After 8 Years I find out my road is Unadopted !!!

the_wheels_have_fallen_of

Slightly unusual situation here .... I purchased my house 8 years ago brand new - its a small development of 15 townhouses developed as an extension of an existing road. Just sold my house and the buyer's solicitor has come back to say that our part of the road is unadopted !! I phoned the council myself yesterday and they have confirmed that it is indeed unadopted !!!!

I checked the original searches from 2007 and also the deeds and there is no intimation that the road is unadopted or was not going to be adopted. It seems that the builder didnt do whatever he needed to get the council to adopt the road (he has subsequently gone bust !). The council were very non-committal about this and said that they need to do loads of tests to see if they can adopt the road and to start by writing them a letter (done yesterday)

I also sent a copy of this letter yesterday to my neighbours and a couple of them have been round to say that their original searches did not bring up this matter either.

I have also written to my local councillor in the hope that he can push things along for us anyway - Im frightened to death to lose my FTB and also the house that we are purchasing - after spending a fortune on mortgage, searches, conveyancing etc etc

Anyone been through a similar experience? What can we do? We have no management committee to deal with this

Interestingly, there are street lights along our part of the road and I was under the impression that the council wouldnt have put these in if the road was unadopted. The road is in excellent condition, 9 years old and as we are a dead end, the only people that use it are the residents and the occasional visitor

HELP !!!

maninthestreet

Does the council refuse lorry visit your part of the road and collect rubbish left at the edge of your property, or do you have to leave it further down the road in the adopted part?

comeandgo

We have been here nine years, road not adopted yet, in our last proprty, which was fifteen years old again road not adopted. Bin men still come, road sweepers, gritter just went passed so absolutely no problems. It's something to be dealt with between developer and council.
Edit, I now notice developer bust, did they not have to pay a bond to council prior to development taking place which would pay for any improvements council require to bring the road up to standard required for adoption?

the_wheels_have_fallen_of

Dear Comeandgo and Maninthestreet

Yes - the council refuse lorry does come - weekly - never had any problems there. Also - Unitied Utilities for Water and the Gas have also done work - surely if the road was unadopted they wouldnt have been able to complete works without our express permission as owners and residents??

Dont know about a "bond" - Comeandgo - Ill ring the Council and see what they say.... will revert

davidmcn

Bins and utilities are a red herring, neither will care whether or not the road has yet been adopted (and the street lights were almost certainly installed by the developer, as that will be one of the conditions to get adoption!).

WeAreGhosts

ask the council if you could have a print out of your street from their street gazetteer.

if the street was an extension of an exising street there is a possibility that the Elementary Street Unit was never extended through human error.
are there street lights on your part of the street that look the same as those on the adopted bit?

the_wheels_have_fallen_of

Update for everyone:

I have had a response from my original conveyancing solicitor as follows:

[FONT=&quot]"In relation to the roads it was certainly provided in the pre contract documentation that the road would be adopted and the relevant statutory arrangements put in place, this is also borne out by the planning conditions contained in the planning permission reference P/2004/1830. The was a suggestion that a retention of £500.00 be kept until these adoption documents were put in place but unfortunately this was never achieved. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]It is likely that the original developer has now gone into liquidation which will obviously not assist in relation to the adoptable nature of the roads.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I am sure that your current solicitor will advise you as to what to do next"[/FONT]


Also - I rang the council back to ask about a bond - it was never paid - however, the man who answered the phone was the person that I was asked to write to yesterday - he was quite reasonable when I rationally explained our predicament. To cut a long story short, he said that he went to the road yesterday to look at it, and that there were a few tiny things (eg a fence sticking slightly out on the kerb, a couple of tiny sunken areas on the path where the water meters have been fitted) but that he was going to speak to his boss and that they might be able to proceed with some sort of survey on a "without prejudice" basis if there is an agreement from the owners to pay for the repairs (and his estimation is that that wouldnt be much). I didnt make a comment on this - and my solicitor who is handling the current conveyancing for the current sale of my house is due to ring me back this afternoon
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[FONT=&quot]
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SavingWolf

Hi,
Just to jump onto this thread to find out your buyers opinion on the unadopted road? We are going through a purchase of a house that we didn't know was in an unadopted road at the time we made the offer.
We have spent the last 2 months trying to get answers on what we can expect and also on what services we do get, i.e bin collection and street lighting. So far we haven't found much out and still waiting...

Mickygg

Yes I had exactly this. My solicitors kept a £500 retention until the road was adopted.
6 years later I sold and found out the road was Unadopted. The retention passed over to new buyer who was happy.

I wouldn't have been happy because if the road stays Unadopted and starts needing some tlc, £500 won't go very far!

the_wheels_have_fallen_of

SavingWolf wrote: »

Hi,
Just to jump onto this thread to find out your buyers opinion on the unadopted road? We are going through a purchase of a house that we didn't know was in an unadopted road at the time we made the offer.
We have spent the last 2 months trying to get answers on what we can expect and also on what services we do get, i.e bin collection and street lighting. So far we haven't found much out and still waiting...

Hi SavingWolf

Sorry for late reply. Well - my buyer (or me for that matter!!) did not know that the road was unadopted when they made the offer, it was their solicitor through the searches that came by this information.

They are quite calm about it as the road is eight years old - only 15 hours, is a dead end so not a thoroughfare for general traffic. Because I have a vested interest here, I got things moving myself by contacting the local council as well as my councillor to get things moving - the local council havent been too bad and have already been out to look at the road (all within 2 days of complaint). They are coming to do some "core tests" on the pavement and the road next week which will ascertain whether the construction of the road and pavements meet their standards for adoption. We residents also know that if there are any changes that need to be made, then we have to pay for any changes/upgrades between us.

Have you got a reasonable enough relationship with your seller that you can ask them to do the same? For me it was a no brainer as I have a vested interest in sorting this out - surely your seller does too >

the_wheels_have_fallen_of

Mickygg wrote: »

Yes I had exactly this. My solicitors kept a £500 retention until the road was adopted.
6 years later I sold and found out the road was Unadopted. The retention passed over to new buyer who was happy.

I wouldn't have been happy because if the road stays Unadopted and starts needing some tlc, £500 won't go very far!

Hi Mickygg

So we dont even have that.... after digging with my original solicitor in 2007 when I purchased, they were supposed to have paid a £500 retention fee, but didnt..... question whether the solicitor was negligent in chasing this up .... they certainly didnt let me know that this was the case !!!!