Gravel road a mess; HOA wants to wants to wait

My HOA consists of 4 houses! We haven't had our common use gravel road worked since 2008and it is a mess! Now they don't want to do anything until Spring because the fear the gravel will be plowed away during the winter in Virginia. But the road is in such terrible shape right now. Our HOA fees are only collected for taking care of the road and snow plowing during the winter. They haven't taken care of the road. I live at the bottom of road where it is worst. There are potholes at the bottom of road. We live on small hill. Is there anything I can do?

SarahW2

I've found the best way to deal with road problems to fix it yourself. Usually takes 1 day of your life vs countless days trying to get the town or HOA to fix it. Grab a shovel and fill it in. Done.

Sarah,

My association has some 300 miles of dirt roads that we maintain. There are only a few windows throughout the year when we can grade. During winter, our roads are covered in ice at night that melts in the day and freezes again at night, so we cannot grade. During the summer monsoons, the roads turn to mud again and grading is impossible. During the hotest part of summer, the roads are so dry that we cannot grade because we are just moving dust around. Maintenance of the roads then is limited to a few months in the spring and few months in the fall.

We have had a few owners put gravel down on the roads near their homes. One in particular did so to cut down the dust. They had graded the road with a crown to drain moisture away. When the snow fell, one of their neighbors decided to plow the roads with his tractor. They bladed away the crown and the gravel below, leaving a flat dirt road where water sat instead of flowing away.

Your neighbors concern about winter plowing is valid. I would recommend doing whatever repairs you can handle yourself to get through the winter months. But, you indicate that no work has been done on this road since 2008 and that is way too long. My advice would be to make it clear to your other three neighbors that in the spring the road must be repaired without any excuses or delays. You may want to get your lawyer to make the demand.

BTW, a published opinion from the Arizona Court of Appeals that held that all users of an easement for ingress and egress have a legal obligation to contribute to the maintainance of the roadway for the benefit of all the other users.

Our HOA fees are $200 a year to maintain to road; that means snow plowing and taking care of the road.

That doesn't sound too bad, the road must not be too long? We pay $675 just for driveway and berm service. As going to court could take a long time maybe you could convince your neighbors to just do a "quickie" patch job or as mentioned earlier patch it yourself. If so, suggest you used crushed rock, about 1" size, not round river gravel which will squish out. The irregular shaped crushed rock will pack down and stay put much better.

Paul T

Forgot this. Based on my experience, observing our local judges in action, they would through your case out in a heartbeat. Your Judges may be different?

Paul T