There's also a big problem with North Carolina's laws regarding the maintenance of roads. I'm not 100% sure this is the case, but I'd be willing to bet it is. Most other states require developers to get the road certified and adopted by the State Department of Transportation before any homes are sold. In NC, the developer can do this afterward (and they sometimes don't do it at all). Our neighborhood association found this out the hard way. Over ten years after the first house was sold, we called the DOT for a road repair and were told that our road wasn't covered. It was because of one form that wasn't filled out and filed with the State. The crazy thing is that the road is considered a public road (you can't treat it as private) and the state will not maintain it until you get it certified. If your road has degraded in that time, then you have to pay to get it back up to near-new quality before they will take it over.

Now imagine that instead of just a road to repair, it's also a road and a bridge. Is the HOA going to be able to raise the money to pay for a bridge repair? Pay for a proper barrier? This type of basic infrastructure should be handled by the state government.

Side political rant- a bill to change these laws has been in committee for years. I don't think it has ever made it to a vote.