Unadapted road

Newme2014

Just found out the flat I'm buying is on an unadopted road and there is currently no s38 in place for it to be adopted. There is indemnity insurance in place though.

Would it put you off?

engineer_amy

my brother bought a house with unadopted roads and sewers and it was a nightmare trying to get it sorted out.


Eventually it did get sorted, but was a lot of hassle and stress.


they sold their own home and knew there might be a slight delay before they could get into the new house, so agreed a completion date with their buyers of the end of September. they had arranged for their possessions to go into temporary storage and they would stay with his wifes parents for a few short weeks.


They were porting their Santander mortgage. Everything would be fine as long as they completed within 3 months. Santander had been provided with all the documentation in plenty of time, but at the 11th hour said that the unadopted roads gave an issue over right of access and they couldn't therefore lend on this basis.


It took months back and forward of arguing between the vendor, solicitors, lenders. The majority of the time was wasted by incompetence on the part of the lender. in the end the 3 months ran out, they were charged an ERC and had to find a new lender. They were able to complete in the first week of February last year (4 months and 1 week).


Complaints were right up to the Head of UK residential mortgages at Santander, eventually going to the ombudsman.
In the end, Santander refunded the entire ERC, additional solicitors fees, storage fees plus a small amount for the inconvenience.


So, while I don't know what other impact an unadopted road may have on you, if you need a mortgage on this property, check with the lender that it will not cause an issue.

Newme2014

Oh blimey. The solicitors said they would need to inform the lender so guess I'll just have to wait and see how that goes. It's a flat on a largish estate and residents on one of the other roads in it have had letters about adoption (have a friend that's had one). So hoping they'll get to mine before I come to sell.