Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
There is a private road that only stretches about 7 house and is being used by at least 200+ houses in my neighborhood. The 7 houses that live on the private road are working on putting up a gate that prevents us, that live outside the private road, from having access as a route to our destinations. The private road helps all of the 200+ homes have another option to reach specific destinations such as: schools, work, hospital,etc. Most of my neighbors and I find this private road very crucial to our jobs, schools and even for groceries, etc. Most people in my neighborhood feel it would cause a lot of issues if the private road has a gate because it would mean we would have to take a longer route, spending more time in traffic and an inconvience amount of time to get to work. Basically, going around instead of easily crossing through to our destination. The neighbors on the private road are paying for the private road but I would like to know if there is any possible way to make it work where the private road does NOT have to be something they pay for anymore. Overall, make the private road PUBLIC. My neighbors and I truly believe it would be better for all of us to have access to the private road. What are the possiblities of making that road public? is there any way the neighbors can stop paying for that private road? or any more options that does not involve preventing us from accessing that road by them putting up a gate? Thank you
by the way, we are located in Oceanside, San Diego CA.
1 Answer from Attorneys
There are a number of ways a private road can become public. A key factor is how long have the 200+ families been using the private road and what proof do you have of it. There is a legal doctrine called prescriptive easement that turns any route that has been used by the public often enough for a long enough time into a public right of access. Of course you have to prove the elements of that doctrine in court in order for it to become legally binding. Unless all 200 families joined in the suit, you would also have a problem with who pays for maintenance. The other options are to buy an easement or persuade the city or county if it is not located within city limits, to convert the road to a public road by eminent domain. Both of those, however, tend to be rather costly as well. If the current owners are just concerned about bearing the cost of maintenance, however, and they would be amenable to creating an easement if the other users paid for upkeep and repairs, then it may be relatively easy to do that. The hard part is either convincing the government to accept a dedication, or getting all the 200+ benefited land owners to agree to share the expense. Another option would be to create a special assessment district, but that would be a LOT of work and take a REALLY long time for a 7 lot long stretch of road. So, bottom line, there are a lot of options, but which ones would work depend heavily on the details of the situation and the levels of cooperation available between the benefited owners, the road owners and the relevant government entity.
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