If you’re looking at buying a homestead, it’s important to know if the property is situated on a public or private road. The county, city or state takes care of public roads, but private road maintenance is the homeowner’s duty. Are you prepared for that responsibility?
What Is a Private Road?
Dispel any notions of a long, winding dirt road leading to a single residence. Although roads like that certainly exist, there are numerous types of private roads, most of them in gated communities, condominiums, golf course communities and rural areas. They don’t always belong to a single person — often, numerous landowners live along the same private road. These are called shared private roads.
The distinguishing feature of a private road is that the government doesn’t maintain it. Instead, private citizens are responsible for its upkeep. This looks a little different depending on where the road is located.
If the neighborhood has a homeowners association (HOA), then homeowners simply pay a recurring fee that goes toward road work rather than doing it themselves. Almost 60% of new single-family homes in the U.S. are part of an HOA. If there isn’t an HOA, homeowners have to physically maintain the roads themselves.
Pros and Cons of Private Roads
Maintaining a road can be expensive. Homeowners have to fix their own potholes, trim overhanging branches, mow the sides of the road and put down sand on icy days. Maintenance costs vary depending on road material type, the length of the road, the local climate and the type of traffic that frequently travels through the area.
One issue that sometimes arises is when public traffic — including heavy machinery, like logging trucks or cement trucks — can access a street, but the government still zones it as a private road and doesn’t pay to maintain it. If you want to buy a homestead so you can live a simpler life, make sure the road leading to it is truly private if you have to maintain it yourself. Otherwise, the costs can add up quickly.
Of course, the upside of having a private road is that you enjoy less government oversight. You may also be able to:
- Set your own speed limit
- Restrict entry with a gate and “Private Property” sign
- Install a cattle guard so you can keep livestock on your homestead
- Get help from your neighbors to maintain the road
- Make immediate repairs rather than waiting for the government to help
- Enjoy more peace and quiet
Clearly, living on a private road has its benefits. But there’s one minor legality you need to understand before buying property on a private road.
Private Road Maintenance Agreements
If you’re considering buying a home on a private road, your loan officer might request a private road maintenance agreement (PRMA). A PRMA is a written contract that details how the private road will be maintained and by whom. Mortgage companies and banks require a copy of this document.
If the homestead you’re interested in has an HOA, then the HOA should already have an established PRMA. In that case, you simply need to ask for a copy of the document. However, if there’s no history of a road maintenance agreement, you have a few choices:
1. Accept Full Responsibility
Accept full responsibility to maintain the road yourself, and present your loan officer with a signed individual road maintenance agreement. Your neighbors will not be legally obligated to help, but you’ll be able to move forward with the home-buying process.
2. Develop a Shared Agreement
Get in touch with your future neighbors, smooth them over and help them draft a shared agreement. You’ll all be responsible for maintaining the road. This strategy only works if you can get everyone to sign the document.
3. Look for a Different Loan Type
Each loan program has unique guidelines for maintaining private roads. Therefore, you might be able to get around the requirement for a PRMA by switching to a different type of loan.
Fannie May and VA loans (through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) are strict when it comes to private road management, and will always require a PRMA. Freddie Mac and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) don’t require a PRMA. Neither does the Federal Housing Administration, although you’ll still have to provide a recorded road easement.
Talk to your loan officer if you don’t want to draft a PRMA — they might be able to help you get a different type of loan.
4. Look for Property on a Public Road
If drafting a PRMA is too much of a hassle or you can’t get neighbors to pledge their responsibility to maintain the road, it might be worth looking at homesteads on public roads. That doesn’t necessarily mean the property will be on a bustling city street. There are many out-of-the-way properties that are still technically situated on public roads.
Is a Private Road Worth It?
Ultimately, you need to carefully consider if the cost of maintaining your own road is worth it and whether you can afford it over time, especially if you’ll be the only one responsible for it. If you’re going to live at a property for decades, HOA fees or equipment rentals to fix the road yourself can add up.
It’s even more important to keep the road maintained if it’s a shared street. That’s because fire trucks, police cars and ambulances need to be able to access the road in an emergency. If you live on a personal private road, you’ll still need to maintain it well enough that emergency vehicles can drive down it, but you won’t endanger other people by not doing so.
Maintaining a shared private road is crucial for delivery services to ship items to people’s houses. It’s also important for keeping your car in good condition over the years, as potholes, cracks and ice can damage your vehicle.
It’s also a good idea to ask your loan officer if you’ll need insurance for the private road. If so, who arranges it and how is it to be apportioned?
What Is an Easement?
Certain loan types require you to provide an easement. Essentially, an easement provides the right to use someone else’s property for a specific purpose, such as using it as a roadway. You don’t own the property, but you can access it for legitimate reasons outlined in the easement.
A right-of-way is a type of easement granting the holder specific rights only to travel across a person’s land. All right-of-way agreements are easements, but not vice versa. It’s also called a right-of-access easement.
You need to carefully examine the deed reserving roadway easements on any property you’re considering buying. Is the reservation for the public’s benefit, in general? Does it only grant the right-of-way to municipal parties for laying sewers, gas pipelines and plumbing?
The easement will determine who can legally access your property and when. If your homestead is situated in a busy area, there might be an easement allowing logging trucks or oil rigs, for example, to traverse your private road.
Find out how often they actually use that road before deciding it’s too much of a hassle to maintain it. People might legally be allowed to drive on your road, but in practice, they actually go around your property.
How to Maintain Your Road
If you end up buying a property on a private road, congratulations! You’ll surely enjoy the benefits of having more control over your property. Here are some tips for keeping your road in good shape:
1. Use Machinery to Grade the Road
Sure, you can fix individual potholes with asphalt, water and a tamper, but if you live on a long road prone to frequent damage, it might be a tedious process. Use a skid steer equipped with a standard bucket or blade to easily grade the road. Or, use a tractor or bulldozer to make short work of potholes and bumps. Leveling the ground will be a cinch.
If you don’t own your own equipment, make friends with a neighbor who does. Ask if you can borrow their machine to fix the road. They’ll probably be happy to lend it to you for that purpose.
2. Trim Overhanging Trees
To prevent branches from falling in the road — or, worse, on your vehicle — trim the trees along both sides of the road. Cut down any leaning, dead or otherwise suspicious trees that look like they might fall. You may want to hire a chainsaw-certified professional for this job. Afterward, you can use the wood in a wood-burning stove or turn it into mulch for your garden.
3. Mow the Grass
Keeping the grass short alongside the road isn’t just for aesthetic purposes. It’s meant to prevent fires if someone needs to pull over on the side of the road.
Dry grass ignites within just a few seconds of touching a hot surface, and a vehicle’s exhaust pipe and catalytic converter can reach temperatures of 1,200 to 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit. Short grass can prevent a serious wildfire not just by preventing it in the first place, but also by acting as a firebreak to slow or stop an advancing fire.
Cutting the grass also improves visibility along the road. If you live in an area with a lot of wildlife, farm animals or other people, having short grass will help you see them better. It can mean the difference between braking to avoid a deer or totaling your car.
4. Consider Paving the Road
If you live at the end of a dirt road, the weather can significantly affect your ability to get home. Rain and wind may erode your driveway’s surface, create an uncomfortable washboard texture or simply make the road uneven over time. Rain can also turn your road into a mud pit. Unless your vehicle has four-wheel drive or high-clearance tires, you might find the road impassable during a storm.
Unless you live on a shared private road and your neighbors are against the idea, you can hire someone to pave the road with gravel or asphalt for a safer, more comfortable driving experience. The cost will depend on several factors — the road’s length, width and location, among others. But if you have the funds to do it, you might as well exert your right to manage the road as you wish and give it an upgrade.
5. Keep It Clear
In the winter, you may need to clear your road of snow with a snowblower or plow. Check with your local laws on where to move the snow. In some places, it’s illegal to clear snow from a private road by depositing it onto another roadway.
During icy conditions, put down an eco-friendly alternative to road salt, which pollutes streams and groundwater. De-icing agents like calcium magnesium acetate and sugar beet juice work well to clear ice from the road. Or, use good, old-fashioned sand to add traction between your tires and the ground. In addition to being much better for the environment, it’s also cheaper than salt.
If you’re using cattle guards, you may also need to clean them out periodically. Although rain often does a good job of washing away dirt and leaf buildup inside cattle guards, if you allow debris to build up in the ditch to the point of being level with the ground, your animals can get out and pose a hazard on the road. Use a tractor and chain to remove the cattle guard, then shovel out any buildup.
Maintaining Private Roads
Before you sign on a new homestead, make sure to ask who will take care of the road leading to the property, including who will pay for repairs. Find out if your neighbors, a homeowners association or you alone will be responsible for maintenance.
Don’t worry if you need to maintain your own road — with a little know-how, you can learn to repair it yourself. Or, if it’s within your budget, you can hire someone to do it for you. You have numerous options when it comes to taking care of a private road.
[Note: This was a guest post.]
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