Public vs Private Roads and What that means for your Home
Why Roads Matter When Buying or Selling Your Home
In counties across North Carolina, the absence of private road maintenance agreements have cost individual property owners thousands of dollars to make their roads passable not only for private vehicles but also for school buses and emergency vehicles. Imagine having a life threatening event and the ambulance cannot drive down the road to transport you or a loved one. This is a real problem throughout the state that many property owners must address.
What Can Happen in New Developments
“A common problem that occurs is when a developer has filed a plat to start a new development, and the plat shows the roads are to be public roads. Just because a land owner has dedicated the road for public use does not mean the state or municipality is going to accept the road into the public system. The road must meet the required standards before being brought into the public system. For example, if a developer has not built the road to standard and does not complete the subdivision or doesn’t do anything to bring the road to standard, then the road remains a private road. Since there is a plat dedication that says the roads of the subdivision are to be public right of ways, there is a good chance there is not a private road maintenance agreement in place. Even if there is a recorded document that states the developer is responsible for the road maintenance, if the developer goes out of business then the developer’s letter isn’t worth the fee it cost to record it. The cost of maintenance and repair would fall back on the subdivision property owners. Now a municipality may agree to repair the road and bring it into the public road system, but at a cost divided among the homeowners to be paid back.”
Published by Christopher T. Salyer on December 1, 2016. Hutchens Law Firm
