initially refused because the very expensive and ornate street lights we had installed were too close to the road. We had to remove them all before the roadway was accepted.

Carl,
My site plan shows an easement on the front, the back and a special easement down one side. I am surrounded!