A road maintenance agreement is usually a good thing to have in place if you share a common access with one or more properties. Sometimes the only access to some properties is on a private easement road from a public right of way; this means that the responsibility of the road maintenance falls on the people who have the right to use the road.
A road maintenance agreement will generally contain these items: The legal description of all properties that have the right to use the road, the way that responsibility for repairs is to be shared by the parties, how the costs for repairs will be incurred by the parties, emergency repairs and the consequences for non-participation in the maintenance.
Road maintenance agreements are a great thing as long as all parties involved share in the repairs as spelled out in the agreement. Sometimes a lender on a property with a private road will require that an agreement be in place prior to them making the loan.
So remember when you are looking at property that takes access on a private road easement to check with your real estate agent and check the title report to see if an road maintenance agreement is in place. Reviewing a preliminary title report during your feasibility or inspection period to check for these kind of red flags can save you time and heartache in the end.
20 responses so far ↓
RS Moquin // Oct 26, 2007 at 8:27 am
Absent an agreement, can one owner force another owner into a road maintenance agreement? maintance agreement? We own the majority share of a strip of private property and have had to entend an easement by necessity to the adjoing parcel… there is no agreeement on maintance - they use the strip to enter their property, we do not use it … we don’t want to upgrade or pay to maintain what we don’t use and don’t want to beforced into any such agreement. Do we have this option? We were already sued by other (non adjoining parcels) neighbors claiming various easments on this same strip of property and the Court ruled in our favor.
John Wahl // Oct 26, 2007 at 3:53 pm
I don’t believe that you can be forced into an agreement especially if you are not using it for your own access. I access my home over another property and the owner only uses a small portion of the access and we maintain what we use and they help with the rest. Unless a court rules that you share the maintenance I don’t think you can be forced to put an agreement in place. Good Luck
Nancy // Jan 28, 2008 at 8:30 pm
What is the difference between maintenance and improvements
R McKinney // Feb 7, 2008 at 2:43 pm
I am a homeowner sharing a private road with six others, all of us use this road to access our homes. How do I find out which, if any, of the homeowners have been required to sign a road maintenance agreement. Do you have any suggestions as to writing up an agreement and what happens when certain homeowners refuse.
John Wahl // Feb 13, 2008 at 11:08 am
If you are part of a plat or short plat there may be a provision regarding a road maintenance agreement in that paperwork. A title report will show all recorded documents that affect your parcel. There may not be an agreement in place and generally they will list all of the owner’s with their legal description along with the legal description of the access easement and it will spell out the terms of the maintenance, the cost and how it will be done as well as the ramifications for people that don’t participate. If there is not an agreement in place you cannot force anyone to enter into an agreement so you may have some difficulties there. A real estate attorney probably has the ability to prepare the agreement then all parties must sign, notarize and record the document to make it binding. I myself live on a road that is accessed by 6 properties and the only agreement in place is one spot on the plat does it say that the maintenance of the road will be shared equally so it is pretty loose and not really enforceable. My wife and I like to keep the road in a nice condition so we end up doing most of the work and incur most of the cost. I hope this helps, John Wahl
Kyle V // Feb 25, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I am looking to create a Private Road Maintenance agreement for a listing of mine. It is located on a private road with 3 other houses. Currently all 4 houses share in the responsibility to maintain the road for repairs and snow removal on an honor system. There have never been any disputes over this. However, I have a prospective buyer who doesn’t want to buy the property unless there is a maintenance agreement for fear that if the neighbors sell the next owners will not want to participate equally and they will not have any recourse. Does anyone have an example of a private road maintenance agreement that you could make available to me? E-mail me via KyleVetter.com Thanks!
Jon H // Feb 26, 2008 at 8:36 am
I own a 500′ private road as identified by the town. I own 4 lots at the end of the road and my friend another as well. I will be selling 2 of the lots eventually after the town stops jerking me. I am in the middle of writing my own maintenance agreement using others on the web for ideas where relevant. The agreement will have 2 components, the first; optional is for the 5 who live on the 5oo’ stretch in the beginning (all gravel), will ask them for $100. each year. The 5 next lots who share the use of the next 600′ will also throw in $100 for the first 500′. This group at the end, me 4 times plus my friend will then form a second component; mandatory compliance of the first $100 plus another $100 from that point on, one lot branches right with a 350 driveway. Proceeding straight ahead 2 of the building lots share the next 500′ then one goes left 2150′ on an easement until he hits his lot proceeding another 150′ to his future house site. Back at the end of the 950′ another lot goes goes right 800′ on an easement as well, before touching said lot and another 350′ to driveway. That’s my mess. Another twist is the town trying to make me build an 18′ wide road to serve as driveways, make it so expensive it would make it approaching unfeasible. Sorry for the ramble just came from my 7th meeting between Planning and Zoning, back to Planning then the selectmen. All for my driveways. Frustrated by a pathetic board administrator who rights the rules making up as she goes along. So much for LIVE FREE OR DIE. jh
TERY // Mar 6, 2008 at 6:00 pm
I bought 20 aches on a private road with 22 others, the real estate sign said with road agreement. Come to find out the developer only filed on 1 lot. Now I’m trying to get all the remaining lot owners to join the same agreement. Thus far I have 16 of 22 signed and notarized. I can’t seem to reason with the remaining 6. If we 16 have formed a legal association, 74% can we vote on assessments, road rules, like weight limits, & dues. And require them to pay the same as the rest of us? Even if they don’t join of vote.
MARGIE // Mar 9, 2008 at 12:51 pm
We have a recorded joint use maintenance agreement between us and 1 neighbor. The ingress/egress road we use to access our home and propery crosses their property. They have begun dropping sheep and goat poop on the road just beyond their driveway so we have to drive over it when we leave our home. We have spoken to them about it and they said they can do anything on “their” property. Yesterday, when he finished disbursing poop to his field, he drove back over the road and stopped right in the middle, again just beyond their driveway on our side and turned on his auger and dumped a whole pile of poop right on the road intentionally. My husband went out yet again and cleaned it up. Are there any rights we have to keep them from doing this on the same road we share to get to our properties? Should we hire an attorney?
John Wahl // Mar 10, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Terry, unless you are in a recorded subdivision with a homeowners association I don’t think there is any way to force those people into an agreement. It sounds like you have made great progress with getting 16 of the folks to sign on and that just shows that they all want to keep the road in a nice condition. If the remaining parcels don’t join your association I’m not sure if you have any recourse.
Margie, they cannot legally stop you from using the easement but unless your agreement spells out the condition in which the road is to be kept you may have to consult an attorney.
William B // Mar 11, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I live in a sub-division, the original owner of the property put in roads for access to our homes and property. Since he did not want to maintain the roads, approx. 2/3 of the homeowners decided to form a road maintenance association to care for maintenance of roads and snow removal. We have been doing this for 23 years, and registered our non-profit association with the state 21 years ago. Since then the original ower died and his heir sold the road /easement property to a property owner, who is not in our association. He tried 8 years ago to take over the maintenance of the roads, for profit and our association fought him, and he finally backed down without having to go to court. Approx. 5 years ago the other section of our sub-division formed their own road maintenance association and recently got a road maintenance agreement with the owner of the road property, just prior to his death. The other association actually formed a homeowners association and has sent our association members a bill for maintenance of the roads that we have been caring for and improving over the past 23 years (we have actually been able to pave about 1/2 of the roads and have plans to finish paving within the year) Now the property for the roads are again up for sale, is it necessary for our association to purchase the roads to be able to continue as we have been? We have tried to discuss a joint purchase of the roads in the sub-division with the other association (18 members, we have 27 members) We are puzzeled at why they would rather get into a bidding war or a legal tangle instead of purchasing the roads jointly and having the attorney’s draw up an agreement for both associations to continue as they have been. Our deeds give all homeowners rights of egress and ingress, we would rather not waste our associations money on legal fees if we do not have to. Any suggestions on how to deal with our quandry?
John Wahl // Mar 13, 2008 at 11:22 am
William, you do not have to purchase those roads in my opinion; you have the legal right to use them as you said your legal description included the right of ingress to and egress from your property. Is there any way you can combine your groups? The other association can’t force you to join theirs and vice versa but it would make the most sense to try and work together obviously most of the owners care about the roads and want to keep them nice. You have the legal right to use those roads and have been maintaining them at your expense the owner of the property cannot take that away from you unless you agree. You may have to consult an attorney to try and come to an agreement between the two groups and could set it up so that the financial burden is allocated appropriately.
I hope this helps.
Joyce Corn // Mar 20, 2008 at 1:10 pm
We share the right of way with two property owners. Our neighbor sold their property and are now using our driveway as their entrance. When we questioned them about getting permission to use our driveway, they said one of the other property owners gave them permission. Is this legal? Wouldn’t they have to get permission from all three of us?
Thanks!
Joyce Corn // Mar 20, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I need to point out in my previous comment, that the neighbor sold the property which had another driveway on it but the NEW OWNER is the one that has started using our driveway saying on of the owners gave them permission. (Confusing I know)
Thanks
John Wahl // Mar 21, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Joyce, it depends on whose property your driveway is on; if you are crossing your neighbor’s property to get to yours that means that you have an easement over their property to get to yours. If that is the case then the person now using your driveway to get to their property is only driving over the neighbor’s property as you are then the neighbor has the right to grant them an easement. If the new person is driving on your property as well to reach yours then they also need you to grant them an easement. So the bottom line is whoever owns the property has the right to grant an easement. If you have any other questions or if this isn’t clear please let me know.
Tracy // Mar 31, 2008 at 6:44 pm
HELP! We need a road maintenance agreement. Do you know of any websites for us to go to for some good pointers and ideas on how to draw one up for a lawyer to make everyone happy. It is just a private road shared by 9 families on 50 acres. Some of us do our share while others do NOTHING to help. Thanks for any help. Tracy
Kim // Apr 1, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Hi John,
Let me tell you a story, I hope you can help us.
We live on a dirt road with 9 houses on it, its a culdesac. We have lived here since 1994. Ocassionally we chipped in to help maintain the road.
Four years ago (2004) our road came up for back taxes. None of us have a written easment in our property discriptions. Its only implied.
The neighbor in the middle of the block purchased the road, without informing anyone it was coming up for back taxes.
Since purchasing the road , every winter, all of us have gotten demand letters for maintenance.
There is no written or verbal road agreement in existance. Just the demand for money since 2004. They are now taking us to small claims court for the 4 years of back money. Is there anything in our favor.
They demand $250 a year per house for a dirt road about 2000 feet long. Most homes have 10 acre frontages, we have a 5 acre frontage. The demand is the same.
Is there anything we can do? Do you have a good road agreement we can look at? Do you know of a good attorney in our area. We live in the Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho area.
If you can help at all thankyou, like I said we have been served and have 20 days to respond.
Sincerely,
Kim
Jade // Apr 24, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I second Nancy’s request.
Our situation is that the road servicing our neighborhood is a collection of easements. We have signed a road maintenance agreement and have no problem with maintaining the road as a gravel road. Some neighbors want to pave the road. I have concerns about the long-term expense of maintaining a paved road. Do they need our explicit permission to improve the easement across our property or can they just collect the money and pave?
Thank you for your time!
Maurice // May 8, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Our common gravel road serves six properties, one of which is now split into two properties and two of which have two dwellings each. One of these dual dwelling properties also has two businesses: a home consulting business–with visiting clients— and a vineyard. They account for probably 90% of the traffic and most of the heavy equipment on the road. Other than distance traveled, is there any established guideline to apportion maintenance expenses?
John Wahl // May 8, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Maurice, If you currently have a road maintenance agreement in place it should spell out the details of the maintenance and how it is to be divided among the owners as far as their share. If property is subdivided or used as a business those properties in my opinion should be subject to the agreement. If it is not spelled out about business use then you should have some sort of recourse towards that owner if you are unable to work something out. I would think that they would be willing to keep the road nice for their clients and not expct you to subsidize their business. If that is the case you may want to consult a real estate attorney to see what kind of recourse you have. Thanks, John Wahl
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