A road maintenance agreement template you can start from

Last reviewed: July 28, 2026

If you’re here mid-transaction — a lender just asked for a “recorded road maintenance agreement” and your road doesn’t have one — start with our PRMA explainer for why this document exists and what lenders look for. This page is the practical half: the clauses a Colorado private-road agreement needs, and a plain-text skeleton to take to an attorney. And that caveat is real, not boilerplate: this template is a starting point, not legal advice — have a Colorado real-estate attorney review anything before you sign or record it. An hour of attorney time on a document that binds your land forever is the best money your road group will spend.

The clause checklist

Lenders and future buyers read these agreements looking for specific answers. Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide (B4-1.3-04) spells out what it wants in an agreement for a privately maintained street: each party’s share of repair costs, remedies if a party defaults, and a term that is generally perpetual and binding on future owners — recorded in the land records. A complete agreement covers:

• Parties and parcels. Every owner whose access depends on the road, with the legal descriptions of their parcels — not just names and street addresses. New owners of those parcels are bound automatically if the agreement is recorded and written to run with the land.
• The road itself. What’s covered: the described road course (and the easement it sits in, cited by recording number if one exists), plus shared culverts, ditches, cattle guards, and signage if the group maintains them.
• The cost-share formula. Equal split, per-frontage, per-mile, or a blend — written as an actual formula, not “shared fairly.” Our cost-sharing guide walks the three formulas with worked examples so the group can pick one before the drafting meeting.
• The maintenance standard. What “maintained” means for your road: passable by ordinary passenger vehicle, graded so often, gravel replenished as needed, snow plowed above some depth. Vague standards are where neighbor disputes live.
• Decision rules. Who can authorize routine work, what vote larger projects need, and a dollar threshold separating the two — so one neighbor can’t unilaterally commission a $30,000 resurfacing, and routine grading doesn’t require a committee.
• Payment and default remedies. When shares are due, what happens when someone doesn’t pay (interest, cost recovery, lien rights where the law allows — attorney territory), and who may enforce. This is the clause that makes the agreement more than a wish, and the one Fannie Mae explicitly looks for.
• Records. Who keeps the money records and how owners can see them. A treasurer’s ledger that survives volunteer turnover is what makes the agreement work year after year.
• Amendment and term. How the owners can change the agreement (usually a supermajority, recorded the same way), and a perpetual term binding successors.
• Recording. The signed agreement gets recorded with the county clerk and recorder where the parcels sit. Unrecorded agreements have a way of not existing when a closing needs them. Counties have formatting and acknowledgment requirements for recorded documents — your attorney will prepare it to record cleanly.

Build your starting draft

Answer the questions your road group already knows the answers to, and the skeleton below fills itself in — ready to copy, print, and take to an attorney. The legal-judgment brackets stay brackets on purpose: those are the attorney’s calls, and this is a starting draft, never a finished document.

The same skeleton, plain

Prefer to work on paper? The unfilled version — copy it, fill the brackets, strike what doesn’t apply, and take it to an attorney. It deliberately stays simple — your road’s real terms go in the brackets.

PRIVATE ROAD MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT

This Agreement is made [DATE] by the undersigned owners of the parcels
described in Exhibit A (the "Owners"), each of which is served by the
private road known as [ROAD NAME], located in [COUNTY] County, Colorado,
and described in Exhibit B [legal description and/or recorded easement,
Reception No. ___] (the "Road").

1. PURPOSE. The Owners share the use of the Road and agree to share the
   cost of maintaining it as set out below. This Agreement runs with the
   land and binds the Owners and all successors in title to the parcels
   in Exhibit A.

2. SCOPE. "Maintenance" includes [grading, gravel, drainage and culvert
   work, snow removal, signage] and repair of damage from ordinary use
   and weather.

3. STANDARD. The Road shall be maintained so as to remain passable by
   ordinary passenger vehicle year-round, including [snow plowing when
   accumulation exceeds ___ inches / seasonal standard].

4. COST SHARES. Maintenance costs shall be divided among the parcels as
   follows: [equal shares per parcel / in proportion to road frontage
   per Exhibit C / in proportion to road distance traveled per Exhibit
   C]. Shares attach to parcels, not persons.

5. DECISIONS. Routine maintenance up to $[___] per project may be
   authorized by [the designated treasurer / any two Owners]. Projects
   above that amount require approval of [a majority / two-thirds] of
   the parcels, one vote per parcel.

6. PAYMENT; DEFAULT. Shares are due within [30] days of written notice.
   Unpaid shares accrue [interest / costs of collection] as allowed by
   law, and the Owners' remedies for nonpayment are [as the attorney
   advises for enforceability in Colorado].

7. RECORDS. A treasurer chosen by the Owners shall keep a roster,
   payment records, and an account of Road funds, available to any
   Owner on request.

8. AMENDMENT; TERM. This Agreement may be amended by recorded written
   agreement of [two-thirds] of the parcels. Its term is perpetual.

9. RECORDING. This Agreement shall be recorded with the Clerk and
   Recorder of [COUNTY] County, Colorado.

[SIGNATURE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT BLOCKS FOR EACH OWNER — prepared for
recording by counsel]

Exhibit A — Parcels and Owners [legal descriptions]
Exhibit B — Road description / easement reference
Exhibit C — Cost-share schedule [formula and current shares]

The step nobody should skip

Before the drafting meeting, agree on the cost-share formula — it’s the clause groups fight about, and it’s a math conversation, not a legal one. The cost-sharing guide shows a hypothetical six-house road computed all three ways so everyone can see what each formula means in dollars before anything gets drafted.

Want the editable version?

We’ll send the skeleton as an editable document, and we’re genuinely curious what your road needs — the form below asks about your road, and what we learn shapes the tool we’re building for road treasurers. If your group already has the agreement handled and it’s the dues and records that are a mess, that’s exactly what RoadDues is for. Either way: no hard sell, no drip campaign.