Question about home owner assoc dues. We built our house on a 4 lot sub division in 2012. We moved in in Feb 2013. Up until last Winter we paid all plowing costs of our road which is ~1/4mi long. On avg, plowing/sanding costs $1200; a pretty big winter expense but we dealt with it until last year when someone else built the 2nd house. We split the plow bill last year, no issues.
The other two lots are owned, but not built on yet. I know both parties; one guy is local and the other lives out of state. The local guy has his property up for sale and offered to chip in his share for plowing. I initially told him don't worry about it, but then figured if he needs access for potential buyers to look at his property over the Winter, why not accept his offer. I contacted the out of state guy and asked that he start contributing and recall him offering a few years back. We said no at that time, don't worry about it. Well he's now saying he doesn't recall the conversation and doesn't seem to want to pay his part. I get that fact that if you don't actually live here yet, maybe you can argue you shouldn't have to pay for road maintenance, but I know other friends that live in HOA's around the lakes and it is expected that you pay up even if you live outside of state during the winter.
The cost for this guy would be ~$300 for the season. I'm not going to be a jerk about it if he doesn't want to pay, nor can I force him to, but I thought it was expected that you contribute to HOAs regardless if you don't live where the property is located. We've been sucking it up for nearly 8 yrs and figured why not ask the other two guys to help out. Are we wrong? There is no formal assoc on our road so it's more about being neighborly.