Road Association Advice
 

We have a cottage on a dirt road that was kept up by our next door neighbor who has recently moved. One of the neighbors that lives here all year suggested forming a road association to maintain the road for all 14 properties. Does anyone have any advice on the following: do we need to have a formal document outlining exactly what the association will cover, do we need a lawyer (yes, I am from the Philadelphia area !). Any other advice would be appreciated. We all met yesterday and did agree on splitting all costs equally as opposed to paying a certain amount depending on how far in you are from the main road. Thanks in advance.

Road Association advice
 

You might consider checking with a local realtor who has had experience with private roads, etc., during the process of selling a property on such a road. Once you "get legal" you will find a lot of details have to be attended to, ie., rights and responsibilities of current owners, and can these rights and responsibilities be passed on to new owners, heirs and assigns, changed, what about new owners if there is currently unbuilt upon land on the road. Sometimes it does take a Philadelphia lawyer to produce a set of by-laws describing the association. Who are the officers, are their dues, who manages the road, what about the money ????????? Are there legally established rights of way over properties, etc. ??????? If everyone is currently getting along, you are in the fortunate position of having the time to look into this situation slowly, and thoroughly. Good luck.

If the group of you want to get together every season and voluntarily split the road costs out of friendship and goodwill, you don't need a lawyer.

But, to form an association that has any sort of sticking power beyond the goodwill of the current owners, you really want it recorded in the county deed registry. That's very, very likely going to take a real estate lawyer.

Since lawyers generally charge you by the hour, any work your group can do up front will save you cash. Write the purpose and responsibilities of the association in plain English. Try to cover the obvious situations, what happens if someone sells their property, what happens if someone doesn't pay, what happens if someone gets hurt on the road and sues the association, what happens if major damage occurs and the association needs extra money, what if a bunch of you want to pave the road. Let the lawyer clean it up and think of all the situations you didn't think of.

But first, I would research all the properties at the deed registry (some counties are available online at nhdeeds.com). You may find an existing association, or find out someone is already responsible to keep the road up or that someone owns the road. Obviously, the lawyer will check this out as well, but who knows what you might find.