Private road insurance?

Gwenrose

We own half of the road at the front of our bungalow. At the moment it is in very good repair most of the people who use it live in our close and we only have deliveries to homes in the close, or any where on the estate with lorries less than 13tonn.

We bought the bungalow and knew about the road from the beginning, but the solicitor could not help us with any guide to taking out an insurance if our part of the road needed repairs at any time. I've also read that if some one has an accident on our part of the pavment or road, if proven we are liable for compensation.

Could any one please advice us if there is an insurance company that we could use who cover road repairs etc and who will not rip us off on cost?

dacouch

There is not an Insurer that I know of that will cover the cost of repairs and maintainence.

There are companies however who will cover property owners liability, this covers for instance if say the milkman hits a pot hole or the post man trips over.

Assuming the whole road is in a reasonably maintained condition and is tarmac or concrete etc the cost is generally circa £250 a year. In these types of cases the reidents normally take a policy out for the entire road eg with the policy issued in the name of say "The residents association of Cedar Road". The premium is then shared amongst the owners of each house (Either equally if they houses frontages are the same or not equally if some homes have different sized frontages).

It is best to include in the wording of what is covered are the road, pavement and any communal verges etc.

If a postman has an accident where the liability can be attributed to the road / pavement / verge etc they nearly always sue as their union backs them to do this.

I would recommend you speak to a local broker (Not Swintons), they will normally place it through Inghams http://www.inghamunderwriting.com/

If you want to take this forward, it would be worth contacting the other residents first as they may already have a policy in place. If there is no cover in place they may be more receptive to it as there are a lot of people are claiming at the moment for slips and trips due to the weather.

As it is a private road which I assume is owned equally, the home owners would each be personally liable. So if there was a claim for £1m against them (This is very unlikely as this size claim are rare) they would all be personally liable.

cogito

What sort of repairs did you have in mind? Generally speaking repairs to roads would be maintenance items which are uninsurable.

Claims from third parties resulting from accidents caused by the condition of the road would, I think, be covered under your household buildings insurance but check with your insurers to be on the safe side.

dacouch

I've not seen a home insurance that covers a private road as the general definition is the house, outbuildings and land within the boundaries of your property.

It would not do any harm to check with your home insurers, but if they say it is covered it would be best to ask them to confirm it in writting as it would be unusual

Gwenrose

cogito wrote: »

What sort of repairs did you have in mind? Generally speaking repairs to roads would be maintenance items which are uninsurable.

Claims from third parties resulting from accidents caused by the condition of the road would, I think, be covered under your household buildings insurance but check with your insurers to be on the safe side.

Having spoken to a lot of our neighbours, none of them have taken out any insurance, most of them said, they had never given it a second thought and would just pay for repairs as and when required, they all looked a bit shocked when I mentioned that if some one slipped and broke a leg on their bit of road, they could be faced with a large claim for compensation. I think some of the residents are not in a position to pay for insurance, as some are quite elderly.

I was just wondering with regard to repairs. As the weather is going to take its toll on the road, I did not want to be faced with any large repair bills.
Some of the residents on the whole estate pay £10 a year and the estate associan fills in the pot holes in the summer, but not every one pays the £10.
In our case, although on the same estate, we are a seperate development, but our road is still unadopted the same as the rest. Our obligation is to maintain our part of the road to highways standard. It's a bit complicated.

cogito

In the light of dacouch's reply, I've had a quick look at the Aviva Home Plus policy wording which is a fairly standard wording. The contents section covers liability arising as occupier (not as owner) of the home and its land. The buildings section covers liability arising from ownership of the buildings but the definition of buildings does not include private roads other than footpaths. Clearly you need to arrange separate cover or see if your insurers are willing ti extend your home insurance. Sorry for the earlier misleading reply.

cogito

I think we're all agreed now.

:beer:

dacouch

Have a read of this website, it's a good website that is designed to advise people on making a claim against the council / highways agency for pothole damage. However if you have a read, it tells you the responsibility of the council with regards to repairing pot holes. It also points out in what circumstances the council are not liable for damage, so it may help you.

https://www.potholes.co.uk

For a small amount of damage, you may find people do not make a claim because of the difficulty / cost of sueing all the home owners. If it's a bigger claim, then it starts to become more financially viable to sue so the chances increase. As I said before if it's someone like a postman who have a strong union they will virtually always sue as money is no object. (These are assuming you are legally liable, just because someone has an accident eg slips or trips does not mean you are legally liable, it depends on whether the accident could have "Reasonably" been avoided)

Clive_Woody

We used to live in an unadopted road. All of the residents got together and set up a residents association (only 7 houses so not a major hassle to sort out). We all paid a monthly direct debit into a shared bank account (around £10 - 15/month), this was an emergancy fund to cover repairs to the road or waste pipes under the road if ever required. The agreement was that if people moved away their contributions remained in the account and could not be reclaimed. There was quite a reasonable amount in the account acting as a sort of self insurance.

This might work for you.

CherylSalmon

Anyone who is an owner of a Private Road needs the wonderful Andrew Barsby on his or her side. Apparently I can't post a link for you!!! so a google search under Private Roads and Barsby should find him. He is a (retired?) barrister with a vast fund of knowledge on the legalities of private roads access etc. He has provided our association with loads of very valuable advice which has sorted a whole range of issues for us. You join as a member, which gives you access to his web pages. He also provides custom insurance for private roads. Highly recommended!