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A. Access
The site must be contiguous to, and have direct access from, a public or private street, road, or driveway. Private roads or streets are acceptable provided each property has vehicular or pedestrian access. Private roads or streets must be protected by permanent recorded easement (non-exclusive and non-revocable easement without trespass from the property to a public street) or the street must be maintained by a homeowner’s association (HOA). Shared driveways must also meet these requirements requiring a permanent recorded easement for ingress and egress. This agreement must be binding to successors and title. A copy of a title report, retained in the lender’s loan file, may be used to
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evidence the easement. Private streets must have a permanently recorded easement or be owned and maintained by an HOA. All evidence of recorded easements or maintenance agreements must be reviewed and approved by the approved lender’s underwriter and documented in the lender’s permanent loan file.
B. Maintenance
Streets and roads must be hard surfaced or all-weather surfaced. An all-weather surface is a road surface over which emergency and the area’s typical passenger vehicles can always pass. A publicly maintained road is automatically assumed to meet this requirement. If a HOA is responsible for maintaining streets and roads, it must meet the criteria set forth by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), or U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
SECTION 3: DWELLING REQUIREMENTS [7 CFR 3555.202]