Georgia Easements and Landlocked Property: How Access Works in Lumpkin County

Georgia gives the owner of landlocked land a way in through the courts. Under O.C.G.A. § 44-9-40, an owner with no means of access may petition the superior court of the county “for a judgment condemning an easement of access, ingress, and egress not to exceed 20 feet in width.” That petition is the last resort. Access to land can rest on a recorded easement, a road used for years, or the way a larger tract was split, and a buyer’s first job is to learn which one the driveway rests on.

The four ways a private way arises in Georgia

The Code lists all four in one sentence, O.C.G.A. § 44-9-1: “The right of private way over another’s land may arise from an express grant, from prescription by seven years’ uninterrupted use through improved lands or by 20 years’ use through wild lands, by implication of law when the right is necessary to the enjoyment of lands granted by the same owner, or by compulsory purchase and sale through the superior court.”

Only the first is a document someone set out to record. The other three can exist without a single page in the deed index, which is why a title search alone does not settle access to mountain land.

The landlocked-land petition under § 44-9-40

The petition belongs to an owner whose land has no means of access, and the width is capped by the statute itself: “Private ways shall not exceed 20 feet in width and may be as much less as the applicant may choose or as the court may find to be reasonably necessary.”

Section 44-9-1 calls this route “compulsory purchase and sale”: the landlocked owner buys the right through the court. If a tract would depend on one, ask a Georgia real estate attorney before you sign a contract.

Private ways granted by the superior court may not exceed 20 feet in width. (O.C.G.A. § 44-9-40, checked Oct 19, 2026)

Prescriptive private ways: 7 years or 20?

Both numbers are in the Code, and they answer different questions.

• Seven years through improved lands, 20 years through wild lands. These are the prescription periods for a private way in § 44-9-1.
• Seven years of constant use protects an existing way. O.C.G.A. § 44-9-54 says: “Whenever a private way has been in constant and uninterrupted use for seven or more years and no legal steps have been taken to abolish it, it shall not be lawful for anyone to interfere with that private way.”
• Twenty years, or seven under color of title, is about owning land, not crossing it. Possession for 20 years confers title by prescription under O.C.G.A. § 44-5-163, and possession “under written evidence of title” for seven years does so under O.C.G.A. § 44-5-164. Those rules decide who owns a tract, not who may cross it.

The Code text behind this guide does not define “improved lands” or “wild lands,” and on wooded mountain tracts the label can decide the outcome. Our article on prescriptive easements in Georgia sets each period beside the statute’s exact words.

Is there a “7 year fence law” in Georgia?

We found no Georgia statute by that name among the Code sections this guide relies on. The Code’s seven-year rules in this area are the private-way periods above and the color-of-title rule in § 44-5-164, and none of them is about fences as such.

Can a neighbor block access?

If a private way has been in constant and uninterrupted use for seven or more years with no legal steps to abolish it, § 44-9-54 says it is not lawful for anyone to interfere with it. A person injured by an obstruction “may petition the judge of the probate court in the county where the private way has been in use to remove the obstructions” under O.C.G.A. § 44-9-59. In Lumpkin County the Probate Court is at 325 Riley Road, Room 122. If no grant, prescription or implication supports the route, the statutory path is the § 44-9-40 petition.

Private roads in Lumpkin County

A private road’s rules come from the deeds, plats and agreements behind it. The county’s own rules add three facts a buyer can use.

• Sign color is a clue. County road name signs are green; privately maintained road signs should be blue with white lettering (Lumpkin County).
• Splitting land on a private road is limited. Under the county’s subdivision rules, only minor subdivides and the code’s listed exemptions may divide property reached by an easement or private road (Lumpkin County Code), and in a platted subdivision, access to every lot “cannot be provided by way of private easements or private right-of-way” (Lumpkin County Code).
• Road maintenance agreements travel with the plat. An exempt divide, meaning no more than ten parcels of five acres or more, may use private roads only if maintenance is covered by restrictive covenants or a road maintenance agreement, which “must be recorded simultaneously with the approved plat” (Lumpkin County Code). Read the recorded agreement, and ask the closing attorney you choose what it obligates an owner to do.

How an access problem shows up in title work

1. The title commitment. Schedule B, Part II lists exceptions the policy will include “unless cleared to the satisfaction of the Company” (2021 ALTA Commitment). Recorded easements across the land, and sometimes the easement your access depends on, appear there. See title commitments explained.
2. The owner’s policy. Covered Risk 4 of the 2021 ALTA Owner’s Policy is “No right of access to and from the Land” (2021 ALTA Owner’s Policy), subject to its exceptions and exclusions. ALTA also publishes Endorsement 17-06, Access and Entry.
3. The survey. Georgia’s survey standards require the surveyor to explain lines that do not match the record, listing reasons such as possession lines, adverse possession and unrecorded deeds (Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 180-7). A road in daily use that no deed mentions is exactly what a survey should show. More on surveys and boundaries.

If the only way in crosses National Forest land, a private driveway across it needs a Forest Service special-use authorization; see land next to the national forest.

The mountain land title guide covers the other title questions mountain land raises, and curing title problems explains how a record gets fixed. Weighing a tract with an uncertain way in? Gold Peach Realty can help you frame the questions for your attorney and surveyor.

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