Seems to me, “reasonable” access to a house out in the boonies would be open to intetpretation, claims of “due diligence” before signing the lease, etc.
The LL is lawyered up, and OP presumably isn’t. Even if in the right, it could be a big PITA to prove this.
I’d salt the road, save receipts, and put the balance in escrow account.
@Bing
The driveway is not a mile long. It’s a road to the house. The road is his right of way and the association is responsible for road maintenance…not the landlord. Again, the landlord is responsible for paying his dues to the association. That is all ! In most associations the land lord is restricted from doing road maintenance in the same way you are on a street. Yes, it is similar in these respects to paying taxes on a public way off your property. That’s why association are legally set up; to provide insulation from liability like this.
Is your road association informal, incorporated or statutory ? Because, if it’s informal, everything is different and it may depend upon the lease language… I gurantee this. No one is going to get involved other then what OP can bring to bear In a civil suit. You keep saying the landlord is responsible and advising OP to give ultimatums and walk away. Are you going to pay OPs legal cost when they get sued or a lien is put on thier estate because they couldn’t answer the suit ? Because, no law can compel the association to give more maintence then they are legally required by their association rules. And, Neither can the landlord compel them. And, if we don’t know the lease language, the association rules and the property lines, our advise is quite limited.
As they say in Minnesota, “whatever”.
That’s precisely the point, that the HOA is not about to do anything different, therefore the landlord cannot provide a leasable property to tenants. If he can’t provide access, he can’t rent the property. That’s all. Most lawyers will provide a 30 minute consultation and for $50 can have a letter written that complies with Montana law. Doesn’t have to be a federal case but makes no sense to not be able to get a standard vehicle to your house.
Check out constructive eviction here
Hopefully that will help.
I STILL think “acessible” is contingent upon a lot of stuff we don’t know. Is this in the 'burbs, ot something more akin to hunting lodge territory? If the latter, the inacessibility falls under the concept of “kinda the point!”
All the other residents seem “cool” with the arrangement, which gives pause, unless the road ONLY serves OP. Without more knowledge, I’d at least consider the out-of-towner might be more risk-averse in snow than the average Montanian that would decide a dispute.
My personal prejudice would be “due diligence should have been exercised prior to signing,” just like someone moving into a house 1 mile west of an airport runway.
If you put the $$ in escrow, there’s at least half a chance LL says, “ah, heck with it.”
Okay, so I called Fair Housing. They said the road is a dead issue for me. Then I called Montana Legal Services and they said the same thing. Last resort is an attorney.
Sorry, I referred to cables as chains. Bad habit. I used to put them on my car long ago when driving over highway 80 from Nevada into CA. The Sunfire’s tires are rather small and I am not sure regular chains would work? Or if I could find the right size?
This summer, some shady bunch of trucks and a tracker showed up, no warning or notice to me and began digging the whole thing up, (grading?) and then flattening, etc. Dumping more dirt on top. We couldn’t get out. My daughter tried going down in the Sunfire and her sidewall of the tire was sliced right open. Never seen anything like that. It was a fairly new tire. I walked down (swearing) and got the car in a semi-level ditch area and changed to the spare. Luckily Walmart replaced the slashed tire because it was under warranty.
I was so mad though. The road crew had churned up so much sharp rock, it was crazy. Again, I had no warning or knowledge this was going to take place.
There is one other road out, but you have to drive way around and then down and it’s steeper than my road. And the road crew was working on that road at the same time as my road. I called the Property Manager and was so angry. She was surprised and didn’t know what to do.
I’m not lawyer-ed up. I could afford to seek advice, but not take action. I’m a single mom with an autistic kid. Living on 20 acres is great for him. The road is the big problem. It’s not really my ‘driveway’, my actual driveway leads off the road. My driveway is still sort of long but we manage okay.
So for now my house is listed for rent. They (owners) said I can get out of the lease but I still have to pay the rent. (Lame.) No takers yet. Doubt any will appear until spring.
Yes the Bronco has ABS. Didn’t think the rubber would be too tough. I will think about saving up for studded tires - but as I was looking at my tires the other day, they have the little holes on the treads. Like they were studdable. Doesn’t that mean the rubber is somewhat softer than regular tires?
Have thought about having my daughter sit in the back of the Bronc and throw out salt and other stuff along the worst parts of the road. If Walmart can put down gobs of red stuff all over the parking lot, why can’t the HOA get a clue and throw down something, at the very least on the steepest and curvy sections? Certainly someone can afford it up here, the houses are mammoth (not mine) and fancy trucks and cars come and go all the time.
There are also narrow and deep little ditches all along the road. If two big cars are trying to pass, it isn’t possible without someone hitting the ditch, or pausing until one goes by. In the snow, it is hard to tell where the road and the ditch meet up. Lawsuit waiting to happen? Probably not. There are signs posted at the bottom of all this fun that says ‘travel at your own risk’. Kicking myself I ignored that and signed the lease.
Oh, one other thing. The heater system is filled with mouse excrement. So I never turned it on. I told the prop manager upon moving in. Nothing was done about it. I must admit I was more anxious to use the pellet stove, which I did. But now I can’t. Due to bad asthma. It seems to spew out so much crud, the house is coated in grey and black dust constantly. So, I could fill out a legal form, telling the owners they need to fix the heating or I am moving in 30 days. My guess is they might hire some lowly jerk (as in the past) to come out and inspect the heating but really not do much or say it is fixed. It might be a way out of my lease but a tricky one. Honestly my worries are more about what to do with our cars and this road. But if the heating issue the only way…
It seems like a very unhealthy situation. You should not have been put into this situation and need to live in a more protected environment. I would focus on getting out of the lease with the heating issue. I know that’s easy for me to say because I’m not a renter, but moving out and into a more friendly environment will be more expensive on one end and less on another. Your continued health problems will cost much more in the long run. I have no easy answers here being more of a car and road guy then some one who knows anything about your heating and legal situation. I only know that on the health issue alone, I would do anything I could to move.
I would recommend that in this effort, you keep track of all of your expenses related to the road, car expenses related to the road, legal fees, health issues and heating expenses. It seems as far as the cars are concerned, that is the acute problem. Snow tires should help but will not solve your problem with the incapable fwd car. At least after a move, it will still be a worthwhile investment.
Cables can actually be better then snow tires though they may not be quite as good as true chains. You can still use cables over winter tires too. But, using them on front wheels coming down hill could spin you out of control so put them on all four wheels if you are willing, would be best. Stay with cables you have as that may be all that will fit on your compact car and don’t reinvest with chains. Cables are a satisfactory substitute for chains in national parks, so they must work decently. That they don’t work for you, tells you how ineffective fwd cars are on your road. I would not think about adding studs to used tires. Your MT tires may be the old style that depend upon studs for ice and not soft rubber. So no, it does not mean they are soft. It is just old tech used to make MT tires more capable as winters on ice… It is too late for you to add studs.
Can the state or local services provide an advocate to help advise you on your other ongoing issues ?
Added thoughts…temporarily…
If you had a neighbor at the bottom of the hill that would let you leave the Sunbird there and plug it in for a small fee, that would be great. You could perhaps chain/ cable up the Bronco for the worse weather to convey you back and forth from that spot. We did that for our road when the road was real bad during heavy snow and spring mud before we fixed the road up. We just used the truck to get us in and out about a mile and the car ( a Subaru) to go to work for my wife. That tells how bad our road was as even a Subaru with mud and snow tires couldn’t get in. Ground clearance is a big issue with compact cars too. So regardless of what you do for traction with respect to winter tires and cables, you can do nothing about that !
Yes, grading does churn up rocks but it is necessary to crown the road. I do that on our road but rake the heavy rocks off after grading. They obviously are not that caring…compact cars don’t do well on that stuff either. It’s the nature of living on dirt roads. They are truck territory most of the year.
dagosa - thank you for all the advice. I am keeping notes. I going to exhaust all avenues to try and move. There are no homes at the bottom of the hill. Maybe some people over and beyond though. I see it rained all night and now it’s turning to snow and we are expecting double digit subzero temps. So a nice set up for the same problems again.