Prescriptive easement question in California

[Peter Lee]

I own a commercial property in Los Angeles area and theres a vehicular path that runs across the neighbor's property indicated in red arrows into our lot. The path has existed for at least 20 yr. Continuously used by us and the previous owners of the property in blue.

Question is how feasible is this to qualify for a prescriptive easement? There's no record of it in the title report which is odd since it looks like it is there by design since there's a curb cut and the existing fence was designed with a gate.

Yes, I know this should've been caught during acquisition but not having this is not the end of the world, just inconvenient.

[Jay Hinrichs]

Quote from @Matt Devincenzo:

This is my perspective as an engineer/survey consultant...

The rights associated with a prescriptive easement exist only in 'concept' and statue. It isn't until one of two things happen that they're obvious and apparent. First option is you obtain a signed document from the adjacent owner acknowledging the condition and essentially granting you the easement...obtaining the easement negates the need for prescription since it is now 'of record'. Or you file a lawsuit to perfect those rights via the court, and then a judge considers the statutory requirements and awards you access via a judgement. 

My exposure to PE has been on projects being developed. One was a neighbor making the claim, which they went too far by saying they owned the property...you can't deprive someone of the property itself...but they could likely have won on the PE claim. Instead my client negotiated something else (a license agreement I think). 

The other two projects had old PE listed in title. One appeared to have been voluntarily entered into, and the document discussed the condition and timing etc and how as of the execution there was now an easement superseding any historical claims. The other was a recorded judgement indicating the extent of the PE claim and the obligations for each party. Both were from 50+ years ago, if I remember correctly the late 40's and the mid 60's.

In my experience with this stuff  mutual agreement is by far the best route and license agreement works very well as stated above .  I dont think just a curb cut and fence situation will carry the day.. but the use might.