I want to place an electric gate at the beginning of a private road that goes thru my property. I am responsible for the upkeep and maintena...

Question

I want to place an electric gate at the beginning of a private road that goes thru my property. I am responsible for the upkeep and maintenance on the part that goes thru my property. It is currently being used by the public without permission. Can I place the gate and give my neighbors a code to get in. Does this constitute an obstruction for them? All my neighbors are for it except one who is the very last house on the road. She is very uncooperative and is the one allowing people to access state property from the road and refuses to help with the maintenance.

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer

You should consult an attorney in person about this. There are more facts that would need to be known before a positive answer can be given for your problem, but I will give you what information I can.

If a road is a private road owned by you, you can legally block it off. In fact, there are many instances where you SHOULD do that, as allowing the public to use it without objection over the years could cause the road to become public, or give private users a right to use it over your objections.

There may be more going on. When a developer or person who sudivides a parcel of land subdivides a lot, he cannot landlock any of the subdivided lots. In other words, each lot MUST have access to a public road. If these other landlowners have no other access to any public roads, you MAY have to grant them the right to use the road as well.

Even in that instance, you may still be able to gate the road over the other users' objections and/or gate it and not allow anyone to use it but you. The issue will be very fact intensive and you really should consult a local attorney about it ASAP.