We are building in an area of the sierras that at one time was a working ranch.The ranch is now a guest ranch and in the seventies split up properties to sell. We pay $150.00/yr for road maintenance, plowing in the winter.The ranch has it's own water works and volunteer fire dept, but have to follow the county's as well as the forest service guidelines for requirements such as accessibility,widths and maintenance, fire hydrants,etc.

If you have a private road that is shared by others you REALLY need a written agreement so that everyone's rights and obligations are spelled out and can be enforced. Things that need to specified in the agreement are who decides when the road needs to be repaved/regraded and who pays for that, who arranges for the snowplowing, who pays for snowplowing, whether you can park along the road, who decides that trees/brush along road needs to be trimmed, who pays for trimming trees/brush along road, who pays for guard rails if required, who pays for new culverts if needed, etc. You will want the minimum road width specified in the agreement, the surface finish (i.e., gravel, asphalt, etc.) specified in the agreement, a standard should be specified for when the surface needs to be replaced/repaired, etc. If it's not in writing, then you probably can't make anyone share in the cost of anything and will have no guarantee of the quality of the road. Make sure this agreement is in place before you purchase the property because none of the property owners can be forced to agree to anything later on. Also, if the road isn't in yet find out how much it is going to cost to build the road as roads can be expensive, especially if they are being built over hilly terrain requiring big concrete culverts, lots of grading to meet maximum grade requirements, etc.

In our town all new roads are private until they are "accepted" by the town. Roads are not accepted unless they meet certain requirements (width, depth of asphalt, meet code, etc.) and are completely finished. So, if you buy in a subdivision that is not complete, you are on a private road until it is complete.

In the case of our subdivision, there was a written agreement that basically said the cost of everything related to the roads (with the exception of the final paving coat, which was the developer's responsibility) is split equally. In our case, this basically meant snow removal. The cost was shared equally, not by the amount of frontage. The developer paid for the number of lots he still owned. If you owned a lot but didn't have a house yet you still paid.

Emergency services were totally normal. After all, if you get stuck on a mountain they send up a search team. If they can manage that they can send a police car down a private road.

We're on a private road. We (the one street neighborhood) just paid for repaving this spring. Yep, share the expense equally. Even lot owners who haven't built yet have to pay their share. This is in addition to the usual HOA yearly fees.

If I lived in the "first" house which was close to the main road and another person lived at the end of the private road a 1/2 mile away, I would not want to pay 1/2 of the total cost of the road. One possible method is to pro rate the cost depending upon where one lives. For example, the person at the end pays a full share; person half way pays a half share; person close to road pays a 1/4 share. Add up the total and "shares" and apportion the total cost. Just an idea.

Our new house is on a private road.(gravel Road) We all
(8 houses) share the expenses of plowing and upkeep. We talked about a written agreement but we decided against it. we dont need another form of goverment. We work on the honor system. If the plowing cost 150 dollars we split the cost each time. Of course we have known these neighbors for a long time because its in the same neighborhood, its just on a different road.

We live on a private road with 4 other neighbors. We had the road re asphalted this past spring and all the neighbors split it 5 ways.

We are in the county so the police is the sheriff department.

The previous owner of our land started the local fire dept. so they know where we are and are a great group of guys.

It has worked well for us.

The biggest problem we have had is looky-loos traveling up our road to see what is up here. We put up a Private Drive -No tress-passing sign and it has helped quite a bit.

It's really going to depend on your locality. I grew up on a private road--it was a while to get it paved b/c the 3 neighbors couldn't agree on division of costs. Once we paved, one of them welched on payment.

Anyway, town plowed it when it was dirt, and plows now that it's paved. Fire and police come if necessary (hasn't been in 40+ years). But that's our town. Rules could be different elsewhere.

Lawyers LOVE the honor system because it's great for business. If you already own the lot and there is no written agreement, then there really is nothing you can do but hope that works out. If you don't own it yet, require the seller to get the written agreement in place. If the seller can not get a written agreement in place, even something as simple as everyone shares to share the costs equally and to pay within 15 days of being billed, then at least you will know what you are getting yourself into if you buy the lot.

around here a private road means a private road. the local gov cannot legally do anything for the road itself unless the road becomes public. the road owner is responsible for all maintenance, drainage, etc.. and this includes signage and enforcement of speed.

i agree with the above, gets a legally binding contract that requires the owner of each lot to pay an EQUAL share of all costs. the fairest way to do this is divide cost by the amount of owners. the post above about the first owner paying less than the farthest owner is one way to guarantee hard feelings.

as far as emergency services, unless the road is gated public safety will travel it to perform their duties. if the road is gated, they may require that you give them an access code so that they do not have to wait for someone, though i do know of some areas where they will wait for soemone to let them in.

also, in one high end subdivision here the roads are private and paid for out of HOA dues. teh city told the HOA that if they ever wish to assign the road to teh city, they must bring it up to city standards and allow public traffic. funny thing is, most every street int eh city has large potholes, so i guess the owners of the multi million dollar houses will ahve to ruin the street before they can sign it over!

We're on a private gravel lane with about 10 homes. Our closing on our property was held up because no legal right-of-way existed just the lane that had been used for years. Our bank considered us "landlocked" and would not close without legal right-of-way. Other landowners agreed to sign legal right-of-way because they found out they would NEED it to sell their homes in future!

At same time we had a written road maintenance agreement drawn up saying we would split cost (1/10 per owner) of plowing and maintaining gravel road. While we have been there neighbor does plowing and we just give him $20 to help cover gas. Various owners have gotten extra load of gravel and filled in pot holes when needed. We get no county/township services. The problem with road maintenance agreement is there is really no way to enforce payment unless you want to take your neighbor to small claims court.

We did the road maintenance agreement though because our title company told us many banks are now requiring a legal road maintenance agreement along with legal right-of-way agreement or the bank will not do the mortgage. Easier to get it signed now while neighbors where agreeable to signing.

Just a note too. While all your neighbors may be very agreeable sorts now things will change over time! Sometimes because neighbors move (new house, new job, divorce, etc) and sometimes because personality conflicts and disagreements will happen (property line disputes, disagreements on road maintenance needed or when plowing is required, disagreements between neighbors or neighbor's kids, etc). Better to get a road maintenance agreement while everyone is agreeable. Though I think ours lacks much ability to enforce payment from a neighbor, it is a written reference of what it is expected and we have it already done so no problems when we go to sell our home.

We have owned our property for 7 years, never had a problem. The others have been on the gravel road for much longer. Its not really expensive to get A load of gravel or to have the road plowed when we spilt the cost. Often one of us will fill holes on the road when we see its necessary without it being an issue. Guess we're lucky.

I grew up on a private dirt road and lived there for over 10 years.

Maintenance was a problem, some neighbors would think the road needed fixed,while others wouldn't see the pot holes that lined both sides of the roadway as being a problem. My father and one other neighbor did most the repairs. Over the years that neighbor moved away and my father who is now in his 60s is finding living on the private road to be a nuisance. There were no agreements drawn up to share expenses. All neighbors seemed willing to do what it takes to maintain the road, for awhile.

I did notice however, that the better kept the road, the more lookie loo drivers we would have! I would say if you were to do it draw up an agreement that binds all users to share expenses and maintenance.

liketolearn, I think that if the road association keeps track of who has paid what, when the time comes to sell or refinance the property is the time for enforcement. I believe they have to be up to date on their dues to be o.k. with the bank. It may be possible to get interest on that late amount, too? It is ALWAYS best to get things in writing.

rjvt, actually there is no road association just a written agreement saying everyone will contribute. Very informal with no specific amounts listed or enforcement clause. If a home went for sale the bank would know of the agreement but not if anything was unpaid unless a lien was on file.

I do wish we would have known more about road agreements. The real estate agent for the seller actually had the agreement drawn up and it had to be signed by the seller and other landowners before we could go through with our purchase. So we actually had no say in the road maintenance agreement. I wish though we had insisted on having our attorney review it but we never even thought about it. Just a little cautionary tale for those of your that need or plan to do a road maintenance agreement.

We live on a private road that has 20 property owners and 16 homes. We do not have a home owners agreement or road maintenance agreement. It is a major problem - bigger than when we moved in 18 years ago. Road maintenance is done by someone going house to house to propose work and related costs. Some contribute and some don't. Everyone will not agree to creating a home owners association. We were just annexed but the city will not provide city services on a private road. Banks do not want to refinance homes on a private road. Emergency services, UPS, do provide service on the private road.

Without a written home owners association agreement that covers road maintenance, suggest you look elsewhere. It is too hard getting a group of people to agree on anything especially items that are money related.

Our being on a private road was never an issue to any bank that we talked with concerning our construction loan, land loan etc. Maybe it depends upon where you live.

I do know if we ever agree to be annexed we will have to turn over our road to the city in order to get services. We have no desire to be annexed and are happy with how things are.

We only have a total of 5 homes and I do agree if you have more than say 6 or so homes there needs to be a written agreement.

When we bought our land there were covenants in place that stated road maintenance would be shared equally by all land owners. We also have a legal road access agreement in the covenants . This agreement has been signed by all the homeowners and filed with the county.

You do not need an HOA or an HOA agreement.

Contact an attorney to see if you can create a covenant in which all the homeowners can agree. That covenant can be filed with the county and if any of the properties sell in the future this covenant will have to be accepted by the buyers prior to the sell of any property.

We live on a private road and share the maintenance and plowing with two other homes. It's never been a problem.

Had to get a "Road Maintenance" agreement to accompany the deed, for intrafamily transfer of the lot. Four homes on the family farm, which is landlocked, though we have an easement.
I don't expect any member of the family will do anything with the road, it will all fall to me & DH, though if we end up paying anyone they ARE obligated to share the cost per the agreement.