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Hi
I live in the southern zone and in our community the road maintenance is not covered by the municipality and is paid for voluntarily by property owners every year.
Different roads have separate people in charge of gathering funds and overseeing the contractors.
There seems to be an increasing amount of deadbeat landowners to the point where there weren’t enough funds to complete the annual maintenance this year.
This has led to hard feelings and broken friendships in some cases.
I’m wondering how other communities deal with this and am seeking ideas for solutions.
If it were part of the annual property tax one would think that it would resolve this issue, but then again chances are that there would be a ridiculous increase a la Costa Rica.
How is this dealt with in your neighborhood?
Haven’t run into this in CR but we were on a privately maintained road in upstate NY.
We handled it with a contract drawn among the people on the road binding us to meet annually and pay a portion of the cost of maintenance.
At the meeting, we also discussed and voted on road improvements costs of which were assessed per property.
The contract provided for recovery of funds if the property owner did not pay the assessed amount. We all signed the contracts when we bought the properties.
In your case, you would have to have current owners agree to a new contract – that is going to be problematic.
Good Luck.
We have had to maintain the roads inside our community to the tune of many thousands of dollars. The first serious road work required a per household contribution of anywhere from $700 to $475 per household. During the time that we spent nearly $7000 to do our section of the road, I didn’t even own a car, nor did two of my other neighbors, yet we pitched in to maintain our property values. Our contribution was pro-rated based on how much of the road we would’ve had to drive on if we HAD cars. The minor road repairs we have had to do also required a per household contribution of anywhere from $50 down to $14.00 per house. The last time we had to put down some lastre to fill in the big potholes on the entrada, the required contribution was $14.00 per house. Everyone paid except two households, and I got stuck with the extra fees. I’m hoping at some point those neighbors cough up their fair contribution, but I am not going to make a big deal out of it. I just won’t kick in the extra dough the next time we need to have something done.
My experience for our primary residence more with construction deals rather than maintenance. As we were building our house I was asked by our neighbor (lead guy in a group of 7 lot owners) if wanted to share in the costs of paving (concrete, 7m wide) the access road to our gated entrance (sorry Sprite!). Of course I said yes, even though several others along the way said no even though they knew thay would greatly benefit from it.
Anyway, I paid my share (over $6,000 USD) and consider it some of the best $$ I spent in the development of my property. Every time that I drive up that road, I really appreciate the opportunity that I was given to participate.The problem in collecting off-property maintenance fees for what would be considered common areas in a residential development arises when the residential development is not a true Condominium, registered as such in the National Registry and administered according to the Condominium Law. In residential developments which are not registered Condominiums (may look and try to behave as one), it is deemed to be unconstitutional (CR Constitution Art. 45) for a HOA to try and enforce the payment of common area expenses, such as road maintenance. Only registered Condominiums have the legal right to collect such expenses from the various condominium lot owners, through the delegated authority given to the Condominium Administrator provided by an owner at the time of the condominium lot purchase. The Condominium Law provides for a scheme to collect such expenses from the various condominium lot owners, with penalties for non-payment, including foreclosure, if necessary.Note from Scott: ‘Watchdog’ is the username for my friend and attorney Richard (Rick) Philps who is a Canadian citizen, naturalized as a citizen of Costa Rica. Rick practiced law in Canada as a member of the Law Society of British Columbia, for fourteen years, prior to moving to Costa Rica in 1998. Mr. Philps the earned his Bachelor of Laws and Licensing Degrees (Civil Law), and a Post-Graduate Degree in Notary and Registry Law, from the Mtropolitana Castro Carazo and Escuela Libre de Derecho Universities, in San Jose, is a member of the Costa Rica College of Lawyers, and practices law in Costa Rica in the areas of real estate and development, corporate, commercial, contract, immigration, and banking with the Law Firm of Petersen & Philps. To speak with Attorney Rick Philps about hiring him as your Costa Rica Attorney, please contact him using the information below:
Lic. Rick Philps – Attorney at Law, Petersen & Philps, San Jose, Costa Rica Tel: 506-2288-4381, Ext. 102; Email: rphilps@plawcr.com; Website: http://www.plawcr.comIf the road is a “Calle Publica” and it gives access to several homes, then the local municipality is responsible for the road maintenance. However, often they play stupid and say there is no money for materials, or the truck is broken. In any case, all the neighbors should go to the municipality and file a complaint (in Tilaran it is the secretary of the Alcalde who has the forms). Complain every 3 months until they start doing something about it. They will not build a paved highway but at least something to be used by car and to walk on without breaking your ankles.
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