Unadopted road not discovered in local search

vet8

We have lived on an unadopted road for 24 years. It is marvellous as it is so quiet, no boy racers racing past, only the odd car getting to a house and usually going slowly.

I really cannot understand why anyone would be paranoid about buying a house on an unadopted road.

MMouse1972

We were aware that the road was in a poor condition but that does not automatically mean it is maintained at private expense. There was no mention on the seller's property information form that the road had any charges or that it was unadopted.This is why we asked the solicitors to check the status of the road. Only to find out that the local search was incorrect and after purchase we have been informed that it actually an unadopted road and not maintain by public expense as we previously had been led to believe.

2sides2everystory

MMouse1972 wrote: »

We were aware that the road was in a poor condition but that does not automatically mean it is maintained at private expense. There was no mention on the seller's property information form that the road had any charges or that it was unadopted.This is why we asked the solicitors to check the status of the road. Only to find out that the local search was incorrect and after purchase we have been informed that it actually an unadopted road and not maintain by public expense as we previously had been led to believe.

Surely you must have some right of access via the road? And surely in consideration of that access you must give something in return? If not what stops the owner of the road closing it ? I would be amazed if conveyancing lawyers just skip over such niceties.

misskellyp

We have been told tolde the land reg has made a mistake on our title deeds to our detriment and we can claim compensation. But they do not give a guide as to how much to claim. Any advice?

hcb42

misskellyp wrote: »

We have been told tolde the land reg has made a mistake on our title deeds to our detriment and we can claim compensation. But they do not give a guide as to how much to claim. Any advice?

can you quantify your loss?

motherofstudents

misskellyp clikc on the blue 'new thread' at the top, you will probably get more replies.

mmouse, we used to live on an unadopted road with no problems. It sounds like someone was to blame for giving you the wrong info so I would try to follow it up but don't worry too much. Not sure what the difference is between unadopted and not adopted. Maybe some legal technical thing ?

patman99

If your unadopted road is not kept to a fair standard, you might find that the Royal Mail stop delivering. This happened in Essex. All mail went to the nearest Post Office 2 miles away.

Seriously though, you may find the road is owned by a company that is jointly-owned by each householder. If it is, arrange a meeting with all of them to discuss the way forward.
One option being to dissolve the company and hand the road to the Crown (thus, making the LA responsible for the upkeep).

Richard_Webster

Am I right in understanding that the house backs on to an unadopted road but perhaps has a postal address in the adopted road?

If so then possibly the solicitors made a mistake by only asking about the postal address and not looking at the plans to see whether there were nay other roads/tracks that could be relevant.

If they had asked specifically in the search about the track/road at the back then they would have told you that X road is adopted but Y road is not. OP would then have asked solicitor what that meant as their only vehicular access was via Y Road.