Advice on starting a road maintenance fund?

What is your estimate to repair the road? Your return on a few grand isn't going to be much in a low volatility fund, very little in a savings and risky in an equity.


I think your best bet is get 3 estimates and set a timeline for the 4 houses living on the road. If the quote comes in at $4800, ask that everyone on the street have $1200 ready by Nov 1 or some predetermined date

How is the road owned? Does each family own a portion of the road? Is the road subject to some sort of common easement? Is the road part of each family's property?

I can think of a few options:

1) Set up an LLC, make each family a member of the LLC, and get an LLC account to handle everything. However, for the amount we are talking, it might not be worth that.

2) Talk to an escrow company and see if they can set up some sort of account for you, in which the company bills each family, and there is some sort of agreement required to expend funds.

3) Have someone pay for the entire repair, with notes signed by the other families to repay the monies.

I must say, it kind of sucks that you have concerns that your neighbors would either steal the money or not contribute their fair share.

Yes. Everyone agrees something should and needs to be done.

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Set up an HOA

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While you certainly don't need to set up an HOA, you can borrow the idea of "monthly dues" from the HOA model. $2K is a big chunk of change at once for many households...so figure it as a one-time maintenance fee and split it into monthly installments for anyone who can't/won't write the whole check at once. Make 'em sign a promissory note as well.

Unless this $8K expense is expected to be an annual one, you don't want to bother with setting up a maintenance account. It sounds like you've already appointed yourself as project steward, so now you're going to have to collect the funds.

BUT, be prepared for others to give input into how their money is spent. One may want to give the job to his brother in law, another may want different size/color gravel. If they're ponying up equal shares, then they should have equal say in how the job is done. Which brings up the issue of how the costs are shared: does the guy who lives at the front of the road have to pay an equal amount as the guy who lives at the end? Doesn't seem fair to me.