There’s a house on the property that needs to be sold to settle the estate. The only access to the house by vehicle is the easement that goes through one side of the property owned by the aunt who is refusing to agree to the sale of the house. There’s a river and a mountain blocking access to the property by any other route. The only other option is to build another bridge over the river that would cost about 20 times the value of the house.

Given this ^^^ you definitely need to ask a local attorney, as the third party in that house will have little choice but to sue if you don't let them continue to pass.

You appear to have the choices of:
1) never selling the inherited property,

2) finding some way to make the Aunt happy with the idea of continuing to grant the easement, possibly by side deals on other topics to compensate,

3) if the easement-access land is part of the inherited property, selling that part of the property (priced at a premium per acre, most likely) to the third party to give them permanent access rather than via easement, and using those proceeds to make the Aunt happy (alternatively, if the Aunt solely owns that land, then getting her and the third-party together to negotiate a deal),

4) trying to adjust whatever constraints appear to require unanimous assent to the sale (i.e. contesting terms of the will/trust/?) so the Aunt's opinion could be outvoted, or

5) some other legal magic that works in your jurisdiction, perhaps finding that the specifics of that easement may have already made it legally enforcable, so that the Aunt cannot be made happy whether or not the house is sold,

all under the almost certain cloud of legal action if the folks in that house suddenly can't get to their property through action taken by the estate.

If I was facing those choices, I would happily pay for the expert advice of a local attorney specializing in both real estate and estate law.

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the easement that goes through one side of the property owned by the aunt who is refusing to agree to the sale of the house

What exactly is the aunt's issue? Doesn't want someone driving on the edge of her property to access the house under sale? Seems shallow to me.

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Doesn't want someone driving on the edge of her property to access the house under sale? Seems shallow to me.

Not after you get into a floodlight aiming battle.

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Originally posted by Aeteocles:
Following just to see how many wrong answers are going to be submitted by people who are not members of the Virginia bar.

It's a pretty straightforward question provided someone knows the law specific for Virginia.

I've seen "My Cousin Vinny" a couple times so I'm almost qualified to respond.

Is the aunt doing this, thinking she will be able to buy the house on the cheap or just being unrealistic thinking she will just get it for nothing at some point?

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Originally posted by Mutiny:

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Originally posted by Leemur:
An easement was created in 2003 to allow access to the property the house is on. Nothing is in writing but that easement has been in existence for 17 years.

How was it created if nothing is in writing? Real easements are supposed to be recorded in property records and normally need an easement Plat created by a surveyor or engineer that accompanies any other documents that get recorded. So if nothing is in writing, then it doesn't exist. I'm not a land use attorney, but formerly spent 20 years in Virginia land development as Professional Civil Engineer. I think you need to see what the land records show.

This!

I'm no lawyer. That being said, is there a paved driveway to the house from the public street? If so, can you prove that it's been there over 7 years? I would check with the city and see if the easement has been recorded before doing anything. I think in order for the house to even be saleable to other people, the easement would need to be recorded at the city and/or on the deed. I think you need to find a good lawyer in that area and have them work to getting the easement recorded and done on the city side of things. Given the time line the easement has been in place, if you can prove it, you may not need your Aunt to agree to that, but anyone buying the house is going to want a RECORDED easement for their driveway before purchasing. Once that is done, then it's a matter of her agreeing to sell that property or perhaps she'd like to buy everyone else out of it.

You need to talk to a local real estate lawyer. I could tell you how this would work out under Florida law but that could be misleading so I won't. Folks here are very helpful and probably on the right track, but the devil's in the details.

What is the Aunt's price?