This time of the year we are all thinking that someone should grade that bumpy county road or fill that miserable pothole that just swallowed our car. Road maintenance is very important, when it’s important, but is one of the most procrastinated items on your to-do-list!  Sure, you’ll go drag the tractor blade over it again to smooth out the worst of the rough spots, but then you’ll forget about it till it’s too late!

Legal access to your property is one thing, but actual access can be quite different especially when it snows a bunch overnight.  Maybe you have been relying on that neighbor with the plow rig to keep the road passable and now it’s broken down or he is in Hawaii.  What now?

Many properties rely on a shared private road in order to physically access their property instead of a county or state maintained right-of-way, which means they must provide their own maintenance.  Most lenders will not finance a property that has easement access unless a recorded Road Maintenance Agreement is in place or a new one is created prior to closing.  Such legal documents can be simple, though most are great examples of over thinking by some well meaning attorney.  They usually describe the legal location of the easement road and bind the benefited property owners to contribute financially to the actual maintenance and upkeep of the road, including wintertime plowing and summertime grading.  They may also list the legal remedy that contributing landowners have against a non-contributing neighbor. 

Often, such agreements cause hard feelings rather than resolving those issues, especially when a neighbor refuses to contribute somehow and the other homeowners are forced to levy a financial lien against their property.  The agreements that seem to work the best are the ones so simple in nature that they operate because of good will and consist of conscientious neighbors who work together, but homeowners associations can be formed that meet regularly to discuss the maintenance issues in a setting that has all of the players in the same room. 

If you don’t have some sort of written road maintenance agreement, it would be wise to contact a trusted attorney who can help construct that document prior to the time you wish to sell your property.  Waiting until the last minute to form a consensus with the neighbor may not be the best strategy!