My question involves real estate located in the State of: Pennsylvania. At a recent township supervisor meeting the question arose about who is responsible for the maintenance of a section/grid of roads in a rural area labeled as an allotment. The residents of the allotment requested for the township to consider maintaining the roads which turned into a heated discussion with other attendees at the meeting. Part way through the meeting it was stated by more than one of the Supervisors that the roads in the allotment were all owned by all the residents of the allotment and that they were responsible for all maintenance of the roads.
Now for some known history of the allotment of land and roads in question: The married couple (I'll call them Carl and Margaret) who originally owned this land had broken up and sold the land as separate lots in the 1960s and 70s. Before doing so they had a series of roads built in a series of rectangular grids. During and after the sale of all the land, the couple had retained ownership of the roads in the allotment and continued to pay taxes on these roads, as the roads were still on the tax rolls at the time. Eventually, Carl passed away in 1971 and his wife lived on and continued to pay the taxes for the roads in the allotment. Later, Margaret became deathly ill and stopped paying on the taxes on the roads and then passed away sometime later in 1994. The roads in the allotment continued to accrue delinquent taxes and eventually were posted as property available to purchase at tax sale. No one ever purchased them and they were later removed from the tax rolls by the County Treasurer, who wound up taking his own life about 10 years later.
The questions I now have are: Are the roads now considered abandoned or did ownership of the roads pass to the County or even the State of PA? Could ownership have been passed to the residents/property owners of the allotment without their knowledge? Could these roads be considered "private roads"?
I am considering buying property in this allotment so I feel I need to have a full understanding of the situation before buying. The property I am considering has frontage on a Township road as well as frontage on both sides (think sandwich) of one of the allotment roads in question. How do I go about researching the history of the roads to further determine what actually happened when they were removed from the tax rolls?
Now for some known history of the allotment of land and roads in question: The married couple (I'll call them Carl and Margaret) who originally owned this land had broken up and sold the land as separate lots in the 1960s and 70s. Before doing so they had a series of roads built in a series of rectangular grids. During and after the sale of all the land, the couple had retained ownership of the roads in the allotment and continued to pay taxes on these roads, as the roads were still on the tax rolls at the time. Eventually, Carl passed away in 1971 and his wife lived on and continued to pay the taxes for the roads in the allotment. Later, Margaret became deathly ill and stopped paying on the taxes on the roads and then passed away sometime later in 1994. The roads in the allotment continued to accrue delinquent taxes and eventually were posted as property available to purchase at tax sale. No one ever purchased them and they were later removed from the tax rolls by the County Treasurer, who wound up taking his own life about 10 years later.
The questions I now have are: Are the roads now considered abandoned or did ownership of the roads pass to the County or even the State of PA? Could ownership have been passed to the residents/property owners of the allotment without their knowledge? Could these roads be considered "private roads"?
I am considering buying property in this allotment so I feel I need to have a full understanding of the situation before buying. The property I am considering has frontage on a Township road as well as frontage on both sides (think sandwich) of one of the allotment roads in question. How do I go about researching the history of the roads to further determine what actually happened when they were removed from the tax rolls?
Are They Now "Abandoned Roads" or "Private Roads"
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