Private Road Maintenance Agreements in Potomac, MD

You found the house. It sits back off the road on a wooded lot in Potomac, down a lane you share with three neighbors. The listing is beautiful. Then your lender emails asking for the "road maintenance agreement," the appraiser flags the access as private, and suddenly a deal that felt done has a new hurdle. This is one of the most common surprises buyers hit on larger-lot homes in Montgomery County — and it's almost always solvable if you catch it early.

Here's what a private road maintenance agreement is, why it matters to your loan, and exactly what to verify before you write the offer.

What a Private Road Maintenance Agreement Actually Does

A private road maintenance agreement is a recorded contract among the owners who share a private road, lane, or long shared driveway. It spells out who pays for what — paving, pothole repair, snow removal, drainage, tree clearing — and how those costs get divided. It also creates a legal path to collect if a neighbor refuses to chip in.

Montgomery County does not maintain private roads. The county plows and repairs public streets, but the moment you turn onto a private lane, upkeep is on the owners who use it. Many of the wooded, larger-lot homes in Potomac, North Potomac, and the older pockets of Bethesda sit on exactly this kind of access. Some have a homeowners association that handles the road. Many don't — and that's where the agreement comes in.

The agreement matters for two reasons. First, it protects you from a $12,000 repaving bill landing in your lap because there's no framework for splitting it. Second — and this is the part that catches buyers off guard — your lender may require one before it will fund the loan.

How Lenders Treat Private Roads in Montgomery County

Every loan type handles private access a little differently, and the differences can decide your deal:

• Conventional (Fannie Mae): Generally requires a recorded road maintenance agreement — or evidence the road is maintained by an HOA. If neither exists, you may need the sharing owners to sign and record one before closing.
• Conventional (Freddie Mac): Does not require a formal agreement, but does require evidence of adequate maintenance — typically a recorded permanent easement giving you legal access, or HOA maintenance.
• FHA: Doesn't mandate a maintenance agreement, but requires a recorded permanent easement or right-of-way and evidence the road is maintained.
• VA: As of late 2022, no longer requires an ongoing maintenance agreement. It focuses on a recorded permanent easement and all-weather access the appraiser confirms.
• USDA: Requires permanent, recorded access and generally a maintenance arrangement.

The practical takeaway: two buyers can look at the same Potomac home and get different answers depending on their loan. If a conventional Fannie Mae loan hits a wall because there's no agreement, sometimes the fix is switching to a Freddie Mac product or restructuring — not walking away. That's a conversation to have with your lender the day the private access shows up, not the week before closing.

What to Check Before You Write the Offer

The goal is to know what you're buying into before you're emotionally and financially committed. Work through this list with your agent:

1. Is there a recorded easement? You need a legal, recorded right to use the road — not just a handshake or "everyone's always driven on it." A gap here shows up in your Maryland title search, so order it early. Recorded access is separate from, and sometimes tangled up with, easements affecting the property.
2. Does a maintenance agreement already exist? Ask the seller and their agent directly. If one exists, read it: how are costs split, who enforces it, is there a reserve for big repairs?
3. Who actually maintains the road today? An HOA, an informal group of neighbors, or nobody? "Nobody" is a yellow flag, not a dealbreaker.
4. What condition is the road and drainage in? Walk it. A private lane that floods or has a failing culvert can mean an assessment soon after you move in.
5. Does the seller disclose it? Maryland's Residential Property Disclosure should surface shared-access and maintenance obligations. Read what the seller says — and what they leave blank.

If the home is on a private lane, there's a good chance it also relies on a private well and septic system — another layer of Potomac due diligence worth handling in the same inspection window. The same is true for homes on raw or newly split lots; if you're buying land to build, recorded access is one of the first things to nail down.

What If No Agreement Exists?

This is the most common situation on older Potomac lanes: the road has been there for decades, everyone uses it, and nobody has ever put anything in writing. It's fixable, but it takes lead time. Creating a private road maintenance agreement means getting the sharing owners to agree on cost-sharing terms, having an attorney draft it, and recording it in the Montgomery County land records — often with a metes-and-bounds description of the easement prepared by a surveyor.

That process can take a few weeks and requires cooperation from neighbors who may have no reason to hurry. If your loan requires the agreement, build the timeline into your contract. The worst outcome is discovering on day 25 of a 30-day close that you need three neighbors' signatures and a recorded document. Catching it during your inspection and financing contingency period is the difference between a smooth close and a scramble for an extension.

Costs, Snow, and the Neighbor Factor

Living on a private road buys you privacy, quiet, and often a larger, more secluded lot. It also comes with real costs and coordination.

Budget for it. Seasonal snow removal on a private lane can run several hundred to a couple thousand dollars a season depending on length and how many owners share it. Repaving is the big one — asphalt work on a shared lane can reach five figures, split among the users. A well-written agreement with a small reserve fund turns those surprises into predictable line items.

Then there's the human part. On a private road, your neighbors are also your co-owners of infrastructure. When the road needs work, you need enough agreement to get it done. Most of the time this is smooth. But if you're buying into a lane with no agreement and neighbors who've never formalized anything, understand that you may be the one who ends up organizing it — sometimes as a condition of your own financing.

None of this should scare you off a great home. Private-road properties are some of the most desirable in Potomac and North Potomac for a reason. The point is to go in with eyes open, verify the paperwork, and price the ongoing costs into your decision. That's exactly the kind of due diligence I walk buyers through before we write the offer — so the road never becomes the reason the deal falls apart.

If you're weighing a home on a private road or shared driveway in Bethesda, Potomac, or anywhere in Montgomery County, I'm happy to help you read the access, the easement, and the numbers before you commit. Reach out anytime.

About Pey Behin

Pey Behin is a residential real estate agent serving the Washington, DC metro area, with a focus on Bethesda, Montgomery County, and Northern Virginia. He works with buyers and sellers who want clear strategy, data-driven pricing, and direct guidance throughout the transaction process.