Shared private road maintenance fund

[nickel plate]

We as well as six others own property on a private 1-1/2 mile dirt/rock unimproved road that has a couple of mild switch backs and drops/rises about 300 feet in elevation. Some of the neighbors are living permantely there and some are not. One of the live-in neighbors has a small business which brings down UPS and Fed-x trucks about twice a week. Another has several friends that frequently use the road. That's about it-we are facing a couple of small washouts in the ditch alongside the road, nothing at this time any more major that a periodic tractor dressing dressing.
Can you give me a payment formula guideline that works for your group that each resident pays into (advance or in time of need) road maintenance for your private road? A transparent bank account for road maintenence or?
Do note that some live here and some only visit occasionally or not at all.

 

[ustmd]

We are in a similar situation.

Rather than fargue about it and create problems, we always offer to split the maintenance equally.

 

[cowpatty]

In a perfect world everyone would split the first year equally and keep tabs...everyone would pay approximately the same. The following year everyone would deposit a monthly amount into an escrow fund that revolves and maintains the road. Problem is that will not happen unless you have great neighbors that care about their whole road. Too many times, the residents only care about their section and don't worry about the "end" of the road. Don't expect a 100% participation rate either. Good luck

 

[MasseyWV]

I've been in a similar situation and found that the biggest problem wasn't deciding who pays what, but simply getting them to pay.

 

[plowking]

In my area,most private roads are on lakes. The lake association usually takes care of the lake road and their members on the road pay. Some towns will do private roads if they are classified as "emergency lanes."Other towns will charge the private road owners seperately or refuse to maintain them altogether. Banks,insurance companies here will want some guarantee from their borrowers or the town that road will be accessible in winter[ snow plowing] for emergency services. Is your private road located in a township,incorporated ,etc. or just rural area? plowking

 

[bcp]

There is a sample agreement attached to this page:

Road Maintenance Agreements (RMA) - Private Road Maintenance Agreements





And here is our county's code for private roads agreements:

"Private Road Maintenance Agreement. The county will not maintain roadways, signs or drainage improvements on private roads. All private roads shall be maintained by the owners of the property served by them and kept in good repair at all times. A private maintenance covenant recorded with the County Auditor will be required for any private road serving more than three (3) lots. The covenant will set out the terms and conditions of responsibility for maintenance, maintenance methods, standards, distribution of expenses, remedies for noncompliance with the terms of the agreement, right of use easements, and other considerations. The covenant shall be submitted to the responsible official for approval prior to recording. The covenants, which may be in the form set forth in the Standard Details Manual, shall include the following terms:

(1) The covenant shall establish minimum annual assessments in an amount adequate to defray costs of ordinary maintenance and procedures for approval of additional needed assessments.

(2) The covenant shall include a periodic maintenance schedule.

(3) The covenants for maintenance shall be enforceable by any property owner served by the road.

(4) The means shall be established for assessing maintenance and repair costs equitably to property owners served by the private road.

(5) The covenants shall run with the land.

(6) “Maintenance” shall include, but not be limited to, road surfacing, shoulders, gates, signs, storm drainage facilities and vegetation control.

(7) Private Road Inspection. Private roads will be subject to the same inspection schedule as public roads.

(8) Developer Maintenance Obligation. The developer of a residential plat or short plat shall be responsible to ensure the maintenance of the private road for a period of two (2) years from the date of recording of the plat or short plat. Thereafter, the developer’s maintenance responsibility will depend upon the number of lots under the developer’s continuing ownership, as stated in the recorded maintenance agreement."

 

[Pettrix]

The private road I use that is shared by one neighbor, it's difficult to get him to pay. As long as your neighbor is reasonable, you shouldn't have any problems. If you have an unreasonable neighbor like I do, it's can get ugly.

For me, the 500' shared easement road needed work, yet the neighbor refused to give up money to help fix it. The options I had was to get the HOA involved and get the lawyers involved. It wasn't worth it for me and I just paid for it all myself.

This neighbor doesn't fix anything until it is about to collapse. It had culvert damage, rutted road, etc, and I just fixed it myself. Cost me around $700.

 

[rambler]

Can you give me a payment formula guideline that works for your group that each resident pays into

Now, that's the funniest thing I read all night! "that works' - oh how funny!

Good luck with it! You'll need it.

--->Paul

 

[RickB]

I can't offer a solution. But I will say when we were looking at property to buy in North Carolina, one of the first dealbreakers was no deeded access to a public highway. Never will I be involved in a similar situation. No shared driveways, private roads, or homeowner's associations for me.

Unless you plan on doing/paying for 100% of the maintenence on the portion of the shared road that you use, you are probably going to be disappointed in the long run.

 

[Tomtint]

I live on a gravel road, it is about 1500 feet from the end of my driveway to he main road and there are 8 houses that use the road. I maintain it. Only o e neighbor has ever pitched in anything and it was just given , never asked for. Others just drive by and wave as I'm grading it. I have a 72" Befco land plane that needs new scarifiers and skids after 30 hours or grading over the last year. I don't really expect to get anything from the neighbors, I do it because I want a nice smooth road. So it is what it is.

 

[dmccarty]

I have maintained our private road for years. It only costs me four hours of tractor time and lass than $20 in fuel costs.

I would think you would need a legal agreement to get other people to pay. We have covenants that define the guidelines to collect and assess fees. We have never collected any money.

I had land in another subdivision that set up a point system for the fees. If you had a lot you had 1 point. If you had a house on a lot you had 3 points. The costs of maintaining the road was then divided by the number of points and each owner paid that amount. This was a good system because most of the wear and tear was done by the people living in the subdivision but the absentee owners also should pay for the road upkeep.

Does the property already have an HOA and covenants? Some of our neighbors were unaware there were covenants.

Later,
Dan

 

[KYErik]

I had land in another subdivision that set up a point system for the fees. If you had a lot you had 1 point. If you had a house on a lot you had 3 points. The costs of maintaining the road was then divided by the number of points and each owner paid that amount. This was a good system because most of the wear and tear was done by the people living in the subdivision but the absentee owners also should pay for the road upkeep.

I like the point system above. I could also see how that a person who is 200 yards from the main road might complain about paying for maintenance of the entire 2000 yard gravel road. Maybe also multiply the number of points for a lot vs house by how many hundred yards of drive the owner would be using.

As others have said, this only works when all the neighbors are reasonable.

I would guess that if you were to maintain 100 yards of the road in front of your access, your neighbors who use that smooth portion would notice how nice that section is and might offer to pay you to do more of the drive.

 

[jinjimbob]

On our road, we pay the percentage based on the length of the road to our driveway.

So if someone lives twice as far up the road, they pay twice as much, which is fair.

You could get into how many people live at each house, who visits, who does what, but that could create a mess and disagreements.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I live on a gravel road, it is about 1500 feet from the end of my driveway to he main road and there are 8 houses that use the road. I maintain it. Only o e neighbor has ever pitched in anything and it was just given , never asked for. Others just drive by and wave as I'm grading it. I have a 72" Befco land plane that needs new scarifiers and skids after 30 hours or grading over the last year. I don't really expect to get anything from the neighbors, I do it because I want a nice smooth road. So it is what it is.

This is pretty much what I do. We have had our property going on 13 years. We share 1/2 mile of road. In that time 1 neighbor who has since moved, graded part of the road once and I just had to re do it, he only made it worse and he is the only one that ever offered to help pay for fuel which he basically forced me to take $20. I have never asked or expected anything for doing this and in fact prefer no help. Other people would just mess it up as in what happened that one time. Our road is a pretty good road, does not wash out or get pot holes in it. Really just some wash boarding, I normally grade every 3-4 months.

 

[Mousefield]

I live at the end of a private road. Two other neighbors use the road. As I have the tractor and boxblade I grade the road on a regular basis. Had a chat with both neighbors when I got my tractor almost 4 years ago. They chip in $5.00 per grading, due to our weather I sometimes grade it every week of the month. Twice a year I tally up on my calender the number and they pay up. Think with 6 neighbors, some not there full time you might have your work cut out for you to get it to work.
Hopefully you are not at the end of the road.

 

[vwnotrunning]

Good luck ok the neighbor participation. We originally had (technically still have) a HOA. I was originally highly involved and we got barely more the 50% participation. Occasionally we would get some others to pay when a road would wash completely out. We finally got the streets dedicated to the county and now are under county maintenance. That was another real challange. We had to get changes on everyone's deed to donate the road right of way to the county. Talk about being more difficult than collecting a little money - never again for me. Fortunately a few of the problems moved away.

Did I say good luck.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

If you start out with the idea that payment is going to be voluntary and have no expectations, you will not be disappointed. Any more than that, you will be disappointed, and the non-paying neighbors will resent it.

Sometimes there is another side to the story. We live in a neighborhood where the self-appointed leaders of the unofficial homeowner's association want to Cadillac the landscaping - plants and grass that need a lot of water for example. Then they spend thousands on a commercial lawn service. This landscaping is way beyond necessary upkeep, so I choose not to participate.

Know a fella that says he doesn't mind the pot holes. It keeps the traffic speed down which keeps the dust to a minimum. To him, the dust is a bigger problem than the inconvenience of going slow.

 

[edlegault]

In our county in CA, if a private road dispute goes to court (usually arbitration), those properties FARTHEST from the beginning of the road, or street, pay more than those closest to the start (where it turns off the public road).

 

[Tollster]

Toll gate at the beginning of the road would splits the cost pretty fair, 25 cents to and from would be a good start. Naturally you are gonna have a hard time selling it to those to use it more,just like you are gonna have a hard time selling it any other way to people who would have to pay more than you. I think you are gonna have to suck it up personally,but I could be wrong.

 

[300UGUY]

The road we live on turns into a private road about 100 yards from my house. One family owns all of one side of the road. They lease it out to a hunting club, whose members use the road quite a bit, some keep trailers there. They have never paid one penny to the road association. The road association fights with the hunt club, and between themselves constantly. There have been fights, vandalism, and a lot of threats, some between family members. A couple of the wealthier residents have refused to pay anything, as they are in the middle of the stretch of road.