Unadopted Road Maintainance

paddedjohn

if you dont own the road, are you legally allowed to dig it up and re-lay it without permission off the owners?

clutterbug_2

It's unadopted, so residents on such roads can maintain it at their own expense.

lisyloo

Just wondering but do you have access to free legal advice (and possibly legal cover) on your home insurance.
This may be included and you may find it's a god send.

clutterbug_2

I don't think we do, but will check. Thanks

G_M

clutterbug wrote: »

It's unadopted, so residents on such roads can maintain it at their own expense.

Sorry - this is just a load of misleading ... clutterbug!

'Unadopted' simply means the local authority has not adopted it as part of the public highway so does not maintain it.

It says nothing about who DOES own it nor who has the right, OR the obligation, to maintain it.

*It may be owned by one individual, with others having a ROW over it
* That individual may have the sole obilgation to maintain it for the benefit of all those with the ROW. Those with ROW could then have no right to re-lay it but would have to force the owner to do so
* All those with ROW may have a shared obligation to contribute
* some of those with ROW may have obligationto contribute, with others have ROW without any ibligation
* The contributions each has to make to maintenance may be equally shared or may be proportional - ie those at the start end of the road pay less than those at the far end, or those with bigger houses pay more than those with smaller
* It may be owned jointly by all those living off it, with them all having joint responsibility, and they'd need to jointly agree any work
* each property might own the section of road outside their own property......

There are so many possible scenarios - which is why I said earlier no one here can advise

Unless you can provide far more detail.

clutterbug_2

I can't give much for detail at the moment as we just can't figure out who owns it as it belonged to a quarry years ago and th details seem to have got lost in time after the quarry closed down.

We're going to have a chat with th guy who now owns the majority of the land that the quarry was on, although his title plans have no reference to the road.

G_M

A longer term solution may lie with adverse possession. This is where a non-owner of land takes possession of that land for a period of time, treats it as their own, and then registers it as their own.

There are different rules depending whether the land in question is Registered or Unregistered at the Land Registry - I assume in this case it is unregistered.

LR Practice Guide 5 gives some useful information.

I suspect you would need to
a) use a solicitor
b) set up a group (company) of all the property owners
c) that 'company' would then both use and maintain the road for the required period of time
d) eventually the company could register the road in the company's name and take ownership

But you still have to get all those involved to agree, and it would take time.

System

The fact that you have a ROW across it precludes an adverse possession claim. Also the fact that others have a ROW does too.
To claim adverse possession you nee to exclude EVERYBODY ELSE from using it. As others have a right across it then they are free to remove any obstruction.

G_M

!!!!!! wrote: »

The fact that you have a ROW across it precludes an adverse possession claim. Also the fact that others have a ROW does too.
To claim adverse possession you nee to exclude EVERYBODY ELSE from using it. As others have a right across it then they are free to remove any obstruction.

Ah well - it was just an idea....