Insurance for private road?

janelongstaffe

Hi there,
Can someone help me please?
My mother died in May and didn't leave a will. Her home has gone through probate and I am just about to exchange contracts for her home with a builder (a house with a building plot which was used as her garden)
My solicitor tells me I need insurance for the road as it is a private road and this will cost me £200. I will be exchanging contracts in about 7 days, why should I pay this?
My mother used to pay for the upkeep of her road but never paid insurance, so why is the solicitor asking me to pay this insurance when the new owners should pay it as they are the ones that will be building a new home on the plot of land and gutting my mother's house.
Is this correct or have I lost the plot somehow? I do not want to pay a years insurance for them.

davidmcn

Since none of us knows what the insurance is for, you'll need to ask the solicitor to clarify.

janelongstaffe

My solicitor was quite vague but rang me up this afternoon to ask me to pay it. She said it was indemnity insurance for access. The house, plot of land and private road will no longer belong to me in 7-14 days as they will be owned by a builder

I paid the annual road maintenance costs for my mother last April. The solicitor has no idea if this cost includes an indemnity insurance in the cost anyway (She never even asked me and to tell you the truth I don't know myself - I just paid the bill from the residents association whilst my mother was in hospital)

I feel very reluctant to fork out £200.

It just doesn't sound right to me.

G_M

My first reaction was to assume it was 3rd party liability. eg someone has an accident on the road due to a pothole and sues the owner of the road.

janelongstaffe wrote: »

.... She said it was indemnity insurance for access.

However from the above it seems there is some doubt about he right of the owner of your mother's house to use the road (access).

The insurance protects the buyer against the possibility of someone popping up in the future and denying him access to the property via the road.

Who owns the private road? Presumably not the house-owner (your mother's estate)? A local farmer? Someone else who lives on the road? Is it jointly owned? Or is it impossible to say who owns it (seems likely!).

What do the deeds to the house say about the right to use the road?

eddddy

Following on from G_M's comments, from a practical perspective, you have 3 choices:

1. Pay the £200
2. Tell the buyer you wont pay for it, and they must
3. Argue that indemnity insurance isn't required

(It's a one off payment, not a yearly payment.)

It doesn't sound like your solicitor would support you on option 3, so maybe avoid that. So perhaps it's down to a battle with the buyer over options 1 and 2.

If you're up for a battle, you could phone your estate agent and say "Tell the buyer that if they want indemnity insurance, they have to pay for it."

Normally, you should be wary of upsetting your buyer, in case they storm off in a huff (over £200). But most builders tend to be a bit more "hard nosed".

janelongstaffe

I am now armed with a bit of ammunition to take to the solicitor.
I do not know who owns the road(s) I have a feeling it is the residents. I think there at least 3 private roads on that estate and the solicitor has the deeds to the property at the moment anyway
It sounds like a grey area.....but not my responsibility soon....
The builder is purchasing the property and plot of land for a good price anyway, so I will insist he pays for it (No estate agents were involved, people were falling over each other to buy it once they realised my mother had died. The house was VERY run down but everyone wanted the building land as it was the last plot on the estate)
Thank you!

Chunters_a_lot

I think 'access' is the key here. We have what sounds like a very similar arrangement. There are 6 houses that use the 'private road' (unmade lane full of potholes!) we use to access our house. However no one claims to own the road (if they did they would be liable for the maintenance). As neighbours we maintain it every now and again when the potholes get too deep :rotfl:

However should the owner of the road every identify themselves they could, in theory, deny us access and there is no other way to access our homes.

When we bought our house we paid an indemnity insurance to cover the cost of legal fees should we ever need to establish our right of access over the road.

It sounds like in your situation, as in ours, it would be the buyer who would benefit from the insurance - so up to them to pay the price of the policy

onlyroz

When we bought our house the vendors paid for an indemnity policy to cover access to the lane that runs behind the terrace. Nobody knows who owns the lane and the policy is to cover the eventuality that somebody tries to take the access away.

janelongstaffe

Thank you for that Chunters_a_lot!

That is the way I was starting to think.

My solicitor has the deeds at the moment but this Residents Association has been around since my parent's bought the house back in 1957. Four streets were built around the same time and all are privately owned. The association keeps the roads in perfect condition too.

I can feel a fight coming on with my solicitor but I have the email address of the builder who is buying....Might pluck up courage and tell him to pay.

Yikes

Marktheshark

The prize question is :
Who's name will be on the policy.

janelongstaffe

Marktheshark wrote: »

The prize question is :
Who's name will be on the policy.

In 2 weeks time the property will not belong to me.

Should I care if the buyer loses access? (The chances of that happening are pretty remote anyway)