Does anyone here live on or own a property in which you have a shared ROW for a portion of your driveway? If so, what terms have you established with the other owners to establish maintenance responsibilities. Secondly, and this applies to those who may not fall under the above situation, but have a driveway with some length to it (i.e, not a subdivision driveway). What is the width of your ROW? Thirdly, if you were looking at a piece of property, and the driveway ROW was only 16' until reaching the portion of your property, would that be a deal breaker for you considering the limited improvements you might be able to make (bringing in more shale and widening the berm, putting in drainage, etc.,)? Thanks in advance.
Matt, that has been a deal breaker for us in the past. It was a potential hassle that we weren't willing to deal with. We want our home to be ours, if that makes sense? It all depends on your neighbors ... so it is a gamble...look at what Hooker got? Could you imagine sharing a driveway with people like that?
If it was just access point to a large piece of property I wouldn't let lt bother me, but if there was not 10 or more acres I would stay away also, home should not anger you, but idiots can and will.
Here's a map showing a better illustration of what I'm talking about. Green marks the township road, red is the shared ROW, and blue is the property (42 acres).
Personally, I could not do that for a home ...I almost bought a dream property much like that but the shared driveway was the deal breaker? What kind of material is it? For hunting, no problem...for me.
Matt, on the farm I just sold, I had ROW through another property for 1/3 mile to get to mine. Ours was 24' wide with 12' down the center graveled. Check with state laws on maintenance and upkeep. I was responsible for my right of way until the neighbor started selling dirt and had dump trucks running up and down the shared part, at which time he took over maintaining it. The chances of finding the perfect property with no setbacks is slim. After looking at the code for your state, weigh out the pluses and minuses then let us know what you decided. Good luck.
That's a tough call, by the terracady fields it looks steep, but it looks like its been that way for a long time. Being that its established there should be no supprises..
I don't see what the problem with that would be. Your potential home would be the end of the line. You would only share the first 1/4 of the driveway.
I lived on a farm as a kid where my dad had sold off the farm and we lived on about 11acres the other 280 that the farmer had a barn that he used our drive to get to in the agreement he maintained yearly since he was driving heavy trucks in and out. As for the way yours looks I would say its in your intrest to split it with the other two as you have the longest part of the drive.
There appear to be two other properties with homes on the ROW. Have you asked the current owner what the arrangement is? Without a scale, it appears to be about 3/4 mile back to the property. Another consideration would be, does your job afford you time off in case of heavy snow fall? I know there were times that clearing 1/2 mile of drive to be able to get out was a multiple hour chore. Now that I'm retired, if the other users are punctual about maintenance, I would not have a problem with it and would love the privacy of the location.
First thing to look at is the deed. How is Row the defined? It will state what the terms and conditions if any are on the row, is it an easement? is it in perpetuity? More then likely all these questions are already answered..... It would be silly to walk away from something like this for such a simple fix. A good lawyer will have this all in order well before you close.
Yep, I have someone pulling the deed for me today. This question is a bit cart before the horse, but I figured I wanted general thoughts from everyone who has been, or has seen this situation before. I'll give more details a little later on my lunch break.
We have a 25' ROW shared by 3 other properties at my home/property. There is only one other property past ours, and he has a tractor, does all the grading, and snow plowing. I'm always the first one up there to help out with grading, and always throwing him fuel gift cards for the station up the street. currently it's what we have to do until we get our own machine this next winter. we weren't letting our dream property slip away because of a ROW, we agreed and went into this fully understanding and assuming we were going to be responsible for the entire ROW upkeep...I HATE relying on other people... the other neighbors told us (me and the guy with the tractor) "we drive very slow on the road, so we don't feel we are responsible for any upkeep....." LOL
Sounds like you're looking into the legal aspects that Trial mentioned, so I won't comment on that yet. We just moved to the farm a week ago and have a 2100' driveway. Beyond the legal aspects, there's a lot to consider. Like Mark mentioned, how will you clear snow in a big storm? Will the driveway drift shut easily? Could the road wash out during a summer storm? Do you mind having dirty vehicles from the driveway? (Sounds funny, but my wife hates a dirty looking vehicle it's the biggest thing she hates about our driveway.) Seeing as you're the last house on the driveway, it wouldn't bother me one bit sharing it with others. You'll never have to see them driving past your house.
I should have mentioned my wife as well. Dan stated it perfectly ... all those things in consideration, especially the wife's thoughts will give you your answer. Good luck and I am looking forward to where you go with this!
My driveway is a ROW, but there again I have the beat neighbor ever. Also the road was paved prior to me purchasing.
Ok, so, what the picture doesn't tell you (and what I've gathered after speaking with the owners this weekend) is this. The driveway is .5 miles to the house, .4 miles to the property line (I measured in Earth, Maps, and GIS to confirm). The two properties right off the township road are a family. The farmhouse/farm is where the son lives (they own the ground on the west side of the ROW). His dad who used to run the farm lives in the smaller parcel right off the township road that shares the ROW as well. I have not spoken to them yet, but the owners of the property I'm interested in said they are good people and take care of the road up until just past their barn (first 1/10 of a mile). The owners of the property I'm looking at have taken care of the rest (~.4 miles). The land on the east side of the ROW has two different farms/land bordering it. It is steep, so no access worries there, but I have no idea what the people are like. The parcel to the NE of the ROW isn't inhabited. It's raw land and the owner lives in town. The second parcel (the southern piece...again on the eastern side of the ROW/driveway) has his property/driveway access off the township road off the map. Again, no idea of how he is to deal with. Driveway length is not a concern. The driveway, with the exception of part of the first 1/10 toward the main road lays very flat. It's going to need some work (shale, a few pipes, grading, and of course, putting in some #57 or similar washed on top). My wife could care less about dirty cars or a long driveway as long as it isn't steep. I grew up on a 1/4 mile driveway with another 1/4 past our house my dad was responsible for taking care of. I will most likely use my dad and his plow setup to take care of it for a few years (he's retired and enjoys it), but I'm more than capable of plowing myself. There's A LOT up in the air about this. The ROW is just one big one at this point.
