Purchase rights for an unopened road allowance

[Dave2]

While I don't have a lot of action on tax sale purchases because the boss took away my hunting liscence certainly lots on implementation.  Got an interesting situation on an existing tax sale purchase.  The tax sale property originally purchased is a 2.3 acre (say 100,000 sq. ft.) (waterview (i.e interior lot) (yes you can see the water) lot with existing roadway in the front.  Entranceway goes in tomorrow.  (It has been rezoned to rural residential and is a nice level building lot)  Power and utilities at the lot line.  A little over an hour from Toronto on the Kawartha lakes and Trent Canal system.

The unquantiable possible bonus with this lot has always been the unopened road allowance which travels north south and directly parrellels the rear (east side) of my lot which is over 400 feet in length.  The road allowance extends to and fronts on the water which is a little over 100 yards from the closest corner of my lot.   There is one other property owner on the west side of the road allowance between me and the lake and an open east west road which forms a (small not Capital) "t" intersection with the road allowance.  

On Thursday I learned that a very large property owner on the other side (i.e. to the east of the road allowance (he has almost 100 acres of land and I estimate several hundred yards of road allowance frontage) has opened discussions with the Township to purchase the road allowance all the way to the lake and extending a long distance to the south of my lot.  

My primary interest is only that section starting with the southern boundary of my lot to the North of my lot all the way to the Lake.   Unfortunately there is an east west opened roadway paralleling the lake between my property and the lake and I may have only rights to the open road.  

So wolfpack if you were in my shoes what would you do?  Don't worry about cost its not a factor in this one as surprisingly it is less on a per. sq. ft basis then my tax sale price. (My winning tax sale price was the the closest I have ever had with less then $100 separating my winning bid to the 2nd bidder) ?

[Frank]

Go directly to the township office and open your own discussions with them....there are rules governing the closing of unopened road allowances, and I believe you are entitled to half of it which abuts your property...you have to pay the costs involved to conduct the process usually. 

[worldjohn]

Im dealing with a similar issue right now.  Frank is ofcourse absolutely correct.  but if the office if far you dont have to go there. Send a letter to the clerk/treasure stating your interest (with me they wanted it in writing anyways).

[speedfreeksteve]

I looked into this recently for a potential property that I was considering purchasing. This can be a good way of making a "tainted" property viable.

Unfortunately, the cost that most townships charge can be huge if you're talking about more than a simple 100-200 foot length of road. What I really need was 1000's of feet. The total cost that I was calculating was can to around $1500 for every 50 feet or so (if I recall correctly). This would be fine for a short distance, but once you hit more than a few hundred feet this can be VERY costly.

At that point you are probably better off trying to find a neighbour to sell you a right of way if at all possible.

[DRD]

Express intrest and sit back and wait. To Purchase this property a survey must be done at the expense of the applicant, and all applications and legal to point of purchase at the expense of applicant. so i would sit back and wait for them to approach you and buy the half that abutts your property if feasable. If you do not want this to happen make an application to use allowance and that should stop former process.

[Dave2]

Express intrest and sit back and wait. To Purchase this property a survey must be done at the expense of the applicant, and all applications and legal to point of purchase at the expense of applicant. so i would sit back and wait for them to approach you and buy the half that abutts your property if feasable. If you do not want this to happen make an application to use allowance and that should stop former process.

Essentially that is what I have done.  Notify people I want to be a player and then wait to discuss.  Got to find out motivation of big landowner to east.   Value is access not additional land abuting my property. (Gee did someone say "severance") For that I can afford a survey if I get the chance and of course a "boat house" would always be of additional value but I don't believe in the fairy godmother.  

The exchanges and helpful advice accomplished what I set out to do which was educate people which is all I wanted to achieve.