Just found out we share some land...

AppleCore

I've got a feeling this may cause some problems with our sale. Our house is in a cul de sac but faces out onto a small area of tarmac along with about 6 houses and a small apartment block. We all have to drive over this tarmac to access our houses.

A potental buyer has mentioned that this tarmac is in disrepair (its looking a bit shabby and could do with resurfacing) and asked who is responsible for the upkeep. We assumed it was the council but looking at the plans for the estate when it was built it appears that this area of tarmac is divided up between the properties and we have a small part of it in our boundary. This has never been mentioned by any of the neighbours and we have no idea how we would ever go about getting the other residents to pay towards the cost of having it resurfaced. Technically I suppose we are only responsible for the bit shown in the deeds but the road surface is starting to look like a bit of a mess and I presume it will stay that way forever as there is no-one to take overall responsibility for it.

Is this going to cause problems with our sale? I'm worried this could put people off. I am also very annoyed that the solicitor did not bring this up when my partner bought the house 3 years ago.

Any advice on how these situations are normally dealt with would be gratefully received.

donnaessex

Hi Applecore. I'm sorry I dont know the answer but am watching with interest. We moved 5 months ago and have just last week found out that our walkway of 16 houses share ownership of the greens at both ends of the path and they need tidying every few weeks.

No idea how this works in practice but I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell us.

AppleCore

Thanks donnaessex, hopefully we'll get some information on this problem. Did your solicitor fail to bring this up with you as well?

donnaessex

AppleCore wrote: »

Thanks donnaessex, hopefully we'll get some information on this problem. Did your solicitor fail to bring this up with you as well?

We didnt have a clue! Only found out as all residents received a letter addressed to "The owners of xxx Gardens green area" asking if they could buy some of the land to extend their gardens? I've checked the deeds and it doesnt mention that we own this but apparently it was bought collectively in 1970's.

mrcol1000

If its an unadopted road then every house that faces on to it equally owns it and is responsible for its up keep. However your have to allow right of way.
If you all club together and get it re-surfaced to a good standard you can apply for the council to retake ownership of it.
There are loads of bits of land and roads around eveywhere so it shouldn't matter too much.

AppleCore

I phoned the council and they have no records of it being an unadopted road and they said they would send someone out to have a look at it. I presume they're not going to agree to do the work as it does
show us all owning a bit of it on the deeds although this is very vague.

We have very little to do with the other houses and nothing to do with the flats which we presume are mostly rented so it would be difficult to get everyone to agree to pay for the resurfacing. I assume most residents are like us and have no idea that they have a stake in this patch of road.

Would it be worth seeking legal advice on the matter, the potential buyers seem very concerned about this.

Charliezoo

posted in error

casperlarue

Was this not flagged up to you when you bought the property? From what you describe, it seems as though the shared part of the road has been divided between the properties that use it and conveyed as such. So you own a part of it, you are responsible for part upkeep and everone else is in the same situation.

The land had to be conveyed to somebody and if the highways depatment did not want to take it on as an adopted highway the usually the developer splits it up amongst the properties that use it. In the case of the flats it will be the freeholders responsibility to pay for their portion.

I suppose you could write to all your neighbours pointing this out, but you may find that they are not really interested in paying towards resurfacing until it gets so bad that it damages their car!

AppleCore

casperlarue wrote: »

Was this not flagged up to you when you bought the property? From what you describe, it seems as though the shared part of the road has been divided between the properties that use it and conveyed as such. So you own a part of it, you are responsible for part upkeep and everone else is in the same situation.

The land had to be conveyed to somebody and if the highways depatment did not want to take it on as an adopted highway the usually the developer splits it up amongst the properties that use it. In the case of the flats it will be the freeholders responsibility to pay for their portion.

I suppose you could write to all your neighbours pointing this out, but you may find that they are not really interested in paying towards resurfacing until it gets so bad that it damages their car!

Its a bit confusing as the road itself (our address) is adopted and is a D road. There just happens to be a small fork in the road (I'm not sure how else to describe it) where there are 6 houses and a small block of flats and this is the bit of the road that the residents may have responsibility for. I checked with the council and the Land Registry an there's nothing to suggest that its unadopted. It does show a small slice of this area in front of each house on the deeds and this seems to be the only evidence that we have responsibility.

My partner bought the house and was not informed of this by his solicitor. I have gone through all the legal paperwork and only found that my partner's solicitor has asked 'Please state whether the frontage adjoins the public highway and if not, please indicate the owners of the land in between and any arrangements for the land.'

The seller's solicitor's reponse is '***** Road is an adopted highway and rights to the highway are reserved by the Transfer Deed'

The potential buyers have flagged this up as a potential issue and I'm not really sure how we should deal with this. There is also the issue that what happens if someone trips up or damages their car? Are we then liable if it happened on our slice of tarmac?

AppleCore

Just found out that the block of flats concerned is Local Authority owned. They have to drive over this piece of tarmac to access their car parking area. Does this mean that it is the Local Authority's responsibility, at least in part to pay for the resurfacing?