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Expropriation Law Centre Forum

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Re: Re: Re: Historical right of ways

I am rather confused - the city sold 1/2 the land to the developer then bought this same land back from the developer? If this is the case then aren't these lots now city property and are they the ones not allowing access and why would they do that?

Re: Re: Re: Re: Historical right of ways

Talking with lawyers and my own reading it appears to be something like this.

The city had this vacant lot and the only use of it was as a right of way to 2 adjacent properties. The owners of the properties maintained the right of way and plowed it in the winter.

The city then sold half the vacant lot to developers for a condominium project. After they had deeded the land to the developers, the developers realized that the right-of-way was being used.

The city agreed to expropriate their own land. I am told this is done sometimes to extinguish any unknown claims which might exist. They should have notified the owners of the adjacent properties but they did not-- in fact if they had wanted to expropriate the right of ways, they should have served the expropriation on the persons who were using it and not on themselves.

It all smells of the developer being in bed with the city and the city pulled a fast one on their behalf.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Historical right of ways

You might want to check out some of the cases involving right of way on the www.courts.ns.ca web - look under court decisions - search right of way. There is a section on right of way by necessity - that appears to indicate that if there is another access to the property - no matter how inconvenient - that there is no reason for another access being granted. You did not make it clear if this is the only access to your properties or not.