Private Road- pros and cons

moneyistooshorttomention

stator wrote: »

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.

I have nothing specifically stating how decisions are made re communal maintenance. Actually there have turned out to be various things that haven't been put down clearly in writing and hence I think how this situation has arisen.

So, I'm advising OP to check what the exact situation is in this respect. There may be:

- a Residents Association (the way things should be)

- there may be some provision written down generally that road-owner consults with residents and each house has one Vote (including road-owner) and official discussions/etc are held with everyone having their fair say/vote

- road-owner and/or one determined resident may try and make decisions on their own and impose them on others.

It needs to be established which of these situations it is.

That's the thing...where there is nothing in writing specifying how decisions are made, then I would say that's where stalemates happen/"shoulders are shrugged"/etc.

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

That's the thing...where there is nothing in writing specifying how decisions are made, then I would say that's where stalemates happen/"shoulders are shrugged"/etc.

This is what has happened with the private road which runs past us to 14 properties. Part of it is in a sorry state.

Everyone's title documents spell out their repairing responsibilities, not how the decision to repair will be taken. People accepted those title documents at the time of purchase, and I imagine you did too.

If the terms of title documents seem onerous or unfair, they should be questioned at the time of purchase.

However, some solicitors may not be up to the job of pointing out potential pitfalls. If ours hadn't, we'd still be tied to joint decisions with the house next door over drainage.

moneyistooshorttomention

Davesnave wrote: »

This is what has happened with the private road which runs past us to 14 properties. Part of it is in a sorry state.

Everyone's title documents spell out their repairing responsibilities, not how the decision to repair will be taken. People accepted those title documents at the time of purchase, and I imagine you did too.

If the terms of title documents seem onerous or unfair, they should be questioned at the time of purchase.

However, some solicitors may not be up to the job of pointing out potential pitfalls. If ours hadn't, we'd still be tied to joint decisions with the house next door over drainage.

Exactly the situation I have - in that (if my own are anything to go by) then everyone knows what share of cost we are due to pay each BUT nothing has been stated re how the decision to repair will be taken.

When something like that happens then its down to peoples different assumptions, ie in this case road-owner and one determined individual have always made everyones decisions for them and assumed that was how it would continue on the one hand v. its now the 21st century and people expect a "fair say" in decisions affecting them on the other hand and so my own assumption was that was what I would have.

Two conflicting sets of assumptions = one stalemate.

Some other stuff has been resolved, but that question remains "on the table".

Add to the equation my solicitor who turned out to be a legal executive and daylight dawning on me as to why this firm didn't seem to be charging any more for her services than a conveyancing firm would charge and not telling me at the outset that it wouldn't be a solicitor doing this (cue for another assumption on my part down the swanee, as when I had used that same firm many years previously to purchase my starter house it had been a solicitor at that point).

I guess this is the thing, ie we all make assumptions in life and its quite obvious to us how things are until we come across other people who have a "different set of assumptions" about how things are.

Hence I am becoming steadily more of an advocate of "Everything but everything down in writing and then we can all ignore personal opinions/assumptions and just do whatever the written stuff says".

Owain_Moneysaver

stator wrote: »

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

Is that for the council (who have considerable economies of scale) doing large jobs on roads constructed to public highway specifications?

Resurfacing will only be the top (wearing) layer of tarmac.

If the underlying road structure was insufficient in the first place then digging up and rebuilding the road will be a lot more.

And just because all the houses are liable does not mean they all will pay. There will be absent landlords, people on unofficial tenancies from family members, people claiming poverty and no assets ...