Non Member Home

We have a home in our association that is not on the original agreement. In 2002 a previous homeowner started paying the dues to the association. The current homeowner requested the agreement be updated, due to it expiring. During the process of updating the charter we dicovered that the property was not originally on the agreement. If this homeowner does not want to be entered into the HOA on the charter can we refuse access to the road?

Leslie,

Even if the homeowner is not a member but is using an access road on an easement maintained by the HOA, there are court cases holding that he has an obligation to contribute to maintaining the easement. If the owner of the property in question has an easement to use the road, your association has no power to prevent him from using it but you can and should require that he pay a share of the maintenance costs.

In my area, easements are dedicated either on a plat or, less commonly, by deed. Road easements are normally dedicated as either for the exclusive ingress and egress of specific parties or for non-exclusive ingress and egress. If it is non-exclusive, it is essentially a public road.

My association's main purpose is to maintain some 300 miles of unpaved access roads. Having an association to do this creates a formal and more orderly process of road maintenance. Without an association, each property owner would still have an obligation to help maintain the roads he uses and one can only imagine the amount of bickering that 1600 owners would generate.