Public Trail Mainenance Perpetually tied to HOA

Don't know about public land, but my community has an easement that requires us to perform 100% of the maintenance of a piece of land owned by another person. So yes, stuff like this can happen. We also include these maintenance costs in our reserve studies.

There must be some legal agreement somewhere that makes your HOA responsible. Your HOA also needs to have some interest in the public land that would justify the agreement - for example, if you have to use the pubic land in order to get to land that your HOA owns. If your county recorder has a website, I suggest searching through the recorded documents and see what you can find. And depending on how old your community is, you may be able to find some relevant information in your association's records.

Yes, it's almost certainly legal to bind your HOA permanently to maintain this land, assuming you will continue to benefit from its use. In our case with the easement, our only option would be to legally abandon it - which would involve lawyers drafting documents and the like. Our lawyer at the time cautioned us about taking this step. He said that the other party to agreement could probably take action if we continued to enjoy the benefits of the easement after we walked away from the agreement. I could see something similar happening in your case - the only difference could be the willingness of a private owner to file a suit vs. a public entity doing so.

You probably need to get a legal opinion about your particular situation. Easements are pretty common, but that doesn't mean the details are the same.

Check with the town planner but, unfortunately, HOAs often have easements and parcels of land that local government controls yet the HOA must maintain.

That can be the tricky part.

I mentioned my community's easement in my answer above. The recorded easement agreement requires us to "maintain" the area, and nowhere does it define what that maintenance involves. This is just one of the reasons I'm livid about the agreement, since we're legally obligated to foot the entire bill for ... something. And presumably the owner of the property can take action against us if our something doesn't comply with his notions of something. And he won't talk to us. If I were the sole owner of our condo property, I'd call my attorney in a heartbeat and have him draft paperwork for abandoning the easement, since it gives us nothing that isn't available to any random person in the area. It just sticks with all of the bills for ... something.

What's even more annoying is that only one other owner in my community is as annoyed about this as I am. Everyone else either doesn't understand - and what's not to understand about periodically forking out $20,000 for something we don't even own - or they don't care. So that's another problem that boards can face if they try to get out from under such agreements. The rest of the community may say "meh" and won't support any board action to change things. And I assume that membership approval would be needed in cases like this, although it probably depends on the details of the easement.

Lord save us from developers and lawmakers who want to do us favors but throw us under the bus instead.

Thank you everyone for responses. I didnt know this was even possible before a few days ago and it would seem it happends more frequently then I ever would have imagined.

Cathy, it would seem that we are in a similar situation, Its public land that requires us to Maintain all improvements to the Public trail owned by the city. It written in the permits and the surveys via city public records. Its also briefly mentioned in our CCR's. We just found out we don't own it. Because the city is connecting a new development to it and the rest of the city I suppose will just get a free ride to use the trail on our small HOAs back. (28 homes).

I am Vice president of the board. I think I will be trying to meet with the city in regards to it.

Thanks again.

Do find out the status of approving the new development. Do reach out to your City Councilor and explain the situation to him/her. It's possible your HOA could compel the city council and land use department to force the new HOA to add a covenant concerning maintenance.

But if the city has already issued approvals, having complied with open meeting requirements for public input, your HOA is probably out of luck.

In practicality, "Maintenance" of a forest walking path will be considered adequate until a government official demands the HOA perform some form of maintenance. Otherwise, keep the path clean (which the HOA should do on behalf of its existing dues payers).

... or some person using the path trips and falls; hires an attorney; and demands a settlement from the HOA's insurer.

Eric

Are you saying that there is no access to parcels B, C, D, etc. without passing through parcel A?

Tract B, C, and D have many diverse access points.