Road Laws

Many rural and semi-rural counties around North America allow subdivision developers and landowners to build privately-owned roads through tracts of land that do not meet acceptable standards for government owned roadways. The private road is denoted as an easement through the properties. The owners of those properties can not use the private roadway for any purpose other than transportation, and can not block the roadway at any time. The property owner is also obligated by American Common Law to maintain that section of private road through his or her property, AND is liable for any damage to a vehicle or person caused failure to maintain that section of road. In other words, if a dead tree from your property falls on a car driving on the private road, you are liable for damages. In many subdivisions the actual maintenance of private roads is assigned by a covenant to a homeowners association.

subdivision plat is a scaled drawing of all the lots contained in a tract of land that has been subdivided. It shows all boundaries, major easements, streams, bodies of water, flood hazard zones and road right-of-ways. It probably will not show minor easements and physical features of individual lots. Again, it must be stamped and signed by a licensed land surveyor in order to be a legal representation of that subdivision.

An easement is a legally described section of a tract of land or lot in which individuals, government agencies, utilities or business entities have the right to pass through or make use of the property, even though they do not have title to that property.

A site development plan is a scaled drawing prepared by a licensed architect, engineer or land surveyor, which shows all of the information contained in a plat, but also shows all trees over 4” in diameter, all major physical features, plus topographic lines, which represent the terrain of the property.

By law a prospective property owner is supposed to be shown a legal plat of the property by...