Would you buy a house on a private road?

ellie27

A house we are looking at is on a private road.

The road has 3 detached houses on it.

Owners say they have never had any problems on the road and they did have pot-hole filling in and split the cost 3 ways. Neighbour on one side been there for 45 years and other neighbour around 25 years.

Would the private road put you off? I wonder if thats one of the reason it has not been bought already.

stator

No, but I would get the exact legal responsibilities for maintenance of the road confirmed.

enjoyyourshoes

Has the road got access to other land that can be developed, or can there be any infilling of new housing on the existing detached properties gardens etc? If so consider the impact of this on your use of your property, traffic, etc.


Also get the exact use of the road if any exist (weight limit, width limit etc)


Any joint responsibilities could lead to tension especially if legal documentation is hazy !

HanTon

It would be very interesting to see a photo of this road.

ellie27

enjoyyourshoes wrote: »

Has the road got access to other land that can be developed, or can there be any infilling of new housing on the existing detached properties gardens etc? If so consider the impact of this on your use of your property, traffic, etc.


Also get the exact use of the road if any exist (weight limit, width limit etc)


Any joint responsibilities could lead to tension especially if legal documentation is hazy !

No land space at all for any new houses and no gardens big enough that any houses could be built on, so not worried about that.

It is not a through road, just a road of around 50m long.

Slinky

My family home was in a private road. We used to club together to do/pay for repairs. The only time my Dad refused to pay was when we had a builder at the far end of the road running his business from home and he had about 3 lorries come up each day for the workers to get instructions. I think the builder ended up having to pay extra that time.

We used to have gravel and the road just kept swallowing it, so eventually we had hard core and a sprayed hard top put down. Whilst it cost more that time to get it done, maintenance costs have gone down hugely since. I don't recall anything being done to it in the last 10-15 years. There's a couple of potholes but nothing major and this is a road that has about 20 houses so much more traffic than yours.

In answer, no it wouldn't put me off buying on a private road provided I knew what the access rights etc are over it.

DKLS

I would run a mile from a shared private road. Total deal breaker for me.

Shahni

No it wouldn't put me off, but I'd make sure my solicitor checked the relevant access rights were granted and the responsibility (and cost) of maintenance and repair were clear.

Slinky

DKLS wrote: »

I would run a mile from a shared private road. Total deal breaker for me.

It's funny how people view things. Our local estate agents see the few private roads round here as selling points.

pickles13

We are in the process of buying on a private road, and at first, it did put me off as I just had no idea what it wold entail. There doesn't seem to be any issues at all at the moment. The lady we are buying off said that they all clubbed together to turn the road into a dead end a few years back but other than that, everyone maintains their small part of the road.

DKLS

Slinky wrote: »

It's funny how people view things. Our local estate agents see the few private roads round here as selling points.

I have a long list of deal breakers some of them are logical and reasonable some aren't :cool: