Unadopted road
Discussion
Hi all,
My house is at the end of an unadopted road which is now in a real state, think craters rather than potholes. I have levelled off and filled in the holes over the past few years but type 1 is only a temporary thing. I have tried to get the neighbours to club together for regular maintenance but only a few are interested. I want to concrete the road properly with drainage into a large soakaway myself but not unless I own the road. I presumed who built the houses would have purchased the road but it was there before hand and led down to a mill originally a few hundred years ago. I have tried Google etc but can't find a comprehensive answer on the following:
How I go about finding the owner of an unaodpoted road (if there is one)?
Can I purchase the road if there is not an owner?
If I manage to gain ownership of the road, would I need to have some form of public liability insurance?
Thanks
Fergie87
My house is at the end of an unadopted road which is now in a real state, think craters rather than potholes. I have levelled off and filled in the holes over the past few years but type 1 is only a temporary thing. I have tried to get the neighbours to club together for regular maintenance but only a few are interested. I want to concrete the road properly with drainage into a large soakaway myself but not unless I own the road. I presumed who built the houses would have purchased the road but it was there before hand and led down to a mill originally a few hundred years ago. I have tried Google etc but can't find a comprehensive answer on the following:
How I go about finding the owner of an unaodpoted road (if there is one)?
Can I purchase the road if there is not an owner?
If I manage to gain ownership of the road, would I need to have some form of public liability insurance?
Thanks
Fergie87
ninepoint2 said:
We used to live in one and maintenance was the joint responsibility of all home owners, can be a bit of a pain TBF, maybe time to appoint a factor to look after it?
I've tried that and people don't want to help or put their hands in their pockets. I only wanted 2 helpers and £50 per house for the year to cover the material cost. Even then most said no or just ignored the letter. I got 1 neighbour who has helped me both times I did it. They don't care about their cars or the fact that they can't walk to the shop during the winter without getting dirty. Greendubber said:
A management company look after ours, how many houses etc?
We're on a small-ish estate (apartment block and about 50 houses) and we have no choice but to pay as it's all over the deeds.
26 houses in total, I wish we could get a management company but unless the owner of the road appoints one I doubt it is going to happen. No company would take it on in the state it is in. We're on a small-ish estate (apartment block and about 50 houses) and we have no choice but to pay as it's all over the deeds.
Chrisgr31 said:
The answer will probably be in the deeds. So you might as well look at your own first to see what it says. It would be unlikely that you could buy it, and even if you did that wont help as you still wont be able to make everyone else pay.
There is nothing in my deeds about it, just that I have a right of way over the road, my house was built 1898 most of the others are 1960s onwards. I don't want to make other people pay, I just don't want to investing time and money into something I don't own.
We are in the same boat. One of our neighbours knew a road surfacing contractor and he used to arrange for them to come and put some tar in the holes a couple of times a year. We use to give him £40 each, but even then not everyone would chip in. He’s lost that contact now so the road is in getting bad. Next door wouldn’t contribute because they said “it would encourage people to come up here”!
One of our other neighbours did suggest he would get the road done properly if we all chipped in, but it came to nothing. The trouble with that is you are in a situation where some will genuinely not be able to afford to contribute equally. How do you arrange it all equitably given some people only use 10m and of it and others 100m? Plus there are two farms that use it as a through route with heavy machinery?
Better just to buy 4x4 and live with it, or move.
One of our other neighbours did suggest he would get the road done properly if we all chipped in, but it came to nothing. The trouble with that is you are in a situation where some will genuinely not be able to afford to contribute equally. How do you arrange it all equitably given some people only use 10m and of it and others 100m? Plus there are two farms that use it as a through route with heavy machinery?
Better just to buy 4x4 and live with it, or move.
blueST said:
I should have said, for our road, the technicalities are that each property is responsible for the bit of road that they have property frontage along. The reality is no one does anything with any of it any more
Our road was never surfaced in the first place, it is a gravel road so potholes are full width of the road and a ft deep in places. The dirt/gravel just banks up where people turn into their drives. The mad thing is there are block paved and resin driveways all down the road and then road is in s
t state.I did read that everyone is responsible for their frontage and also should have liability insurance. No one really cares, we have elderly neighbours in their 80s and they don't drive anymore and struggle to walk the road to the shop because of how bad it is. I might just contact the council and see what they suggest. I had previously asked about it becoming adopted but it needs to be brought up to standard first.
Ours is like yours, it has been there hundreds of years and access to farms on the Moors, but a couple of farms sold land for houses over the years, but with access still on the same farm track. The biggest destroyer of the road is actually the bin wagon, as they do a three point turn without lifting the tag axle, which rips up the surface. No-one dare complain about that incase they say they won't come anymore, which happened on another lane nearby!
I wonder how much better it would be received by your neighbours if you were to suggest they each subscribe to a monthly standing order of say £4.00 payable to XXX Road Maintenance Fund. Accounts/costs to be drafted and copied to each house. No one can object to such a low cost surely? A £40 lump sum might be a stretch for some so maybe this is a possible way around it?
My Aunt & Uncle have had the same for over 40 years, about 20 substantial houses, some knock down and rebuilds.
They have never managed to get further than the odd load of gravel.
I remember him saying that the people at the start of the road said they should pay less as they don't use as much of the road!
I've always felt the road seems to attract a certain sort of person and if you're not one then you may as well move.
They have never managed to get further than the odd load of gravel.
I remember him saying that the people at the start of the road said they should pay less as they don't use as much of the road!
I've always felt the road seems to attract a certain sort of person and if you're not one then you may as well move.
Fergie87 said:
There is nothing in my deeds about it, just that I have a right of way over the road,
This is something I know a little about as I own a private access to other houses.As the dominant owner (i.e. the person having the right of way) you have the right to repair the right of way to a standard suitable for the right you have (so if it says access by carts/vehicles, you can repair to an adequate standard for vehicles). The servient owner (i.e. the owner of the land who has to provide the access) has zero obligation to repair.
A deed may say that owners have an obligation to contribute to repair, but as a positive covenant this is unenforceable. The only slight twist in the obligation to repair is that there have been cases that demonstrate that someone who benefits from a right of way has an obligation to share the burden of repair. However, this could only be enforced by the servient landowner, not other beneficiaries of the right of way (there was a recent case involving an industrial estate road)
So, cutting to the chase. whether you own the road or not, provided that your deeds say you have a right of way, you have a right to repair yourself, but it is highly unlikely you can force anyone else to contribute.
Iwantafusca said:
“Fall” and complain to the council, they will soon tell you who owns it ?
This idea is a total non-starter - see my post above. The owner of the road who provides the right of way has no obligation to keep it in good repair. The users of the right of way do have the right to repair to maintain their right of way, so if anything, if there is a liability it falls on the users and not the owner. There is an ongoing case in the gardenlaw forum which covers this very point with suitable case references.Forums | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff