Acreage easement question

[Mike Nesnidal]

I’m looking for some advice on how to handle the lack of an easement for a drain tile system from a neighboring farm illegally passing under the road on my property, compromising water drainage and jeopardizing my road.

A few years ago I bought 10 acres here in MN about 30 miles SW of Minneapolis. I needed to install a 900-ft class 5 gravel driveway to provide access to the building site from the county road. At that county road, my property tapers to a width that accommodates little more than my access road. I built the access road a couple months ago, including a culvert where it meets the county road to handle the runoff from a neighboring farm. That farmer purchased his land a couple years earlier from the same original owner who sold me my land. At the time of my culvert installation, the farmer alerted me to a drain tile outlet that runs across my property under my would-be culvert. This drain tile served to alleviate water accumulation in some low-lying areas of his farm.

The issue is that my land was not sold to me with a related easement nor any mention of an existing drain tile system. My excavator was able to install the culvert without any damage to the drain tile (so they say), but the issue remains that my property was sold to me without a required easement. It is unclear if the drain tile was installed by the original owner or by the current farmer. In either case, no easement was defined prior to my purchase or secured from me after.

Any suggestions on how I should handle this? I assume the burden is on the current farmer (or previous owner, depending on who installed the tile) to make the legal corrections and provide reasonable compensation (like enhancing my culvert for higher throughput). My main concern is that we just got 4 inches of rain and the water accumulated to the top of the road almost washing it away. See image of my access road below...water is 2ft deep. If the drain tile was damaged and is contributing to water accumulation, my culvert needs additional throughput that I should not have to pay for. In any event, I now know about an easement violation that I would need to disclose to a future buyer.

Thanks for any advice,

Mike