"Owning" a private road

Cal-to-NH · 03-05-2023, 05:41 PM

Since this has come up twice now in 3 years, I am willing to bet that others have experienced this weird thing?

3 years ago one of my neighbors met a guy at the Bob House who said he had been the original owner of my private road and that he still "owns the road". You need to know the original plan for the road was 1972. He warned us that before anyone does anything, we have to "check it out with him." As it turns out, he lives in Wisconsin and has a house in Center Harbor, and we know there's a lot of water-under-the-bridge since 1972. A short time later a friend of mine who lives on a similar street less than a mile from my street told me there's a person (another out-of-stater from that state south of us where Elizabeth Warren lives) who claims that he "owns" my friend's road as well. His road was more like 1978... Neither of our private roads have an "owner" of the private road on the town GIS Tax maps.

Intrigued by this I talked to a town official (protecting the innocent, here) who would surely know something about this. This is how things go up here according to them - When a development is filed with a private road with sellable lots, the whole thing - including the road - is owned by someone or some entity. They continue to "own the road" until 51% of the lots are sold to others. At that time, the road is communally owned by the collective owners of the lots on the street. When every lot is purchased, you technically own your lot and half-way across your private road and the owner across the street from you owns their half of the road. He emphatically said this guy does not own the road. Made sense to me...
Talked to one of the Selectmen and he put it to me a much simpler way. He said "Anyone who claims they own property in New Hampshire but does not pay taxes on that property surely does not own it". That also made sense to me...

At a town meeting some years ago, I want to say the number of private roads in Moultonborough was said to be somewhere around 300 (or maybe even 400). When you add the private roads in the other towns then we are talking about a very large number, and of course I am not talking about the many private roads that clearly has one owner who owns the whole thing with a solitary house on it.

QUESTION 1 - There are many of us in this forum that live on a private road. Has anyone encountered anything like this and what are your thoughts? Does some out-of-stater chucklehead claim he owns your private road that's 50+ years old with all lots owned by others?
QUESTION 2 - More important question - Does anyone have any kind of case law summary on this "I own the road" stuff? Or even know the law or laws that apply here?

Is this simply a matter of someone not knowing that there is a transition-point on private road ownership, and since they originally owned the whole thing, they now by their definition still own the road itself since that was never "sold" like the lots were?

03-05-2023, 05:41 PM	#1
Cal-to-NH Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Moultonborough Posts: 100 Thanks: 11 Thanked 48 Times in 23 Posts	"Owning" a private road Since this has come up twice now in 3 years, I am willing to bet that others have experienced this weird thing? 3 years ago one of my neighbors met a guy at the Bob House who said he had been the original owner of my private road and that he still "owns the road". You need to know the original plan for the road was 1972. He warned us that before anyone does anything, we have to "check it out with him." As it turns out, he lives in Wisconsin and has a house in Center Harbor, and we know there's a lot of water-under-the-bridge since 1972. A short time later a friend of mine who lives on a similar street less than a mile from my street told me there's a person (another out-of-stater from that state south of us where Elizabeth Warren lives) who claims that he "owns" my friend's road as well. His road was more like 1978... Neither of our private roads have an "owner" of the private road on the town GIS Tax maps. Intrigued by this I talked to a town official (protecting the innocent, here) who would surely know something about this. This is how things go up here according to them - When a development is filed with a private road with sellable lots, the whole thing - including the road - is owned by someone or some entity. They continue to "own the road" until 51% of the lots are sold to others. At that time, the road is communally owned by the collective owners of the lots on the street. When every lot is purchased, you technically own your lot and half-way across your private road and the owner across the street from you owns their half of the road. He emphatically said this guy does not own the road. Made sense to me... Talked to one of the Selectmen and he put it to me a much simpler way. He said "Anyone who claims they own property in New Hampshire but does not pay taxes on that property surely does not own it". That also made sense to me... At a town meeting some years ago, I want to say the number of private roads in Moultonborough was said to be somewhere around 300 (or maybe even 400). When you add the private roads in the other towns then we are talking about a very large number, and of course I am not talking about the many private roads that clearly has one owner who owns the whole thing with a solitary house on it. QUESTION 1 - There are many of us in this forum that live on a private road. Has anyone encountered anything like this and what are your thoughts? Does some out-of-stater chucklehead claim he owns your private road that's 50+ years old with all lots owned by others? QUESTION 2 - More important question - Does anyone have any kind of case law summary on this "I own the road" stuff? Or even know the law or laws that apply here? Is this simply a matter of someone not knowing that there is a transition-point on private road ownership, and since they originally owned the whole thing, they now by their definition still own the road itself since that was never "sold" like the lots were?