Private road costs, please help

Flashybike1

Hi,

We are in the process of buying a house that was built 5 years ago, there are 5 houses in a small private close. Our solicitor has noticed on the sellers title deeds that permission from the maintenance company must be granted before they can sell.

The problem is that company has since gone bust!

So no authority / approval to sell!!

How can we get round this? Also if another company takes over what are the likely yearly costs in terms of what we would have to pay towards the up keep? The road is in brand new so is in no need of current repair.

Please help as we don't want to move in and be presented with a yearly invoice for thousands of pounds!

Thanks

antrobus

Flashybike1 wrote: »

....The problem is that company has since gone bust!....

Your solicitor will need to contact the liquidator/administrator of the company concerned.

Guest101

Is the council likely to adopt the road? Might want to phone them and ask

Flashybike1

No idea about the council, basically no one in the close had ever paid into anything and the problem has just arisen as our seller is the first house to sell since they were all built 5 years ago. Does anyone have any experience on likely annual costs? The road needs to work doing to it from what I can see but from what I have read a lot of people pay £100 a year to a local property maintenance company.

The problem we have is that we are looking to exchange by the 14 feb and I am unsure how long this is all going to take to get resolved.

Thanks for your help so far

James

thequant

Flashybike1 wrote: »

Hi,

We are in the process of buying a house that was built 5 years ago, there are 5 houses in a small private close. Our solicitor has noticed on the sellers title deeds that permission from the maintenance company must be granted before they can sell.

Have you inquired with your solicitor that if the deeds can be unilaterally varied due to it being an unfair restriction ?


Another angle is that such restrictions usually comes with "permission which must not be unreasonably withheld", anything your solicitor could do with this ? i.e. buy and then sort out the permission retrospectively when the management company situation is sorted.


Did the developer who built the houses set up management company and he subsequently go bust as well ?

spacey2012

It would need estoppal, a process of assigning to the next available rightful persons if no present owner is found.

Flashybike1

I'm not Sure if the developer has gone bust, the above info is all I know from information passed to me from the sellers solicitor. Really don't want to lose this house and I'm just worried that this is going to cause problems. The sellers solicitor was going to:

A: see if the deeds can be amended as they have gone bust (where does this leave us though for future repair costs)

B: see if a new residence assosiation director could be appointed in the close.

C: see if the council will take over the maintenance of the road

I just don't want similar problems
If I ever come to sell and with a 3 week deadline to exchange time is looking short!

Thanks

Flashybike1

Any other ideas?

camptownraces

Flashybike1 wrote: »

I'm not Sure if the developer has gone bust, the above info is all I know from information passed to me from the sellers solicitor. Really don't want to lose this house and I'm just worried that this is going to cause problems. The sellers solicitor was going to:

A: see if the deeds can be amended as they have gone bust (where does this leave us though for future repair costs)

B: see if a new residence assosiation director could be appointed in the close.

C: see if the council will take over the maintenance of the road

I just don't want similar problems
If I ever come to sell and with a 3 week deadline to exchange time is looking short!

Thanks

Why a 3 week deadline? if it's your mortgage offer expiring that's one thing (although you could probably get another). It's quite another thing if somebody in a chain has said it's exchange on 9 February or we pull out. Very often a lot of hot air, in that case.

Don't panic. Get your solicitor to nudge seller's solicitor if you don't get an answer in a week or so. Council adopting the road would be the best bet for all concerned.

Flashybike1

Our seller is obviously buying a new house too, the person the are buying from works in Iraq and will only be back between the 4-14 of feb to sign contracts and agree and exchange date.

I'm just crossing everything that the sellers solicitor sorts it all out ASAP so we can at least still buy. I'm happy to setup my own residence assosiation once in. I guess a new question to check is if the drains and utilities have been adopted.

It's all very complicated this house buying milarky!

Buzby

The alarm bells should already be ringing. What 'maintenance company'? If the developer, then what are they maintaining? And what is this committing you to?

A road that after 5 years has not been passed to the council raises concerns. Is it because the services are not to code? If so, they will need to be upgraded at your and other owners expense.

Until these points are clarified AND checked (substantiated), any offer would be foolhardy.