Private Road- pros and cons

AlexMac

No one has mentioned the potential 'pro'; of snob appeal.

Depending on the road, the 'private' tag can add that infinitesimal extra cachet which appeals to the upwardly mobile, aspirant petty bourgeois streak in the English psyche. Thus add moolah to the value. Of course, it does depend on the road; if it's private because it belongs to the scrap dealer at the end of the lane and it looks a bit like Soweto during apartheid, maybe not.

Having said that, we live on a private road, http://www.langtonway.co.uk/and everything which has been said above (my remarks about snob-appeal, and all the other potential cons in other posts about maintenance, liability etc) applies.

We each own the bit of street outside our homes, to the centre line, so resurfacing (or not) is a matter of individual choice (unless a couple of neighbours choose to collaborate). Most choose 'benign neglect' so instead of speed humps and traffic calming we have pot holes; which works quite well except when 4x4s barrel along in the rain, splashing my car on my forecourt - or worse - me, with muddy water.

But we love it. The council maintain the streetlights, collect the rubbish from our doorstep, don't paint yellow lines or control parking.... simples.

So ask the obvious questions; who owns the street; you? someone else? is there a management company earning fees? what are maintenance arrangements? are there annual charges, what do they cover and is there a sinking fund? if you don't own it, who's insuring and liable in the extremely unlikely event of a broken ankle or axle....?

And if the vendor won't tell you or pretends not to know, decide whether you really want to wait 6+ weeks til, having spent money on surveys, legal and mortgage fees, your conveyancing solicitor turns up some problem answers...

And before someone else says it... Snob? Petty Bourgeois? Moi? Peut-être!

pickles13

AlexMac wrote: »

No one has mentioned the potential 'pro'; of snob appeal.

Depending on the road, the 'private' tag can add that infinitesimal extra cachet which appeals to the upwardly mobile, aspirant petty bourgeois streak in the English psyche. Thus add moolah to the value. Of course, it does depend on the road; if it's private because it belongs to the scrap dealer at the end of the lane and it looks a bit like Soweto during apartheid, maybe not.

Having said that, we live on a private road, http://www.langtonway.co.uk/and everything which has been said above (my remarks about snob-appeal, and all the other potential cons in other posts about maintenance, liability etc) applies.

We each own the bit of street outside our homes, to the centre line, so resurfacing (or not) is a matter of individual choice (unless a couple of neighbours choose to collaborate). Most choose 'benign neglect' so instead of speed humps and traffic calming we have pot holes; which works quite well except when 4x4s barrel along in the rain, splashing my car on my forecourt - or worse - me, with muddy water.

But we love it. The council maintain the streetlights, collect the rubbish from our doorstep, don't paint yellow lines or control parking.... simples.

So ask the obvious questions; who owns the street; you? someone else? is there a management company earning fees? what are maintenance arrangements? are there annual charges, what do they cover and is there a sinking fund? if you don't own it, who's insuring and liable in the extremely unlikely event of a broken ankle or axle....?

And if the vendor won't tell you or pretends not to know, decide whether you really want to wait 6+ weeks til, having spent money on surveys, legal and mortgage fees, your conveyancing solicitor turns up some problem answers...

And before someone else says it... Snob? Petty Bourgeois? Moi? Peut-être!

Thank you so much for the advice. I will be writing a list of questions to ask the EA...

pickles13

stator wrote: »

How many houses are there on the road? Costs would usually be shared equally between the houses but this isn't always the case (your conveyencer would check). Ask the vendors what the situation is, have they ever had to pay maintenance costs for it? When was it last redone?

There are about 30 houses on the road.

Dan-Dan

pickles13 wrote: »

Thank you so much for the advice. I will be writing a list of questions to ask the EA...

Why would you do that ? They will tell you what you want to hear

Ask your convenyancer , its what you pay them for

pickles13

Yes I just don't want to even get an offer accepted before knowing.

Dan-Dan

pickles13 wrote: »

Yes I just don't want to even get an offer accepted before knowing.

I dont understand your angle , they could tell you anything, you wont know whats true or not until your Solicitor gets involved anyway.

The Estate Agent just wants to get you hooked , he has no interest in telling you the truth (even if by some miracle he actually knows what that is)

Best off knocking on the neighbours doors for honesty , i would have thought

stator

pickles13 wrote: »

There are about 30 houses on the road.

So as long as all houses are liable for the maintenance on an equal basis it shouldn't be that bad.
From Manchester Council:

The average cost of resurfacing per m2 is £16 for roads and £23 for pavements

moneyistooshorttomention

Davesnave wrote: »

The council can decide not to to collect refuse from private roads.

It's happened where I live. The local authority now require owners of property with private roads to place their refuse at the end, where it meets the council road. No exceptions.

This makes collection much cheaper for the council.

Not the case in mine. The Council do come up the road and collect the rubbish - the same as with everyone else locally.

The thing that came as a surprise to me was that road-owner and one other resident here seem to feel that they decide between them what does or doesn't happen re road maintenance (as there is no Residents Association) and just instruct others in the road. I was expecting we would all discuss it together - all fair and square - and everyone on a totally equal basis and took it as read that that would, of course, be the case.

It hasn't gone down well when I made it plain that I expected that all communal decisions would be made communally - with everyone having an equal say in things (ie 1 vote per house and that includes road-owner too):rotfl:. Well....if they want me involved....then they will have to forget about trying to "tell" me what to do....:cool:

End result of that seems to have boiled down to a deadlock situation, as they seem to be so unwilling for me to have my Vote on things and I've just "shrugged my shoulders" about it.

I guess I'm rather waiting for some law or other to be passed that states that there will be Equal Voting Rights to every house in a private road about communal decisions if there isn't a Residents Association. Wont be holding my breath....

Overall though...with it being a small place its not as if there are ever loads of houses on the market at any given time (even going across whole of market, rather than just the price level I was looking at) so the house was "best one available on the market" at the time and I cant see that I could have bought another one instead (bar having a lot more money available) in which case I wouldn't have been looking in this smaller location in the first place anyway.....

...so OP may be in a similar situation of "That's the sort of way things are on the market in that sort of location"..

flora48

Another con regarding refuse collection, I lived opposite the point where people had to put their bins for collection, the downside was at that the bins just stayed there for ever. It was like living opposite the tip at times.

Make sure you visit on each day of the week at differing times.

stator

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

The thing that came as a surprise to me was that road-owner and one other resident here seem to feel that they decide between them what does or doesn't happen re road maintenance (as there is no Residents Association) and just instruct others in the road. I was expecting we would all discuss it together - all fair and square - and everyone on a totally equal basis and took it as read that that would, of course, be the case.

Depending on the terms of the lease / covenants or whatever you may not have much say. It may give them the right to perform the maintenance and charge you for your share. If you thought it unreasonable it might end up in the courts.