Dennis South

Here’s a word of warning to readers–If you live on a private road, and have a deed clause saying you share in maintenance costs, anyone can do maintenance on the road, even if no one approves it, and they can charge whatever they want. Here’s the kicker though: the court system will make you pay for it. I never would have believed it, but it happened to me. My neighbor decided on his own, without asking any of the other 7 residents of the road, to put down an unbelievably large amount of gravel on our road. He never got any estimates, never asked any of the residents if they wanted the gravel or how much, and hired his “friend” with a truck, without agreeing to a price beforehand. When I objected to his wasteful and suspicious plan, he went ahead and did it anyway, then charged 600 dollars for his own “labor”, which no one saw him do. This was in addition to the already inflated cost of the gravel. Of course I refused to pay for this ridiculous and wasteful project, but guess who backed him up? The court system! He sued me for the charges and won! I naively thought that any lawsuit plaintiff would have to prove that he was really owed money for work that was agreed upon beforehand, but the magistrate and arbitrator cared nothing for that point of view. As soon as it was established that there was a deed clause calling for shared road maintenance costs, they had seen enough. The magistrate even said, ”I’m cutting you off there” when I tried to point out that no one wanted this work done in the first place. He refused to even listen to anything other than the deed clause. The so-called arbitrator listened very patiently to both sides, then mailed out a summary judgment, with no explanation, finding for the scammer. The arbitrator got his 100 dollar fee apparently with no work other than checking a box on a form. And guess what, now the scammer, emboldened by his legal success, has brazenly started on 2 new projects–to pave the road and to do “maintenance” that only he wants to a shared spring box. I don’t even use the spring (have my own well), but the scammer has already told me I have to pay anyway. Can’t wait to see the inflated, ridiculous costs for that one!