Existing Road Maintenance Agreement, obligations for new buyer

[Gianluca Rossi]

Hi,

We bought mid-December a property on a private road in the Hudson Valley (NY). We were not able to visit the property until last week. On Tuesday, one of the other people living in the property told us we owe him $750 for the 5 times he plowed the private road (not including our driveway) this winter.

The private road is less than 0.4 miles long, on a hill. I'm not familiar with the cost of plowing in the area, but $750 for only 4 weeks seems overpriced to me ― especially since there are a total of 4 families living on the private road. I'm worried this neighbor is trying to scam us, as other neighbors also are complaining about the high costs.

The neighbor also informed me there is an existing Road Maintenance Agreement in place that the previous owner of our property (his brother) signed years ago.

As we didn't sign such an agreement, and as a matter of fact don't even know the content of it, what are our rights? Are we legally obligated to comply with an agreement we haven't signed?

Isn't it also common practice to receive an invoice, or something documenting the work that was done to maintain the road?

Many thanks,

Luca