Unadopted road question

n217970

Hi, not sure this is exactly the right forum for this but I have just bought a 15 year old house on an unadopted road. Firstly, I knew full well it was unadopted before completion. I've been under a load of stress with work and the house purchase (had a bad experience 12 months ago, the first time we "sold") but as there is a section 38 agreement and bond in place I decided to go ahead and deal with it later. It is a desirable estate and houses sell very quickly so it doesn't seem to be putting anyone else off.

The road appears in excellent condition with the only defects I can visually identify is a few streetlights out. Speaking of which I have no idea who is paying the electricity bill.

It’s now later - so I have had correspondence from the council who say that the only issue stopping adoption is remedial works to be carried out by the developer. I have requested exact details. The original developer is a dormant subsidiary of a current major house builder, but the council have also mentioned the name of another unrelated house building company. I can't see how the two are related (maybe this is the issue if the council are chasing the wrong company)

Anyway, enough background, given that it has been ongoing for 15 years should the council not now be dipping into the bond to bring the road up to spec and then adopting it?

gettingtheresometime

Look at it from the council's pov.....if they force the issue and the road becomes adopted, then there's another piece of tarmac that they have to maintain/can get sued over.


no doubt as far as they are concerned there's very little point in forcing the issue

n217970

I completely get why the council may trying to put off adopting the road but can I force the council to the force the adoption? As it is somebody is sat on a considerable bond, surely somebody is obligated to do something?

elmer

Usually you could ask your local councillor to make enquiries, not all unadopted streets have a bond

elmer

comeandgo

Regarding the street lights, do you know if the footpaths, the pavements have been adopted. If they have then your street lights are council paid. If not then I would imagine the developer is paying.

n217970

Update for today, I got off my backside last night to go look at one of the broken streetlights, it is covered in stickers urging fault reports to the local council but despite this they are insisting on it being the developers problem. The street lighting dept at the council have told me that it is Taylor Wimpey. After some more investigation I have found the original developer was bought out by Taylor Wimpey some years ago and liability does indeed rest with them. I have contacted them to fix the street lights - we shall see how succesful that will be.

I did notice on my walk around the estate last night quite a number of spray painted markings on the road/pavements, at a guess 3-6 months old. Mostly in blue (water). I guess this might indicate the remedial works are planned but who knows?

As for the bond I do know that there definately is one, it came back in the searches during the house purchase and my solicitor was not unduly concerned about the adoption.