anyone live on a 'private' road? splitting up costs question

[HomeStretch]

$1500 divided by 6 homeowners is $250 each. For such a small amount, just split evenly at $250 each.

[SQRT]

I've only lived on a private road once. We were the 3rd of 4 houses. It was split equally.

Our lake house is on a private road. About 10km long plus spurs. Maybe 100 people on it. Split equally with a cost of about $250/ year. I would recommend an even split. Too complicated otherwise and not a big enough amount to worry about. These things are best kept simple.

[JoeRetire]

Divide by 6.

[AB609]

We just did a $30K resurfacing project on the road this year and we split the cost evenly and nobody complained.

Helps if everyone has a lot of money.

yep. not many have $10k liquid. On this board? maybe, gen pop, no.

We collect semi annual dues for road and common area maintenance including long term future projects. Enough extra has been collected over the last 10 years to largely fund the expense of the road resurfacing.

[Elric]

We collect semi annual dues for road and common area maintenance including long term future projects. Enough extra has been collected over the last 10 years to largely fund the expense of the road resurfacing.

If this is not a formal HOA, mind if I ask who collects.the money and how it is held, and by who? We're supposed to do that for our private shared drive, but it's never been done.

[flarf]

If this is not a formal HOA, mind if I ask who collects.the money and how it is held, and by who? We're supposed to do that for our private shared drive, but it's never been done.

I have a house on a private road ("A"), which is located off a separate, larger private road ("B").

Only 3 houses on are A. There's no formal HOA to handle road maintenance. One owner on A collects the money and pays for grading and plowing. There's no separate entity or bank account; the total annual expense is about $5k. The extent of documentation is a quick e-mail with the totals that have been paid and the amount requested.

There are about 20 houses on B, which has a HOA solely for road maintenance. It's just been a bit more formalized, since the guy who lives on B who has been collecting/disbursing the money for 30+ years is getting up in years and wanted a succession plan.

We definitely have issues with people on B who refuse to pay their share, and there's little recourse. It's easy when everybody plays nice, like on A.

My attorney discouraged me from buying the property solely because it was on a private road. I've heard that prior owners looked into deeding B to the town, but the grade is too steep in certain areas and the town refused. The latest quote for paving was $4 million, so it'll be gravel and shale forever.

[RubyTuesday]

As pointed out by another, A gets benefit of “overhead” costs of getting the road maintenance crew there, etc.

If the cost were more expensive, I would find out what the “minimum” fee would be to have the contractor do the job, split that amount evenly, and then apportion the remainder by length. But with such a small amount, I would be fine splitting evenly.

[AB609]

We collect semi annual dues for road and common area maintenance including long term future projects. Enough extra has been collected over the last 10 years to largely fund the expense of the road resurfacing.

If this is not a formal HOA, mind if I ask who collects.the money and how it is held, and by who? We're supposed to do that for our private shared drive, but it's never been done.

There is an HOA. One of the neighbors acts as the "secretary" and collects the dues. There is a separate bank account and and PO box and the secretary takes care of paying the bills and collecting the dues. We usually have a meeting about once a year and get an accounting of the funds.

[bighatnohorse]

Yes. 22 homes on our street. Cost evenly split.
Why? All homes on the street share property values equally based partly on the road condition.
Legally, all home owners could be sued in a class action suit if there was a problem with the road condition - yeah, go argue that one!
Our road cost $2500. per home - the road surface was demolished, ground up, compacted and then paved over - brand new road.
The contractor required a lien on each home. We formed a 503c HOA just to get this done.
Keep it simple - split the cost.

[Mr.Chlorine]

I grew up on a road that was built private then became city. At time of annexation there were 9 homes and 1 business that shared access similar to OP's map. Maybe 10 years after becoming city, it was decided the gravel road needed paving. This trickled down to the residents in the form of 'specials' and was allocated evenly, regardless of how much of the road you used.

My family was in the middle so it did not have much impact; prorated or even split. If I were in charge of making a similar decision, most instances I side with an even split between all parties.