Shared access, who is responsible for upkeep?

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

As I recall, a poster called DavesNave on here has that situation, ie of different houses in his road paying different amounts - but I'll let him speak for himself on that.

It won't help, since the situation here is different. The road is on communally managed land for a small housing complex. I don't belong to that complex and I just use the road to access my barns & fields.

Yes, people are supposed to pay different amounts for maintenance, but with 15 properties, some of them with owners overseas + a couple of nutters, it's anyone's guess who pays anything.

dinkylink

yes gasol definitely the whole width of the road

AlexMac

dinkylink wrote: »

Bit of a broad question but, do you guys see this being a problem, eg something that is worth not proceeding with the purchase over?

To answer this specific Q...

I don't think the issue of your financial responsibility for a bit of tarmac which a dozen or so neighbours, the dustmen, delivery drivers and visitors will use is too off-putting, unless your solicitor raises significant problems about their rights of access over 'your' bit of roadway.

In fact it; a) being a cul-de-sac, and b) you owning the whole width makes things simpler, because
a) there will be less traffic so less wear and tear, and
- b) you don't have to negotiate with the owner opposite if you ever want to repair or resurface 'your' bit.

We own 'our' stretch of our private road but only out to the centre line, as everyone else in the street does. But while it's 'unadopted', and as our title reminds us, it's a public right of way, so it's fairly heavily trafficked (and consequently quickly worn out) by the other hundred or so householders in the street and loads of other through traffic.

In fact we welcome the potholes as a primitive means of traffic calming; not that they slow the 'Chelsea tractors', builders' lorries nor the 32 tonne tipper trucks from the current 6 metre deep basement excavation up the road. In fact, having a trashy road surface really makes it obvious that it's private, so increases 'snob appeal' if you care about petty social climbing!

So I'd go for it- and unless your deeds say otherwise, when you re-surface in 15 years, you can use multi-coloured tarmac modelled in your football team's colours, or a nice Banksy-style horizontal graffiti to p!ss off the neighbours if you've fallen out with them.

ethank

I'm in a similar situation - I own part of the drive in front of my house. See plan at https://www.dropbox.com/s/pvsjluxvmxefaqe/Screenshot%202015-04-05%2022.13.46.png?dl=0

My neighbours cross my land to park in their garages. I made sure that every dip, and puddle was sorted before the end of the warranty period. The developer has just relaid the whole lot!

My neighbours own less than me, as they only own the immediate patches infront of their garages. When I told them I was responsible, they said they would never see me out of pocket and they see themselves as sharing it.

The best thing is to talk to your neighbours!

Kirstie93_2

This seems exactly the same as the house we are buying at the moment. The house is on a small culdesac and is the 1st one on the corner, when we viewed the house the owners told us it was classed as a private road and that all the houses on the culdesac were responsible for 'chipping in' when repairs were necessary. In the 15 years they have lived there they have never had to repair anything. It is also tarmac.

stator

Kirstie93 wrote: »

This seems exactly the same as the house we are buying at the moment. The house is on a small culdesac and is the 1st one on the corner, when we viewed the house the owners told us it was classed as a private road and that all the houses on the culdesac were responsible for 'chipping in' when repairs were necessary. In the 15 years they have lived there they have never had to repair anything. It is also tarmac.

Make sure you get your solicitor to check it out properly, sellers aren't always accurate about these things

moneyistooshorttomention

Kirstie,

I've sent you a PM.

Kirstie93_2

stator wrote: »

Make sure you get your solicitor to check it out properly, sellers aren't always accurate about these things

Our solicitor has received the title deeds and certificates confirming the sellers comments

dinkylink

Hello again,


I appreciate this was now a while ago but things were moving somewhat slow.


However my solicitor has just confirmed that I am indeed responsible for the area assigned to the title deeds as previously described. The neighbours also have there own areas of responsibility but these aren't by the entrance of the road.


I have to say this bothers me somewhat...

LEJC

I live on a private unadopted road that adjoins a public road either end...there are 4 houses responsible for its upkeep. on the title deeds it shows the whole road owned by the 4 houses,stretching across their width and encompassing the whole road...we must also allow a right of way access through to the other roads that join it.

On the face of it we basically have a road which we and the other houses are responsible for that is used by the general public when they have the need to drive over it to get to the adjoining public roads.
Our road is starting to suffer and it has proved difficult over the years coping with maintenance issues when others are expected to contribute to the costs...in some way it almost needs a management company type approach where a monthly fee is paid to cover possible repairs,but sadly that has never happened....and trying to get everyone to agree and pay for repairs at the same time has been very problematic.
In our case it would seem that the brunt of the footfall and usage of the road re damage etc is caused at either end and not so much in the middle but this is only to be expected as they are areas of the road that get the most wear...its very difficult to get the middle houses to see that the road needs repairing at their cost when to them the section directly outside their house is fine.

In your case I guess you are concerned that as you are at the mouth of the entrance everything passes over your responsible area...and in turn it probably becomes difficult to replace or repair a small section at a time without the surfaces becoming uneven and patchwork in appearance

I love the house but hate the road...and given my time again would run a mile from an unadopted piece of road!!!!