Who maintains a private road?
A private road is kept up by whoever its recorded plat, deeds and subdivision approval make responsible: a property owners' association, the developer or the landowners who use it, never VDOT or the county. The Carroll, Floyd and Pulaski ordinances make plats say the state and county will not maintain it. Where nothing is recorded, no Virginia statute divides the upkeep among the users.
The plat already says who will not maintain it
In Floyd County, a division plat with any lot on a private road, shared driveways and easements included, has to carry this statement.
The roads in this division do not meet the standards necessary for inclusion in the system of state highways and will not be maintained by the Department of Transportation or the County of Floyd and are not eligible for rural addition funds
Floyd County Land Division Ordinance, effective January 1, 2026
Pulaski County's Unified Development Ordinance requires the same kind of notice on a plat that uses a private roadway. The plat states that the access is privately owned and maintained, does not meet state standards and will not be maintained by VDOT or Pulaski County, and then it finishes the thought.
The private owners shall be entirely responsible for all maintenance, repairs, and improvements.
Pulaski County Unified Development Ordinance, amended July 27, 2025
Carroll County's posted subdivision ordinance puts a like statement on the plat and every deed for Class B and Class C streets that VDOT will not take in, placing maintenance and improvement costs on the landowners or others rather than on public funds.
State law sets similar requirements. In counties where Va. Code 33.2-336 applies, the plat and approved deeds for streets not built to state standards must say the streets will not be maintained by VDOT or the approving county. Va. Code 15.2-2242 lets a subdivision ordinance require a similar statement, and VDOT's acceptance rules at 24VAC30-92-20 require a notation that a privately maintained street can be accepted later only after improvement at no cost to VDOT. So the first diagnostic step is to pull the recorded plat and deed for the parcel and find the paragraph that names the road.
An association, a developer, or the owners on the road
Once the plat has ruled out the state and the county, the recorded papers point to one of three keepers.
A property owners' association
Floyd makes an approved private division road its own lot, owned by the division's POA, and the roads are owned, constructed, operated and maintained by the POA in perpetuity; the POA has to be completed and recorded before any plat is approved. In a Pulaski large lot or standard subdivision, new owners who rely on a private roadway form an association whose maintenance agreement is recorded with the plat.The developer or a homeowners association
Carroll's posted ordinance says the developer or a homeowners association maintains the streets of its Class B and Class C subdivisions, which are built below VDOT standards.The landowners who use it
Pulaski's plat statement puts all maintenance, repairs and improvements on the private owners, and Carroll's puts the costs on the landowners or others. Outside subdivisions, VDOT itself says residents often maintain older rural roads.Carroll also makes the developer of a Class B or Class C subdivision tell purchasers the method of maintenance and whose responsibility it is. The recorded document that assigns those duties among users is covered in what a road maintenance agreement is, including where one is required.
Whether a new subdivision has to create an association in the first place is a separate question, answered in whether a new subdivision needs an HOA.
At a state highway, VDOT's part of the entrance ends at the shoulder and the pipe
Where a private drive meets a state highway, the line between the two keepers runs through the entrance, and which rule applies depends on the kind of entrance it is.
Under the Access Management Regulations, 24VAC30-73-90, a private entrance, the class that covers a drive serving up to two private residences, is maintained by its owner, apart from duties VDOT keeps by road type. On shoulder section highways VDOT maintains the part of the entrance within the normal shoulder. On highways with ditches it cleans the drainage pipe at the entrance and "may replace the pipe if necessary" to preserve the highway and protect the traveling public, so replacement is VDOT's discretion, not a promise. A road serving more homes can fall in a commercial class of entrance, and the residency says which one a given road is.
Past the shoulder, upkeep falls back on the road's private keepers. VDOT says subdivision streets not built to its acceptance standards remain the responsibility of the developer or homeowners. Whether a subdivision's streets had to be built to those standards at all is covered in whether subdivision roads have to meet VDOT standards.
Private status can end, though not on its own. Va. Code 55.1-308 opens a consent route for a private road serving a subdivision of 50 or fewer lots, and until a road is actually taken in, its private keepers maintain it; that route and the county-led path for older roads are laid out in private roads and maintenance agreements.
No recorded keeper, and no statute to fill the gap
A road older than any of these ordinances may rest on a deed that grants a way to pass and says nothing about grading, gravel or culverts.
No Virginia statute divides the cost of keeping up a private road among the people who use it. What decides the question is the recorded paper trail: the easement or right-of-way grant, any restrictive covenants and any agreement, read together under the law of easements. That reading is a Virginia real estate attorney's work, not a rule anyone can look up.
One statute does let a single owner act, in a narrow case. Under Va. Code 55.1-307, when a public road that has never been abandoned but is no longer publicly maintained serves more than one owner and is the primary way in and out, any one owner may maintain, repair or improve it at his own expense without the others' express permission, but only after administrative review by the local government. Every other owner must be notified by mail before work begins, and the owner doing the work may not interfere with the others' use of the road. The section speaks only of that kind of public road.
Disputes over use rather than upkeep are a different subject; whether a neighbor can block your easement takes that one up.
Pricing or buying a parcel on a private road?
Send the road name or tax map number, and Lowell will pull the recorded plat and deed for that road before a price is set or an offer is written. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions this raises
Does VDOT fix the pipe under a private entrance?
It cleans it, and it may replace it. Under 24VAC30-73-90, a private entrance is maintained by its owner, except that on highways with ditches VDOT cleans the drainage pipe at the entrance and may replace the pipe if necessary to preserve the highway and protect the traveling public, and on shoulder section highways it maintains the part of the entrance within the normal shoulder. A drive serving more than two homes may be a different class of entrance, so ask the residency which rule reaches it.
What if the plat names an owners' association that is not in the land records?
An association named on a plat but missing from the land records, and who pays for the road meanwhile, are questions for a Virginia real estate attorney reading the recorded documents. Two county rules make the record a condition of the plat: Floyd's Land Division Ordinance requires the property owners' association for a private division road to be completed and recorded before any plat is approved, and Pulaski's ordinance requires the association's maintenance agreement to be recorded with the subdivision plat.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Land Division Ordinance, effective January 1, 2026 Floyd County, Virginia
- Unified Development Ordinance, amended July 27, 2025 Pulaski County, Virginia
- Subdivision ordinance, county-hosted copy with April 14, 2014 amendments Carroll County, Virginia
- Va. Code 33.2-336, subdivision streets not built to state standards Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 15.2-2242, optional provisions of a subdivision ordinance Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 55.1-308, dedication of private roads Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 55.1-307, public road easements; maintenance and improvements (Title 55.1, Chapter 3, Article 1) Virginia General Assembly
- 24VAC30-73-90, private entrance design and maintenance Virginia Administrative Code
- 24VAC30-92-20, applicability of the Secondary Street Acceptance Requirements Virginia Administrative Code
- Does your road qualify for improvements Virginia Department of Transportation