A parcel you cannot legally reach is very hard to sell.
Access is the difference between land and a liability. If the only way in crosses somebody else's property without a recorded right, buyers and lenders both back away.
Talk through the accessLandlocked is more common than people think
Family land gets divided over generations. A road is closed or relocated. A parcel is split and the back half is left with no frontage. In rural Kentucky, parcels reached only by a gravel drive across a neighbor's field are a routine finding.
Using a route for years is not the same as having a legal right to it. Practical access and legal access are two separate things, and only one of them satisfies a title company.
Easement by necessity and prescription
Where a parcel was severed from a larger tract in a way that left it without access, Kentucky law may recognize an easement by necessity. Where a route has been used openly and continuously for a long enough period, a prescriptive easement may exist.
Both are legal doctrines that require proof and often a court to declare. Neither is something you can assert on a title commitment without documentation, which is why these parcels stall.
Other easement problems
The reverse also causes trouble. A utility easement running through the middle of a buildable area. A shared driveway with no maintenance agreement. A recorded easement whose location on the ground does not match the description.
All of it affects value and none of it stops us. Send whatever the survey and the title work show, and tell us how the property is actually reached today.
Five questions. That is the whole thing.
We already know your situation from this page. Change it if it does not fit.
Question 1 of 5
What people ask about this
Can you buy a landlocked parcel?
Yes, and access status significantly affects the number. Establishing legal access is often the single largest thing that would raise the value.
The neighbor lets me use their drive. Is that enough?
Permission is not a right, and permission can be withdrawn. A recorded easement is what a buyer and a title company need.
Is a shared driveway a problem?
Only when there is no recorded agreement covering use and maintenance. Those get negotiated into a lot of Kentucky closings.
Often it is more than one thing at once
Talk through the access.
No cost, no obligation, and nobody shows up at your door unless you ask them to.