Neighbor Woes: What Rights Do I Have To Maintain A Private Road...

[CorpsVet]

LAWYER!

 

[zghorner]

The county will not install a tinhorn on a private road, or a privately maintained road.

Sounds to me like you need to buy the tinhorn, and install it across his driveway.

If not that, then buy a tinhorn and install it to cross the road where it's being washed out.

Money out of your pocket, but cheaper than constantly re-graveling.

I've had to rebuild my neighbor's driveway twice, to keep water from running down his driveway into mine. I finally moved my driveway.

I offered, he wont do it.

A little backstory to explain why his motive is half revenge and half him being an idiot.

He use to drive across my front yard to get to his house. The road was in horrible shape...like a 2 ft deep pond in the center of it at one point you had to get in the ditches to make it through on top of all the usual pot holes and washouts etc...

At this point we were on good terms, i asked him if he wanted to go in and fix the road and he said: yea man, this road is tearing up my vehicles we need to do something and im from Davis, OK where all the gravel comes from let me call around to get some prices..."

The next day he comes at me with the prices and complained that they were too high i believe at $450 a semi, belly dump load of 2.5" crush...the next day i found it for $400 a load so i started to work on the road. I hired 2 other people, borrowed a big landscape tractor (which i had to pay back multiple favors costing me hundreds of dollars), cut the trees and brush out of the old ditches, cut new ditches, crowned the road then put 7 loads of gravel down and spread it. All the while he seen us working even came by to give a thumbs up a few times but couldnt help because "its his wife's birthday and he has to take her out"...he is around 30-35 years old and very able bodied. So that pissed me off.

I talked to him right after it was done and told him it isnt my responsibility to build everyone i nice new road and i expect him and the other neighbor to contribute (which the other neighbor did). he starts giving me BS about how money is tight blah blah blah...he is some kind of iron worker supervisor and his wife is a registered nurse but okay man thats cool, didnt want to help with the work and now money is tight...thats cool.

So i let it go, hoping he would do the right thing and try to talk to me about it instead he basically cowered from ever seeing me...months go by and I decided "today is the day" and catch him when he is getting home from work and ask to get squared up on the road...i said "i am out $2,800 in gravel alone, all im asking you for is $700. That is split 4 ways, the 3 neighbors and the boat and RV storage (which i own also). He says: "whoa whoa whoa man that was you that did thats not me, i dont think i should have to pay for it". ME: you use the entire road twice a day every day but you dont think you should contribute to upkeep? Fine then, i will fence off your entrance through my front yard, and you can use that sandy piece of sh!t driveway at the beginning of the street that you are supposed to be using anyway". Him: Whoa man come on, let me see what i can do with coming up with some money and ill talk to you".

So he has had his own driveway this whole time that is at the beginning of the street but it is pure sand on a hill and washes out badly, and has been using my property to access his house...with no legal easement provided.

So money is tight right, $700 is just too much to ask for a new nice road when a contractor quoted me at $15,000 to fix it before i decided to do it myself, but im out of line asking $700 according to him right...two weeks later he buys a brand new cummins diesel ram 4x4...Pissed me off, slap across the face, starting to hate this guy a bunch now...but i let that go. At this point I was done with the guy, which takes a lot for me to do especially with next door neighbor forgiveness to maintain the peace lol.

So nothing happens for about 2 months, my dogs got out and i was driving looking for them and he was on the road so i stopped to ask if he had seen them. He says: "No, and my dogs have been missing for over a month". ME: that sucks man have you talked to that rancher with horses on the other street? (the one who told him he was going to kill his dogs if they come run his horses again...). He says: "ive talked to everyone but you...i was going to come bring you that $700 but then my dogs came up missing after i bought this truck". So i went off basically how i would never do that, which i didnt or wouldnt as i like dogs better than people. He wasnt buying what i was saying so i just left, furious at his level of chicken-sh!ttery.

2 days later i told him i was going to fence him off

about a week after that i fenced him off and he has had to start using his driveway...that washes out terribly each time it rains...he also bought a new john deere 4x4 tractor about a month after that to maintain his driveway...but $700 was way out of line...

Whew that's a lot to type damn lol.

 

[zghorner]

Put in your address or your neighbors to see if there is an easement.

https://www.okc.gov/departments/city-clerk/easement-deed-land-document-locator

nothing is listed but I am looking at a document showing private roadway easement

 

[John6185]

I don't care for lawyers, they make a living off of people paying them more than they deserve, I don't like to argue with neighbors and I don't hate anyone because they get to live rent-free in my head and my blood pressure goes up, I develop heart problems and all the time the neighbor is living the high life not caring one bit about how I feel.
Now I come to a crossroad, either sell-out and move, get the lawyer and I resent that terribly or talk to the neighbor and that is obviously out because it could and very well get physical and then the cops are coming and I'm in big trouble-and I don't want that because for sure I've got to get a lawyer. Bottom line is that I've got to move to avoid this bunghole neighbor. He thinks he's finally won but what he doesn't know is that I made a good profit off of my land and the improvements and going to get a better piece of land where neighbors aren't so argumentative.
Reminds me of the Roy Clark song, "Right or left at Oak street, a decision I make each day, whether it takes more courage to leave or to stay."
I think after all this that I'd have to move the first chance I got. bottom line.

 

[SlugSlinger]

If you have an easement, you have a legal right to use that road and therefore he can not block your use. Just make sure he understands that if he tries to fence it. Hell be out money fencing it and then to take the fence down.

If he wants to fence it, I would mention small claims court to remove his fence from the easement and to recover the cost of you and other neighbors maintaining his driveway that he said he would pay for.

 

[Slim Deal]

Listen to Hank Hill, "Sounds like lawyer-ball Bobby."

 

[zghorner]

In with John6185 as far as lawyers go, i dont generally have a dislike for them but i damn sure dont want to go there for anything but a last resort. @SlugSlinger Do you know if i have any right to maintain his portion of the road? It is listed as "right of way" on my survey as well as deed. I am just worried that he will continue to make the road worse and i wont legally be able to fix it, as in install a tin horn without his consent.

 

[Tanis143]

You might look into small claims court. That's basically you and him hashing it out in front of a judge. Lay out the claim that because he has blocked the drainage on his side it washes out the private road that him, you and the other neighbors share. The judge can rule that he needs to install a culvert to allow the water to drain properly and not damage the road.

 

[MacFromOK]

Take plenty of pictures.

 

[dennishoddy]

I'm watching this thread closely. I have one neighbor, a retired 6th grade school teacher that is 275 yards away but we share a driveway that is 3/10 mile long with 1/10 mile of it a very steep grade. I'm at the end of the driveway. My acreage is graded to drain across and under the asphalt driveway we had installed to the edge of our property line. Her private gravel drive intersects the common gravel driveway with her entire property draining rain water to the shared road which is at the very top of the steep grade down the hill.
We have lived here for 30 years with the first two neighbors being more than happy to share expenses and work to maintain the road, add gravel so it could be crowned and drain to the ditches, etc.
When she moved in, we greeted her and talked about how difficult the road maintenance was and volunteered to maintain it if she would share in cost of gravel. She commented nobody informed her that she would have to pay for road maintenance when she bought the house.
So, 6 months and several rain storms later with the road getting in bad shape, asked if she was willing to contribute to a couple semi's of gravel. Absolutely not was the reply. So we bought them and fixed it. We again had to buy a couple semi loads a year later with no help.
The road is now a big bowl with water running down the center from her yard only and washing it down to bedrock in places after these huge rains.
We will be out thousands of dollars for gravel just on the steep portion. The lower portion of the driveway that is flat has 5' of the Arkansas river with a swift current flowing over it for a week now with at least another week expected of maximum flows at best. No telling how much road has washed out there until the water goes down.