amscott98391
New Member
The property I own is in Putnam County NY. I live in a commnity where most (but not all) of the property owners have deeded rights to a seasonal swimming pond which sits on Town property. The Town formed an improvement district for the residents and, by way of taxes, maintains the property for the district residents use.
Brief history:
One of the property owners insisted for years that there was an existing homeowner's association for the pond and that she was president. It has been a long established practice that she would "extend" the rights to use the pond to non district memebers by charging them and in addition would trade services for use of the pond. Recently it has been proved that her claim was baseless and that no homeowners association existed.
Fast forward to today:
The Town is still using the practice of trading maintenance of the property for rights to use the pond. But only to this one individual. Several of the property owerners have objected but the practice continues.
My questions are the following:
What legal authority does a municipality/town have to arbitrarily extend deeded rights to property other propety owners?
If the town is trading services in lieu of rights, are they in fact selling property rights?
What is the law in New York State on improvement districts, ie can the residents of an improvement district vote to enter in this type of money in leiu of use of the pool? If so, what conditions should the residents place on the agreement (should it be open-ended, how to terminate if there is unsatisfactory performance)
Does offering the service to only one individual consitutes bias?
The reasons for my objections to this practice:
The Town has engaged in this practice without written consent of all residents of the district. The person that they select repeatedly breaks the rules regarding the property without reprimand.
My goal is to write the Town Supervisor to formally object to this practice but I'm not sure if I'm on sound footing regarding NYS Laws, Improvment Districts and deeded property rights.
Any help/response would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You
Brief history:
One of the property owners insisted for years that there was an existing homeowner's association for the pond and that she was president. It has been a long established practice that she would "extend" the rights to use the pond to non district memebers by charging them and in addition would trade services for use of the pond. Recently it has been proved that her claim was baseless and that no homeowners association existed.
Fast forward to today:
The Town is still using the practice of trading maintenance of the property for rights to use the pond. But only to this one individual. Several of the property owerners have objected but the practice continues.
My questions are the following:
What legal authority does a municipality/town have to arbitrarily extend deeded rights to property other propety owners?
If the town is trading services in lieu of rights, are they in fact selling property rights?
What is the law in New York State on improvement districts, ie can the residents of an improvement district vote to enter in this type of money in leiu of use of the pool? If so, what conditions should the residents place on the agreement (should it be open-ended, how to terminate if there is unsatisfactory performance)
Does offering the service to only one individual consitutes bias?
The reasons for my objections to this practice:
The Town has engaged in this practice without written consent of all residents of the district. The person that they select repeatedly breaks the rules regarding the property without reprimand.
My goal is to write the Town Supervisor to formally object to this practice but I'm not sure if I'm on sound footing regarding NYS Laws, Improvment Districts and deeded property rights.
Any help/response would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You
