Unadopted road liability

Klouise77 · 20 December 2016 at 12:56PM

Hi
We're in the process of buying a house which is on a new ish estate and 2 years old. We have the mortgage arranged and the solicitor. Our solicitor sent an email the other day and mention that the road is unadopted (which we knew there's a service charge) but he said there may be a liability towards highway maintenance they would need to clear with the lenders. Can anyone tell me what this would involves? I've tried replying to solicitor but fear he may have finished for xmas

moneyistooshorttomention · 20 December 2016 at 1:03PM

If there is a liability like that then you would need to establish:

- how many houses would share the cost

- what proportion each house would pay (presumably it would be shared out equally between them?)

- what the decision-making process would be as to whether road needed maintenance or no (eg would it be a communal decision by all people involved or some "bossyboots" trying to make decisions on their own and impose them on everyone else)

- in today's climate (ie suing for road accidents on that road) then who would be the one/s "carrying the can" (ie the claim would go through their letterbox). As far as I can work out the usual position on that - it seems to boil down to anyone that actually "owns" the road (ie the land underneath the tarmac surface) and/or those with the section of road that has caused the accident sitting there immediately in front of their house (ie technical term being "frontagers").

In your set-up I would expect that no-one individual household "owned" the road and that all communal decisions were made fairly (ie communally).

davidmcn · 20 December 2016 at 1:03PM

I presume they just mean the fact that there's a liability to pay for maintenance, as the lender's valuation will (probably) have assumed that the road is already adopted by the council.

Klouise77 · 20 December 2016 at 1:05PM

The valuation said on it private residential area so I wonder if that means new unadopted?

RockOnZombies · 20 December 2016 at 2:39PM

By the sound of it your buying a house on a private estate where the houseowners are all liable not just for highway maintenance but all the other services as well i.e. lighting, surface water management and disposal etc etc, via a private management company. I would recommend that you get this confirmed one way or the other and go from there.

Thanetia · 20 December 2016 at 2:43PM

On a (relatively) new estate it might just be that the adoption process is not yet complete, so make sure that the intention is for the road to remain private/unadopted - if not, have a look for your local authority and their road adoption process - will usually refer to S38 Highways Act. Usually the developer is responsible for the road until the adoption process is complete.