OT private road.

cb

Member
there is this private dead end road 1000 ft long.comees off state road..there are 5 property owners on this road, each with 200 ft front age on the road. since it will have to be maintained by the owners on the road. how much will ea. owner have to pay. if we assume the owner of the first 200ft. will pay less becuse he will use less of the road, and the last owner will be using all of the road have a good day.
 

This is probably a flaw in your logic: "since it will have to be maintained by the owners on the road." Probably none are obligated to maintain any of such a private road. If that turns out to be the case, then any cost sharing will come down to what anyone is willing to pay.
 
Assuming all the owners cause the same amount of "damage" to the road (same number of trips, same size of vehicles); and maintenance would be performed individually on each 200 ft sections as needed (5x maintenance on first section than the last) then I would asses 6.67% per 200 ft of distance they have to travel to get to their property:

1st 6.67%
2nd 13.33%
3rd 20.00%
4th 26.67%
5th 33.33%
 
BJB and JMS have the math right- but as JMOR pointed out, unless there is a Road Maintenance Agreement spelling out who pays what, its not enforceable. Such things need to be recorded at the county, to be a valid encumbrance on the properties. Verbal agreements, as the old saying goes, aren't worth the paper they're printed on, as regards real estate.
 
Barring written agreement, to the contrary, in general, property owners are responsible for a proportional share of the maintenance for the portion of the road that they use for ingress/egress.

The fly in the ointment is it takes only a single owner to refuse to pay to force a suit.

Dean
 
And the jerk at the end of the road (you know- the one who drives his loaded log truck home every night and whose kids tear up and down the road all day and half the night on their 4 wheelers) is always the one who will refuse to pay.
 
I will assume that 1 homeowner does not want to pay for maintenance/upkeep/snow removal.

I will also assume that by a "vote" 3 guys want blacktop and 2 or 1 do not want blacktop.

And blacktopping a 1000' lane will cost $20,000.......Am I right on this?

I have heard of similar situations of "homeowner A wants to have a blacktop road" and the other homeowner thinks it is a waste of money, etc.

I know of 2 instances of this in my area. If by majority vote the road needs 30 yards of gravel and 1 homeowner doesnt want to pay his 1/5 of the cost then he is being a *ick.

Please be specific as to what the issue is.

Thanks.
 
If I was the guy living at the end of the road, I wouldn't bear 1/3 of the cost. The first 200 feet of the road (the part everybody drives on) will need most of the upkeep. It should be spit equally.
 
I am the president of a tax district that maintains a private road that we live on. Forming a tax district was the only way to insure payment for maintenance. With an "association" you can't "force" everyone to join. My mother-in-law lives on a private road association and those who live on the first half know they don't have to pay for plowing, etc. because the ones at the end have to have it plowed to get out. Anyone new who moves in also can't be forced to join. I've been through all this. A state approved tax district can put tax leins on those who don't pay (and we have many times) so we eventually always get our money by law. Tax is based on property value. My back yard borders a road that I get no use from but am forced to pay taxes to their tax district. That's how it works.

Jim
 
We own a piece of vacant land on a private road. Every few years we get a notice of wanting to do some improvments and asking everyone to kick in X number os dollars. We always pay even though we don't drive the road and there is no house on it. There is always someone who will not pay. I think everyone pays the same.
 
Ha!

The person who can't take it any more will grade the road a bit, everyone else will be mad at him for waiting so long, no one will pay to add any gravel.

It never goes smoothly unless it is laid out in the deeds requiring payment to a fund.

Paul
 
thanks for all the replies.i may have left out some important info.. that being that all of the property owners are in agreement on paying for the maintenance of the road.it is what each one's fair share would be in doing so. so it seems bjb-jms may have the breakdown of how it should be done. the person at the end of the road realizes he uses more than the others. there seems to no bickering over the matter. have a good nite
 
1. If you have not bought this land yet, DONT.
2. If you have bought it, but not built, then don't build sell it, even if at a loss.
3. If you have bought and built your home, then get a good real estate lawyer and try to set up a special "tax" system with the county.

Otherwise, this is going to be lifetime misery, people wont pay, gravel dust flying all over, kids riding dirt bikes and 4 wheelers at all hours. Not a good place to live.
Tom
 
(quoted from post at 17:45:25 07/08/13) I am the president of a tax district that maintains a private road that we live on. Forming a tax district was the only way to insure payment for maintenance. With an "association" you can't "force" everyone to join. My mother-in-law lives on a private road association and those who live on the first half know they don't have to pay for plowing, etc. because the ones at the end have to have it plowed to get out. Anyone new who moves in also can't be forced to join. I've been through all this. A state approved tax district can put tax leins on those who don't pay (and we have many times) so we eventually always get our money by law. Tax is based on property value. My back yard borders a road that I get no use from but am forced to pay taxes to their tax district. That's how it works.

Jim
know that there are a lot more than weather differences in CT & TX, but here, if tax $ are paying road maintenance it is [u:0f9c2c553a]NOT a private road.[/u:0f9c2c553a][u:0f9c2c553a][/u:0f9c2c553a]
 
Petition the county to have it made into a public road. They"ll probably tell you to get lost but it"s worth a try.

Deciding how much to spend is as hard as actually collecting it. One guy with a fancy new sedan will want a lot better road than the next guy with an old 4x4 truck.
 
The way I look at it... you all have equal access to the road to use it weather you use it or not. All can pay equally.

Rod
 
By your reasoning a driveway shared by 2 or more households is no longer a private road? The taxes we collect come only from the homes that border the road not the state aka genreal public. It is NOT owned or maintained by the state and it is NOT open to the public, aka private. We could put a locked gate across it if we voted so. BTW, I'm not only the president and treasurer of the tax district I'm also a customer (I mean tax payer).
 
(quoted from post at 20:56:04 07/08/13) By your reasoning a driveway shared by 2 or more households is no longer a private road? The taxes we collect come only from the homes that border the road not the state aka genreal public. It is NOT owned or maintained by the state and it is NOT open to the public, aka private. We could put a locked gate across it if we voted so. BTW, I'm not only the president and treasurer of the tax district I'm also a customer (I mean tax payer).
othing to do with my reasoning, just noting the different definitions here & there of private road. Private means that I own the road and no tax money will go to maintain it. Here, tax money goes to maintain only public roads, open to the public. I own two of them and have sold easements for ingress/egress & no other use or construction is allowed. the deed is mine. With my permission, the easement holders may add gravel only. The world isn't uniform.
 
Where I'm from 1000 ft is your average driveway. There are some private roads but they usually have an informal arrangement on maintenance that is equal split.

We have a shared driveway with our neighbour only about 500 ft though, we have a deeded right of way on her driveway. She's a nice person, I plow the snow for nothing and grade it as I have the equipment. She lets me park stuff like my disc mower in her barn for the winter. I suspect if she ever sells we may offer to sell out our access and put a new road in just to be good neighbours. If the new folks are nice it would help to have a driveway twice as wide anyways, semi trucks hate our entrance now.
 
Should be equal split, however as others have said - you will never get agreement, or everyone to pay their share. I live on a county maintained road, and believe it or not, the county does not have an easement, nor deed to the roadway (even though the county surveyor shows a 40 foot roadway). One part of the roadway through a portion of my property it is approx 21 feet fence to fence, and been that way likely when it was horse and buggy. Approx. 1 mile up the road from me there is a county maintained (if you call it that) wooden bridge that is 12 feet wide, with no load limits posted. Sooner or later a loaded semi will go through it, and it will make headlines, and likely a lawsuit over it, but that bridge has been in place since I was big enough to remember, and I am in my mid 50"s now. Good luck, and I hope everything works out, but I have witnessed a lot of arguments over roads, as well as lawsuits over things like brush, fences, and how close cars are parked to the road.
 
I have a friend who lives on the first part of a road that has 6=7 property owners on it. Nobody wants to pay for repairs, snow removal, taxes, nothing. Just want to drive on it, with a mery ho-ho-ho, and sail on past the pot-holes and ruts. He had several "sleeping policemen" installed on the road. They are large high humps. Mainly to slow traffic down, as the kids were racing on it.
He asked what i thought he ought to do. I told him to plow the snow up to his driveway, (the first one) and 5 feet past it. If nobody wants to pay for snow removal, let them dig their own driveway and road part. Either that, or they can buy 4-wheel drive trucks for when it snows a lot.
 
Don't know the laws in your state but if the city, county, or state maintains a private road for 7 years (in Minnesota) it becomes public property. I would bet it is the same in all states.
 
You might want to discuss this matter with the county commission. Go to county courthouse to your land records and see the title history of the specific parcel this road came from. If an easement exists, than your state case law on easements would give you guidance. However, at some point and time it is an issue of public use and county authorities would be involved. But again, restrictive uses may be involved. Research the title history first, than go to the county, or call your state representative about the issue.
 
Don't see how a road with 5 separate residence's can be considered a private road either. Does a school bus use this road or a fire truck? If so it's not a private road anymore. Whatever you do get a lawyer involved and make an agreement between all the homeowners. Also include in the agreement what happens if a person sells. Just having a friendly agreement leaves it open to a big fight between everybody.

When I bought my land, there was a road but the last 1/2 mile was only dirt to the dead end. I ended up having to put $1500 into upgrading the road. The owner beside me and the farmer on the other side also use this road but they didn't have to pay a dime. The new county manager at the time (he's since gone and the county is very happy) originally wanted me to put $3000 into the road and put in the footings for a shop. Then I could get $1500 back. I said what about the neighbor beside me and he said if they build on their property, they'll have to pay some for the road too. Yeah right, you're going to go to them and ask for money after the road has been upgraded. The head of public works even said I shouldn't have had to pay for a county road. When I went to the meeting about the road, it was very obvious that nobody else from the county dared say anything. I found out after that manager left that he was an absolute dictator ...hole and things were done his way or no way.
 
Have the same situation. In the past thirty years only two out of six of us have ever put out a dime on maintenance. I think it should be equal for everyone. If it's going to be divied up it ought to go by frontage feet on the road - not travel.
 
There are several around here that are shared roads/lanes. Most of the time the guy in the back ends up doing most of the maintenance.

I have one farm that has a shared lane but it is spelled out where the easement is and who pays what in the deed. It has never been an issue as it is all in writing. It is a deed covenant and it is enforceable in court. If the one party does not want to pay the court can and will assess the property.

Was involved in that once with a new "City" land owner who claimed he did not have to pay as "HE" did not sign the original deed. He got to pay the maintenance cost and court cost. It got added to his property tax bill.

As for the split. Anything other than an equal split is just playing games and will just cause more problems. Divide the cost by 5 and go with it. The reason being is that the first fellow may not use the whole lane but he will also be the one that gets plowed out by the guy at the end.

Unless you are concreting or black topping the lane it,a 1000 foot lane does not cost that much to maintain in a year. Maybe $500-1000 in gravel each year. Some one will have to grade it every now and then. That can be a box blade on a tractor too.
 
Lots of interesting thoughts & opinions. I have a couple questions.
Is the road shown as easements on the property deeds?
You state 5 owners, 200 ft frontage each. Does the road run down the center of each property, or is there a sixth owner for the 1000 ft frontage on the other side?
Don't know if it is state law or just county policy, but here there is a process to get the county or township to take over a private roadway.
1- each abutting property owner donates by quit claim deed a strip 33 ft wide to county or township. This makes a 66 ft, or 4 rod wide, public right of way. (see below)
2- property owners improve the road at their own expense, including surface elevation above abutting property, drainage ditches, culverts, tree removal, etc. If a dead end, must provide adequate space at end for grader, snow plow, school bus, etc to turn around without stopping & backing. Any utility line such as power & phone moving at owners expense.
3- owners maintain the road for 1 year, & warrant that the road is in good condition at end of that year.
4- county or township then accepts road & does future grading, gravel adding, & snow plowing as needed.

Note- in the case of 200 ft frontage, each owner on both sides donates 6600 (200x33)sq ft, or .15 acre of land.
It gets complicated & expensive.
WJ
 
(quoted from post at 04:19:12 07/09/13) Don't know the laws in your state but if the city, county, or state maintains a private road for 7 years (in Minnesota) it becomes public property. I would bet it is the same in all states.

not so in PA the township maintained our road for 50 years. They stopped because it was never "formally" taken over. We went to court won the first 2 rounds they took it further and we lost. now maintain our own road.
 
I deal with a couple of "shared driveways" as a snowplow contractor. I keep a separate account for each section and bill accordingly. One of them is only two houses, and never gives any problem. The other has seven houses and continues on to some undeveloped forest land. Originally I plowed for everybody and there was no problem. Now two brothers on their own shared branch of the road do their own snow removal. Neither of them accepts any responsibility for the rest of the road. Not even for each other.

"Well they (the other five owners) have to get it plowed anyway".

"So can I shack up with your old lady when you aren't there? You have to feed her anyway."

That didn't go over well.

Anyway, I still provide back up plowing and sand for those two as needed, and they get that at a "special rate".

The various loggers that have worked at the end of the road have been more than willing to plow as needed.
 
I know of a similar situation, 2 families related by marriage lived on a private road all was well untill divorce caused fighting. They lined a row of boulders down the center of the road, now each family takes care of there side.(problem solved)
 
And that right there is why the township, etc does not want to maintain 'private' roads. None of these municipal units have any money for that so they skin out of taking on anything other than what's already been implicitly deeded to them. In one of the local municipalities here they simply do not allow 'private roads' as a matter of course so that they avoid these cluster f****. If you want to subdivide a property you need to grant 20' of deeded access to each parcel on the main road... or you can build at your own expense a subdivision road... built to highway standards that includes removal of organic soil to hardpan, subbase of 2" minus rock, base of 1" minus... then asphalt top. If it's in town... you add water and sewer... and regardless you add electric utilities. All at developers expense. What used to go on here is that someone would do a subdivision, bulldoze a donkey path into it, get 20 screaming residents in on said donkey path... and then hang the county to upgrade the road. That doesn't happen anymore...

Rod
 
How are the public roads assessed in your area? Here it is by frontage length. Corner lots are assessed by the length of the longest side. It is not a perfect method, but it works.
 
Yup, in our township here in MI, private roads are now allowed but they've tightened the ordinance due to a lot of the reasons cited in this thread. They've got to be built to County width, 6" of gravel depth minimum IIRC, Cul-de-sac at end suitable for fire trucks to turn around. I believe a maintenance agreement "that runs with the land" must also be in place to avoid situations where the original developer is long gone and the people who now own the homes want the township or county to plow/maintain them. There is also a procedure to turn a private road over to the county and part of that is that it must meet county standards.
 
the layout of the road cuts across each ones property at about 20 ft or so each person loses that amount from his total.and it is at the end of the property. our county/state will not maintain private property . in case the school sees the necessity use that road to pick up children, then the county will build a turaround at the end of the road or where the last child lives. recently the county board agreed to accept a private road and maintain it, the county will determine the cost and each owner will pay for it by a tax incease until the cost is paid.
 
the best way is a written signed agreement from all owners to equally share the cost. Also make sure each land owner gives an easement to travel on their land if the deeded property includes the roadway. I have seen where a landowner sells and the new owner denies access over his land.
 
It is so hard to give advise when you leave out so many things about the roadway and the land. If the total width of the roadway is only 20 feet, then it is nothing but trouble in the making. Nearly impossible to cut proper drainage, add culverts, and maintain that narrow width. Around here the county wont touch it unless it is about 60 feet wide. I wrote below, but cant figure out if you own yet, or are thinking of buying, so I will be unable to give further advice. Tom
 
no not an owner just know some of the owners and of the history. it seems the county and the owners have come togsther will deed the required width to the county and wii be ascessed the increased in taxes until the cost of bringing the road up to specs..is paid for
 
In MO it is called prescriptive easement. About every few years I get told the county has a 40 foot easement, after reading up on it I found their is no real width requirement, and it is what it is, a right for the public to use until it is abandoned. I suppose they could condemn it, but that would go against their claim they have no money to even maintain the road, and there are a lot of roads in this county with much less than 40 feet to deal with. I planned on moving my fence to help make it wider until a commissioner told me he could just take it without my permission (keep in mind this has been under fence for probably 100 years). I decided I would hang onto it a while longer, and they can buy it (it is on my deed after all with no exceptions, or easements on it). Only 2-3 vehicles travel the road (including me and mail carrier), so i see no issue with it like it is. During hunting season there is more traffic by road hunters, and poachers, but I am somewhat less than concerned for providing for their safe travels :) Sooner or later I will hear about it again I am sure, but I called his bluff for now.
 
in our county.. when the road maint dept charges for road work in private subdivisions.. etc. owners are billed straight frontage.

if it's a 1k' road and the 5 people each see 200' then divide by 5. that's how our area does it anyway.

think about it like this.

say each owner only ever uses his section.. never any past him.

the guy at the front uses less.. however his piece gets used the MOST.. the guy inthe back uses the entire road.. but the piece in front of him is used the LEAST. You could asusme the piece used the most will wear the most.. and the piece use dthe least will wear the least.

thus a even distribution of cost is plenty fair
 
I've lived on a public road for 26 years. But just past my property, it turns into a private road. There are about 12 houses on 1 mile of road, and they have never been able to get everybody to pay their share. The police have been called a couple of times. A couple years ago, 2 guys in their 70's got into a fist fight. All these folks, cheapest house is 300K, some twice that, and they fight over $120 per year in dues. Simply nuts.
 
(quoted from post at 18:56:07 07/08/13) Petition the county to have it made into a public road. They"ll probably tell you to get lost but it"s worth a try......
t varies by state and county, but in our area for a county to take over maintenance on a road it has to connect between two state or county maintained roads or a public road, it cannot be just a dead end.
 
Davey Boy;

I don;t know how things work in your neck of the woods but in MN. If the local gov. has not taken over the road it is not legal for them to maintane a road and they can be charged with trespassing if they do. The locall school dist will not pickup kids from a private rd. and the us mail will not deliver on it. This I know from being a Township road superviser for six yrs. Have a nice day and don't forget to feed the Goats. MNoliver guy
 
(quoted from post at 23:01:21 07/09/13)
(quoted from post at 18:56:07 07/08/13) Petition the county to have it made into a public road. They"ll probably tell you to get lost but it"s worth a try......
t varies by state and county, but in our area for a county to take over maintenance on a road it has to connect between two state or county maintained roads or a public road, it cannot be just a dead end.
ead on!!! It varies by state & county! Why on God's green earth does every poster think that their situation matches ALL others??!!!???
 
Here in Dearborn County, Indiana we have lots of county roads that are not 20 feet wide. State highways are not much better. As part of emergency repairs in a slide area, the state is widening SR 1 to 12 foot lanes with 2 foot shoulders. SR 1 carries a lot of trucks and is also the access road for the states biggest ski area.
WSCH
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top