By P.J. Malone

Imagine you discovered a beautiful piece of property, a peninsula surrounded on its three sides by some of the most beautiful crystal clear waters in the world. You are euphoric because it’s ideal for your dream home!

You purchase this property on the most southwestern tip of that island in The Bahamas and build your dream home; It’s perfect!

A number of years later, you get a new neighbour. Being the good neighbour that you are, you soon befriend them, share your home with them, inviting them to your gatherings. You even become instrumental in helping your neighbour get out of an emergency situation he found himself in.

As far as you are concerned, you are the best of friends; but then this series of things happened.

• A real estate agent approaches you on behalf of ‘someone’—so says the real estate agent—and the real estate agent offers you a HUGE sum of money for your new beautiful dream home property. Of course you say, “No way!” You love your property with your dream home. There is nowhere else like it in the world! It was a great find for you.

So what is the real estate agent’s response? “Well, your neighbour will get it one way or another!” You think nothing of it. In fact you are not even sure which neighbour he is referring to.

• Then you discover that your next-door neighbour is buying up all the land around him. He buys 3 other estates right next to each other and suddenly owns acres and acres of land that separates your property from the rest of the development you all live in.
• Now your neighbour owns all the land surrounding approximately 1,000 feet of roadway that leads from the rest of the development—the only roadway that allows you to access your property.
• But it doesn’t matter, because the road to your property allows you deeded access. It can be described in the Developer’s deeded documents as the developer ‘holding the private road reservation in perpetuity as an unfettered benefit of each subdivided plot’ one of which you own.
• At the beginning of the 1,000 feet of roadway that only your neighbour and you use to access your properties, your neighbour installs gates, without your agreement or approval. This, in effect, creates the perception of a private driveway as opposed to a public road.
• Your neighbour then cordons off the road for—as your neighbour claims—the purpose of improving it. He creates another road for you to use in the meantime. Of course you object, but to no avail.
• You protest to the development homeowners association; they ignore you. You file a complaint to the police; they give no assistance. You complain to the relevant Government agency, but they say that construction projects in that gated community does not require the Government’s approval.
• After the construction is completed, there are several challenges.
• The newly constructed gate at the entrance of the roadway is controlled by your neighbour and is sometimes locked, preventing not only your guests from accessing your property, but preventing you access to your own property.
• Furthermore, the changes in the road elevation and the construction of walls on both sides of the roadway created a chute redirecting water and creating a run-off at the western end of the roadway that pools right in front of the entry gate to your property. Your visitors can’t get to the buzzer on your gate without walking through the water and not to speak of the constant mosquitos and bugs that live in it.
• In addition, your neighbour posts signs at the beginning of the roadway that says “PRIVATE” and “NO TURN AROUND” making your guests feel that the roadway is private property and that they made a wrong turn and have to find another way to get to your property.
• You get complaints that any of your guests and visitors who make it past the impediments and attempt to get to your property are being harassed by your neighbour’s staff.
• The ultimate sin is your neighbour has installed cameras all along his property on the two sides of the road with lenses directly aimed at the faces of visitors driving the road to your property.
• Your neighbour insists that he is entitled to make the changes he has made without your consent because he owns the land the roadway is on.

You become fearful that your property will lose the right to be accessed from the deeded roadway so you need to take legal action to protect your ability to access your property.

So the saga begins.