looking to buy a new house but theres a fee for a shared drive

smoggieboy

G_M wrote: »

Who owns the freehold?


Sorry for my lack of knowledge, if you mean who would I have to pay to buyout the lease, that would be the builder Miller Homes

Who employs the management company?


Miller homes hav employed a 3rd party management company who apparently looks after 90% of builders. How true that is I don't know.

Maintenance of a shared drive is likely to involve re-surfacing after, say 15-20 years? perhaps occassional filling of a pothole?

£6.50 pm x 2 (the other house?) x 12 = £156 a year = £1,560 after 10 years which should pay for re-surfacing.

I was told that what maintenance that is required is covered by the fee I pay. So after 3 weeks it needs a resurface it gets done I pay no more. But id imagine the premium will go up after 2017 if that did happen

fishpond

Why would it need resurfacing within 3 Years not alone 3 weeks?
Do drives come under the NHBC, after all, it is part of the property?

smoggieboy

fishpond wrote: »

Why would it need resurfacing within 3 Years not alone 3 weeks?
Do drives come under the NHBC, after all, it is part of the property?

that was just an example, its obviously not going to happen.
Each property has its own double drive, but each double drive leads onto a block paved section that is classed as shared driveway/access route, so I think its not classed as part of the house.

Lord_Baltimore

Personally speaking, I'd want to own the freehold, as part of the deal, from the get go or I wouldn't buy. I would not want to pay 'reviewable' fees to anyone for anything shared so a shared drive access would not suit me.

There are new builds without these restrictions.

Thrugelmir

smoggieboy wrote: »

Is paying for the maintenance of a shared drive common practice?

Better to have a fund in place. Than argue the toss in a few years time.

We've friends who share an unadopted road with a number of neighbours. Needless to say with no proper agreement in place. The surface has now deteriorated beyond the point of even calling it a road. Resulting in patch up repairs rather than any long term remedy. As the cost would now be horrendous.

moneyistooshorttomention

Sounds like a good idea to buy the freehold. However, I am wondering what would happen if the neighbour didn't buy theirs? Would that result in a situation where you knew that the neighbour and yourself would decide what was what between you and that was how it was from your pov BUT the neighbour was still under "external body makes the decisions"?

smoggieboy

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Sounds like a good idea to buy the freehold. However, I am wondering what would happen if the neighbour didn't buy theirs? Would that result in a situation where you knew that the neighbour and yourself would decide what was what between you and that was how it was from your pov BUT the neighbour was still under "external body makes the decisions"?

If I decide to buy out the leasehold the fee for the shared drive still exists.


For clarification current deal is this
the house is lease hold with a £125 annual fee fixed for 10 years (reviewed after 10 years, 999 year lease). Also there is an additional fee for the shared access of £6.50 a month till 2017.


Options
buy out leasehold for 3K
No option on the shared access fee it exists whether u buyout the lease or not

catmiaow

We have bought a Millers home. No shared fees to pay for us, we decided to buy the lease as they want permission for certain things otherwise. Like having a greenhouse, any extensions or anything you want to do and all that. I don't like this fact, that is why we decided to buy the lease.