Question about private roads

[jlmann]

We live on a private road with 7 other households.

Every year or two I end up buying gravel for upkeep and then having to go around to everyone and collect their share.

This year several of the neighbors mentioned setting up a "road fund" where everyone would pay $xx.xx every month of the year which would then be used as needed for maintenance.

My question is has anyone ever had experience with this sort of thing? My gut feeling is that it would be a big hassle and probably not work unless it was set up as an automatic payment out of everyone's account. Also everyone would have to get a statement at least quarterly. So I'm thinking it would just be more hassle than it would be worth.

I would love to hear anyone's thoughts and/or experiences with this sort of thing because if it gets done it will probably fall on me to administrate it because I'm kind of the "neutral" party out here.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Must Be Losing It]

I think you're right, that it would turn into a head ache. I had a similar situation where the town has not taken ownership of our road yet and I coordinate snow plowing this year.

It was pricey and time consuming and all went well except for one neighbor who still owes me a fair amount of money, but I can only imagine setting up the equivalent of a home owners association would be even more work and a bigger headache.

 

[jlmann]

Sorry I wanted to bump this back up to see if anyone else that's on in the evenings had an opinion.

 

[Ridgerunner]

We have 6 households on a private road, but 4 of them are from the same family, a brother and sister and each have a married son. Every year, we all contribute toward loads of gravel. One of the farmers with heavy equipment spreads it. One guy, the original settler on this road, organized everything. It's not perfect and not everyone always contributes the same, which causes some hard feelings. I knew what was going on when I bought here and just pay my share. Just a gentleman's agreement. I'd hate to be the one to try to set up anything formal. I just don't think it would work.

 

[MoodyChicken]

Our road does that. Each person pays so much each year, then the money collected pays to fix potholes yadda yadda. It's worked very well, and there's a committee that meets monthly. Seeing as there's only seven people on your road you should have a problem... there are MANY people on our road and it works smoothly.

 

[NancyDz]

Quote:
Yep we do the same, and there is also a calculation based on where you live on the road so the person using only 1/8 of a mile of the road doesnt pay for all 5 miles of it. You can pay all at once or monthly and there is a committee that meets 4 times a year and a letter is put out
saying who's paid and who hasnt. Works well, the only problems have been deciding
what type of repairs should be done...but it's usually voted on. Now that we've been doing it a long time, there are less squabbles as we know what works best.


Nancy

 

[Darin115]

We live on a private road. My wife's family owns the road. When her grandfather gave his kids land he had itput on the deed that the upkeep would be split 6 ways. Well one sister and her husband did not live on the road but owned land on it. She was one of the 6 and when gravel was put on the road they complained about paying and not living on the road.

Years go by and finally they had enough. They put the land up for sale but refused to sell it o any members of the family. The lady that bought it paid very little even though it was on the deed. Her and her husbnd broke up and they put it up for sale but refused to sell it to anyone in the family. They sold it to another couple who paid regularly. This couple hit some hard times and the bank foreclosed. My BIL bought the land and house for less that the tax value of just the land. So it is back in the family now.

There are now 8 houses on the road now and we split it 8 ways. It works really well. The family has it on the deeds so they have no choice but to pay.

I would suggest getting something in writing so others won't try to skip out on paying.

Darin