Private Road Maintenance Disputes for Ontario Cottage Owners

Private roads are common near cottages, and so are arguments about them. One owner wants the road plowed in March, another does not use the cottage in winter, and a washout leaves everyone asking who should pay.

The answer usually starts with paper: a road agreement, an association's rules, or wording in your deed. This article explains how to find those documents, what the Road Access Act and long-use rules can mean for a private road, and how to approach a dispute. The specific amounts and enforcement steps for your road depend on your documents, so a lawyer can confirm them.

Start with the paper trail

There is no single rule that every cottage on a private road must share costs equally. Your obligations depend on what was agreed and what is registered. Look for these documents:

• Your deed and the parcel register, which may refer to a right-of-way or a road agreement.
• Any road maintenance agreement, association by-laws or minutes showing past cost-sharing.
• Reserve or reference plans showing the road and who is entitled to use it.
• Invoices and payment records for past plowing and repairs.
• Emails or letters showing what owners agreed to, even informally.

If you are unsure whether an agreement binds you or a new buyer, ask a lawyer. Informal arrangements are harder to enforce than written, registered ones.

Is it really a private road?

Some roads near lakes and rivers are not purely private. A shore road allowance is a strip one chain (66 feet) wide set aside in the 1800s for public roads. Inside a municipality, road allowances are under the municipality's jurisdiction unless legally stopped up and sold. In unorganized territory, road allowances and Crown-dedicated roads are under the Minister of Natural Resources.

That matters because the status of the road decides who has jurisdiction over it. What that means for repairs on your particular road depends on the facts, so it is worth confirming with a lawyer. Ask the municipality in writing how it classifies the road.

Entrances also matter. A permit from the Ministry of Transportation is needed to build a new entrance onto a provincial highway or to upgrade or change an existing one within MTO Controlled Areas, and entrance permits do not pass with title, so a buyer must apply to validate an existing entrance. Permits for municipal or county road entrances come from the municipality under its own by-laws.

Access roads and the Road Access Act

Under the Road Access Act, an access road is a privately owned road that is not a public highway and serves as a motor-vehicle route to one or more parcels. A landowner generally cannot close such a road without a court order, apart from limited listed exceptions.

• A judge may grant a closing order only if closing the road is reasonably necessary to prevent substantial damage or injury to the applicant's interests, or for some other purpose in the public interest.
• A closing order does not decide whether the road is a public highway.
• The owner may close an access road for one period of no more than 24 hours a year to prevent prescriptive rights from being acquired.

For a maintenance dispute, this means one owner cannot usually gate the road to pressure others to pay. That conflict is better handled through the agreement, negotiation or a lawyer's advice.

Rights acquired through long use

Sometimes an owner uses a neighbour's road for years with no written right. An easement can be acquired by prescription through 20 years of continuous, uninterrupted, open and peaceful use as of right, meaning the owner knowingly put up with it rather than merely giving permission.

Land Titles land is different. Section 51(1) of the Land Titles Act bars acquiring any right adverse to the registered owner by prescription, so a prescriptive easement over Land Titles land must be based on 20 years of use completed before the land entered the Land Titles system.

If your right to use the road is unclear, address that before you argue about costs. A right of use and a duty to contribute are separate questions, and your documents should speak to both.

What to do next

• Collect your deed, agreements and payment records, and note who has used and maintained the road.
• Ask the municipality, in writing, whether the road is public, a road allowance or private.
• Raise the issue calmly in writing and propose a written cost-sharing arrangement for plowing and repairs.
• Do not block or gate the road without legal advice.
• Ask a lawyer to review the documents and explain your options if talks fail.

Frequently asked questions