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Private road Usage

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df85732

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Nebraska

I currently own property located adjacent to a private rural Subdivision (24 acreage lots). A private road that serves and is a part of this subdivision, runs next to my property which I would like to develop into 3 similar size lots. Am I and future owners allowed to use this Private Road to gain access to these lots? Other than utilities and driveway construction, there would be no alteration needed to the existing road. They currently have a Home Owners Maintenance Association that is responsible for road maintenance. I would be more than glad to conform to the Associations existing rules and fees to make this work out. Thanks in advance to your suggestions and advise.
 


154NH773

Senior Member
The servient owner of the private roadway would have to grant you an easement. You may not simply connect onto a private road.

They can set any conditions and cost for granting an easement, and may deny it.

If you have no other access, you may be able to get an easement of necessity, but it might be from some other route, depending on the history of land transfers and subdivisions.
 

df85732

Junior Member
[The servient owner of the private roadway would have to grant you an easement. You may not simply connect onto a private road.]

Thanks for your quick reply 154NH773. So in this case, is the servient owners only the property owners this private road passes through (8 lots) or is it all 24 lots of the subdivision? (There are other private roads that services the other 16 lots.) Thanks!
 

FlyingRon

Senior Member
You'd have to see how the the deeds read. It could be an easement or ROW over the individual properties or it could be owned by the community (HOA or whatever).
It's also possible that depending on the local laws you may already have rights to the road (don't get your hopes up, but it happens here).
Your other option is to see if you can be included in the that communities association (if that's what you want).

I'd get a land use lawyer to research this and draw up the deeds with whatever entities are involved.
 

154NH773

Senior Member
As FlyingRon said, it will take some research to determine who has authority to grant you rights.
As was also said; you may have existing rights, depending on deed language and/or conditions set by the municipality when the subdivision was approved.
I suggest you start with the municipal records on the subdivision approval. Don't believe anyone (town clerks, officials, town lawyers, HOA people) unless they can show you documentation concerning their "opinion".
 

df85732

Junior Member
Thanks for the insight and advise. I plan to talk to a local Land Lawyer to see if they could research this for me. I have tried reading through the Local Subdivision laws but it is all over my head. That special law Language you guys learn in Law school is confusing to us commoners. :D Thanks again and please, if you care to add any further advise, do so!
 

154NH773

Senior Member
Well... First of all, I'm not a lawyer, but 5 years of successful litigation against a town lawyer and neighbors who believed they knew the law taught me that "legalese" can be very ambiguous, and supposed experts, and even judges, can make mistakes in interpretation.
Second... You can save a lot of money by doing some of the grunt work yourself. Paying a lawyer several hundred dollars an hour to pull records or copy deeds is expensive and is something you can do for yourself.
The town subdivision rules may not specify conditions that the planning board may have imposed on approving a subdivision. You can ask for the file on the subdivision approval and read the minutes of the meeting where approval was granted to see if special conditions were required.
Deeds can be searched to determine ownership of the roadway. It pays to learn how to do these things yourself, believe me.
It may be harder to get HOA documents if you need them, but ask the HOA officials for their by-laws and rules to see if they might help you.
 

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