Often times easement agreements specifically state who is responsible for maintaining the easement and how those costs will be shared. The easement agreement for Heck Hill only gives each of us the right to access over each others lots... no mention about maintenance of the common roadway.
Just because we don't have an easement agreement that spells out specifically how the maintenance of our driveway will be done, it does not mean that one or two owners can put their head in the sand and contend that nothing should be done.
We all benefit in having a road that is well maintained... and since we all share in the benefit there is an implied obligation that we all share in the cost to keep it in good shape. That is just part of being a good neighbour in this small community.
The red pin head shows where Heck Hill is... 696 feet above sea level.
We see many ferries every day... sometimes two or three at once.
The locations of homes, garages and driveways are only approximate.
This subdivision was completed in the mid 1980's and 6 of the 7 lots have permanent homes.
Unfortunately, the developer set up the subdivision using an easement road instead of dedicating the road to the district... and failed to specify how the maintenance would be dealt with. It has been a problem to even get all the owners to come to a meeting or respond to letters about the need for road maintenance. The majority want a well maintained common driveway. But what can be done about the dissenters? Do they get rewarded with a free ride for their "I don't care" attitude?
Chronology of Events and Documents (click on any of the links below to open original document)
1. On February 28, 2002 we closed on the purchase of our home at 455 Heck Hill.
2. Spring 2004 With no apparent work done on the road since 1997 and the ruts were getting pretty bad I spent most of two days with my tractor to get the road back into shape.
3. Late Spring 2006 Spent most of three days filling ruts, regrading crown and cleaning out the ditch from top to bottom. I thought why not just pave this road and cut out the ruts forever.
4. September 6, 2006 Obtained estimate from Vancouver Island Paving to do Heck Hill, cost $92,220.
5. Late Spring 2007 Called owners to attend meeting at our home to discuss road maintenance. Most owners were present except for Hugh and Terry Harvey... and Jack Ward sent his brother-in-law Tom Higgs in his place... since Jack and his wife Shirley live in Bermuda most of the time and were in the process of building their home here. The majority did not want paving. Recycled asphalt was mentioned as a possible solution. Some form of gravel seemed to win the day... but no decision was made.
6. In 2007 Richard Lucas paid $400 to have a tree service trim low branches hanging over the right of way and brushing on passing vehicles.
7. Spring 2008 Richard Lucas told me that the ruts were getting deep again and he had a good deal on getting a couple of loads of gravel at $400 per truck load. He put one load on his personal easement driveway off of the main road and the other to fill in ruts on the lower section of the road below his intersection and Tinker Road. He spent considerable tractor time to get that gravel worked into the road base as initially it was like marbles on top of the road. In the end it made a great base... but during the process of getting it worked into ruts several neighbours grumbled about him doing it.
8. During 2008 and 2009 Sherwin & Shirley did a lot of work to clear the right of way, removing smaller trees and salal on the upper half of the road that filled the ditches to widen the road. All prunings were taken home and burned.
9. Fall 2009 I brought 9 loads of Crushed Screened Gravel to our portion of the common road. We like to walk for exercise and wanted to get rid of the mud and walk on clean gravel. We got positive comments from neighbours.
10. Did a cost comparison of having truckers bring crushed gravel from Victoria. Got three bids.
- Matt Taylor could bring 12 yard load... cost $70 per yard delivered.
- Fred Bennett could bring 25 yards... cost $67.20 per yard delivered
- Michell Excavating (Victoria) 30 yard load... cost $61.30 per yard delivered
Those prices were good at the time given... but since then both the cost of gravel and the cost to transport on the ferry have increased consideribly.
11. 2010 We liked the result of the newly gravelled road so much we just kept on bringing gravel back from Victoria every trip to town and kept moving down the hill one load at a time. I can bring 1.5 yards at a time and at contractor price the material cost me $28.56/ yard. If we donated our time of getting it and unloading it and added only the ferry cost to each yard we could bring the gravel to Mayne Island for $50.00 per yard... which is about 20% cheaper than the least costly trucker charges.
12. Hubert stopped to talk me one day as I was unloading a load and suggested I should put a proposal together and circulate it to the owners... probably end of July 2010.
13. September 3, 2010 Heck Hill Community Road Maintenance Proposal I drafted this proposal and circulated it to all owners and and three of the seven property owners were immediately onside supporting the proposal. A fourth owner paid up in the Spring of 2011. There were several who gave me feed back... and I received it all with thanks. Gary O'Bray initially told me he was on side with the proposal... but would never sign and return his commitment. Later he told me he could not afford this kind of expense and did not feel since his home fronts onto Tinker that he should have to contribute to maintain a road he seldom uses. He said he feels he has already contributed a lot since a large chunk of the easement road is taken out of his property while several others have not given any of their land for right of way. Further he said he only has a part time job and there was no way he could come up with that kind of money.
I respected his viewpoint and felt it better to divide the maintenance expense by six owners instead of seven. It was pointed out that both Lucas and Eckhardt were to be responsible for their driveway from the main easement road... so I made that correction to the first draft.
14. January 14, 2011 Revised Heck Hill Community Road Maintenance Proposal
This draft reflected all the refinements needed with costs divided between six property owners. The bottom line will cost each property $2071 and that includes $674 for extra gravel to do future touch ups to the road. Richard Lucas said he would take care of maintaining the lower half of the road from his intersection if I would do the upper half.
15. To date no serious work has been done on Harvey's portion of the easement. Whenever I have approached them to talk about about it they don't want to even discuss it... and they have told me very emphatically that they do not want me to enter their property past their gate... and that they will take care of the maintenance of that section of the road. However, to date the ruts still run down the road and the water continues to flow in the ruts to the bottom. Except for a few pails of gravel that Pat Reilly brought in to partly fill the worst of the ruts, I am not aware of any work done to improve this part of the common driveway. Pat Reilly owns the last property on the common roadway and he could not stand the lack of maintenance on that rough piece of road so he did what he could on his own... but he is looking forward to getting that last section of road brought up to the standard of the rest of Heck Hill. The Reilly's will one day want to build their home, and have questioned if a concrete ready-mix truck or large delivery trucks could make it up that last leg of the road.
15. To date no serious work has been done on Harvey's portion of the easement. Whenever I have approached them to talk about about it they don't want to even discuss it... and they have told me very emphatically that they do not want me to enter their property past their gate... and that they will take care of the maintenance of that section of the road. However, to date the ruts still run down the road and the water continues to flow in the ruts to the bottom. Except for a few pails of gravel that Pat Reilly brought in to partly fill the worst of the ruts, I am not aware of any work done to improve this part of the common driveway. Pat Reilly owns the last property on the common roadway and he could not stand the lack of maintenance on that rough piece of road so he did what he could on his own... but he is looking forward to getting that last section of road brought up to the standard of the rest of Heck Hill. The Reilly's will one day want to build their home, and have questioned if a concrete ready-mix truck or large delivery trucks could make it up that last leg of the road.
16. Over the past three years we have seen the cost of gravel increase considerably as well the ferry costs have been sneaking up. When I went to get another load of crushed screenings what used to cost me $42.84 for 1.5 yards now costs over $70.00 for the same amount... with contractor discount. So it makes me feel grateful to have our road maintenance done before the prices hiked up.
17. I have sent statements to everyone for their portion of the costs as per the revised budget and as of November 8, 2013 all have paid their share except for one. Since no costs have been spent on Harvey's section I am not out anything for that section... but Reilly rightfully expects that piece of the road should be brought up to the same standard as the rest… and he has paid in good faith it would be completed and maintained as the rest of the road is being done.
In September 2012 Harvey's have listed their property for sale and their realtor has prepared an excellent video to help market it. There is no mention that I could find about the property being serviced by a private driveway or an easement road. Unless this gets brought to their attention, another innocent purchaser will not find out about the easement driveway until they are signing papers at the lawyers... that's what happened to us. Not good. I guess that is why they say, "Buyer Beware."
If you know of any similar situations, any precedents, anything that might help out our situation, please share your thoughts with me. My name is Sherwin Goerlitz... email is csgoerlitz@gmail.com
If you know of any similar situations, any precedents, anything that might help out our situation, please share your thoughts with me. My name is Sherwin Goerlitz... email is csgoerlitz@gmail.com
