Buying a house in an unadopted road

jebervic

I am thinking of buying a house in an unadopted road, i've made an offer and it was accepted, however, to be honest I was unaware of the full responsibilities of unadopted roads, but ive since foundout I am liable for repair or for any accidents or injuries by anyone using the road.

Should I walk away from this one? the house is lovely but im worried about selling it in the future or any liabilities whilst I own it.

themull1

I would walk away.

picklepick

My mum and dad have owned a house on an unadopted road for the past 20 years and its been one problem after the next. Argues with neighbours over who pays for what repairs etc is all a massive stress that you dont need!

nomoneytoday

Is there not a builder who "owns" the road?
Why can't / won't the council adopt it?

laura-lou_3

hi - the house i live in now was apparently on an un-adopted road...we got the survey back which did not state ADOPTED, so therefore it was assumed it was un-adopted. We were advised there could be huge future costs, and were almost pursuaded in to pulling out of the purchase. None of it seemed to make sense to me though, as the house was in the middle of a "local authority" area, with council houses dotted along, and a bus which came down the street. To me, it didnt sound right, so i decided to ring the local council and ask them about it - why its un-adopted, are there any plans to adopt it in the future? etc....

turns out it isnt formally "adopted" on their records, but the council own it, the council maintain it etc and so there would never been a formal "adoption" of the road, as the council had taken it over anyway, many years ago. So i got a letter off a lady at the council which stated the road "adopted" and forwarded this to my solicitor, which ended the 17 weeks wait and we moved into the house within a few weeks.

If i was you i was just double check the status of it, as it could be the same story as mine. Obviously it could well be unadopted, and you will therefore be the one who has to maintain the road etc.... which to me could be a bit of a nightmare, but i suppose you could be lucky and not have to ever have to pay for anything. But my advice before pulling out or signing anything would just be to call the council and just double check the details. Surveyors and such like are very quick to overlook certain things....

hope this helps

mrcol1000

The council normally adopts roads on new estates once they are finished. In areas where the houses are older some roads have never been adopted by the council. The council will consider adopting these roads but only if they are brought up to a high standard. ie resurfaced properly. We brought a house on unadopted road recently and have had no problems at the moment. Basically the road is private property but you have to provide right of way. So you can't stop people coming down it. Normally you own from your front gate to the middle of the road. There are 10 houses on the road and apparently every few years they chip in to get the road relaid. The council maintains the street lamp. The only problem is that the drains are all private till they reach the main adopted road. So if there was a problem with the drain under the unadopted road your all be liable. But thats what insurance is for. As for being liable for accidents..... I think that is a load of rubbish and I would like to see someone try and claim off me.
Really its not all that bad. You may have to come down your unadopted pot holed road slowly and sweep it yourself but if you like the house what is the problem? Up in the North there are loads of unadopted roads.

puddy

mrcol1000 wrote: »

I think that is a load of rubbish and I would like to see someone try and claim off me.

so why do the council pay out when someone trips over on one of their pavements or pot holes etc?

clg86

We have just moved into a house on an unadopted road, and I had the same worries...

However, after talking to the neighbours on one of our viewings, they have all agreed that any work that needs to be done in the future, everybody contributes :beer:

There is no legal document that says this, but there are only 6 houses so everybody gets on and they have all lived there for about 15 years at least, and there have never been any issues about it.

For instance, the dirt track leading up to the houses is full of pot holes...:o and eventually they will need filling in. But at the minute they are not doing any damage to the cars (if you drive over them at a sensible speed) and they stop any crazy drivers zooming up the road! :T

picklepick

clg86 wrote: »

We have just moved into a house on an unadopted road, and I had the same worries...

However, after talking to the neighbours on one of our viewings, they have all agreed that any work that needs to be done in the future, everybody contributes :beer:

There is no legal document that says this, but there are only 6 houses so everybody gets on and they have all lived there for about 15 years at least, and there have never been any issues about it.

For instance, the dirt track leading up to the houses is full of pot holes...:o and eventually they will need filling in. But at the minute they are not doing any damage to the cars (if you drive over them at a sensible speed) and they stop any crazy drivers zooming up the road! :T

My mum and dad have the same probs with potholes and although theres only 5 houses they've had big issues. You have no idea if any of your new nice neighbours are going to sell to not so nice ones in the not too distant future. They normally find that all the neighbours agree that the road needs repairing but not about how much it's going to cost!!

They've also had problems with the sewer system. The manhole is on my parents property but the sewer runs along the road through everyone elses. There have been times when it's become blocked, its flowed out over my parents land and they're the ones that had to foot the whole bill in investigating and remedying the blockage. Most the other neighbours couldnt give two hoots and refused to pay towards it because it wasnt really affecting them.

BornAtTheRightTime

Hampshire is full of unadopted private roads and I have been lucky enough to live on one. It's great because as you own your bit of road, no-one else can park there. All my neighbours maintained their own bit of road, which generally meant a couple of bags of gravel every other year. It also helped create a sense of community, because when it snowed we'd all turn up with shovels and clear the road together!

Worries over being liable for people's accidents are unfounded unless you have let your part of the road fall into disrepair and been notified previously (documented) that you must attend to it. This is exactly the same position the council is in AFAIK - if you hurt yourself tripping over a badly-maintained council-adopted kerb you can only claim damages if they have been notified prior of its disrepair and failed to put it right.

martindow

BornAtTheRightTime wrote: »

Worries over being liable for people's accidents are unfounded unless you have let your part of the road fall into disrepair and been notified previously (documented) that you must attend to it. This is exactly the same position the council is in AFAIK - if you hurt yourself tripping over a badly-maintained council-adopted kerb you can only claim damages if they have been notified prior of its disrepair and failed to put it right.

If you live next to the piece of road it would be difficult to claim you were unaware of its condition. I'm sure it is highly unlikely for anyone to claim and as the roads condition is self evident it is very different to a flat tarmac pavement with an unexpected hole to trip you up. If a road or path is obviously uneven it is hard to see a claim succeeding.

Would house insurance cover you if there ever was a claim?