Menu
Log in
Forgot password
Log in
Forgot password

    



 

Maine Alliance for Road Associations

How to define who pays?

  • 20 Feb 2026 11:02 AM
    Quote
    Message # 13600371
    Anonymous member

    Hi everyone -- yes, this might have been discussed before. I'm a little new to the forums but, wow, what a great resource and I've had several questions answered. I have one specific one...

    We have about 30 residential addresses who pay into our association, all the same amount of money. But, let's say, one resident buys his neighboring property, now we only have 29 people paying. You can see where this is going...  

    Our association has never defined "who pays"... is it per driveway, per taxable lot, per owner, etc. 

    How have you all done this? Does anyone have specific language baked into your bylaws that specify what address gets a bill?
  • 20 Feb 2026 11:03 PM
    Quote
    Reply # 13600607 on 13600371
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    We have 100 properties, 65 with homes (on about 3 miles of road in Downeast Maine). We charge three different fees.

    one for an undeveloped property.

    one for a property with a home.

    one for a property with a home and adjoining undeveloped property. (We have several homes that have to have their septic systems on a different property)…(and a few that just didn’t want someone moving in next to them)… For these we set the property cost a little lower that that of just an undeveloped property.

    we have one duplex, we charge that as two homes.

    we charge the same for year round homes as summer homes. (Towns do not give summer homes a break on their property taxes).

    note that if you use the fixed rate fee you have to be careful it does not exceed the 1% of assessed value rate set by Maine state law.

    this has worked for us for 25 years. But personally I think setting fees like the towns do (a percentage of assessed value) would work better. When in doubt i alway ask, “what does my town do?” And that gives me a strong starting point to work from that our members can understand. And it helps to make the rules less arbitrary.
  • 21 Feb 2026 10:41 AM
    Quote
    Reply # 13600696 on 13600371
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Our association struggled with this issue when we first formed, because we had a couple of developers who owned multiple lots.  It occurred to us that if we charged them per lot, we would also have to give them one vote per lot.  So we opted for charging per owner.  Eventually all the lots were sold to separate owners, giving us an increase in the number of paying members.  We have also had a few people who bought an adjacent lot so as to have more privacy, and we only charge them one fee.  After all, they are only putting one home's worth of wear and tear on the road.  I do know of one road association that only charges one fee in such situations so long as there is only one dwelling on the two adjacent lots.  But if one person owned two lots that were not adjacent, I think it would be fair to charge a second fee for the second lot.  If the association's fee schedule has one rate for a developed lot and a different rate for an undeveloped lot, that would also be taken into consideration.  And as the other person commented, don't forget that member fees are limited to no more than 1% of a lot's municipal property valuation each year.  Our member fee is set at $300 per lot, but we have several small undeveloped lots which, up until last year's revaluation, were valued at less than $30,000.  They were charged just 1% of whatever their valuation was until they reached the $300 mark.

                            The Maine Alliance for Road Associations


Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software