Conveyancer searches...Did my conveyancer miss this?

KevinM

dunroving wrote: »

The house I am purchasing has only a partial dropped kerb. It's an odd situation, as the adjoining drive (next door's) has a full dropped kerb, that extends about two-thirds the width of my driveway. It's not as bad a situation as the OP's, as taking the right angle will allow me to get on the drive without hitting the raised part of the kerb.

My surveyor picked this up, but now I am wondering if I should ask my solicitor to check there is a Permit for Vehicle Access ...

It can't do any harm to check...and I think you can simply call the local council office of your new (to be) property and the roads department should be able to tell you if the property has a Vehicle Access Permit attached to it...

By the sound of it (and this is just purely guesswork/common sense by me) is that if part of your driveway doesn't have a dropped kerb, then it's quite possible that it also doesn't have a vehicle access permit...

You can have a vehicle access permit and not have a dropped kerb, but you can't have a dropped kerb, and not have a vehicle access permit...that's how I understand it from my local council website...

AdrianC

Turn the question round - why would you expect there to be a permit, if the kerb has never been dropped? After all, with the kerb not dropped, nobody's using it for vehicle access, so no permit is required.


The solicitor never visited the property, so had no idea whether you might or might not think the front garden looked like an appropriate parking place.



You did notice the kerb wasn't dropped, right?

Smodlet

Presumably you did not buy the property sight unseen. If you bought it at auction without first viewing it, more fool you.

Why don't you contact your conveyancer, tell them the council employee has informed you of their oversight in failing to check something completely outside their remit and demand £1200?

Conveyancers deal with the sale and purchase of commercial and private property; the kerb is neither. It belongs to the council who may, of course wish retrospectively to take issue with your vendor for repeatedly crossing their kerb without the requisite permit in place... Not.

It's snowing again.

KevinM

comeandgo wrote: »

If there is no dropped kerb then you have no right to cross the pavement with your car. Your solicitor would not know if you were supposed to have relevant planning permission, it's up to you to now apply for it.

The crazy thing about the whole Roads Act Scotland is, that you are quite correct in that I cannot cross the pavement to access my driveway, but I can park on the pavement in front of my driveway (providing it doesn't cause an obstruction)...That is what the roads council guy told me...

AdrianC

KevinM wrote: »

The crazy thing about the whole Roads Act Scotland is, that you are quite correct in that I cannot cross the pavement to access my driveway, but I can park on the pavement in front of my driveway (providing it doesn't cause an obstruction)...That is what the roads council guy told me...

That's nothing to do with Scotland. It's the same throughout the UK.


It's not illegal to block somebody getting into their drive, since no obstruction is caused (they can park elsewhere), but is illegal to obstruct them from getting out.


You have no right of vehicle access over a pavement, unless there explicitly is - which is signified by the drop kerb. Local authorities have installed bollards where residents are extracting the urine - and it is legal for them to do so even if a vehicle is on the drive, as there is no obstruction, since there is no legal right of access...

dunroving

KevinM wrote: »

The crazy thing about the whole Roads Act Scotland is, that you are quite correct in that I cannot cross the pavement to access my driveway, but I can park on the pavement in front of my driveway (providing it doesn't cause an obstruction)...That is what the roads council guy told me...

That's what I have heard on the jungle drums where I live (Scotland). Lots of folks park on the pavement, which apparently isn't illegal. But driving on/over the pavement is illegal (other than with a permit, as per this thread). Go figure.

KevinM

AdrianC wrote: »

That's nothing to do with Scotland. It's the same throughout the UK.

Not in London...it's illegal to park on the pavement in London...

takman

KevinM wrote: »

Anyway, I telephoned the council and asked why all the kerbs are dropped (for driveway access) except for mine, and he came out and inspected it, checked his records and said the reason is that a permit for Vehicle Access to a drive under the Roads Scotland act was never applied for...so my kerb was never dropped, like the others were...

You obviously completely missed that their wasn't a dropped kerb when viewing the house. If you had noticed their wasn't a dropped kerb you would have found out before you bought the house how much it would cost to get it done and took that into account before buying it.

moneyistooshorttomention

I think OP is trying to rest his whole case on the fact that there is a drive/there was vehicles parked there and ignoring the lack of dropped kerb.

Well - there was a vehicle parked somewhere in my garden that it shouldnt have been when I bought current house - but I was perfectly well aware that it shouldn't have been and no vehicles get parked there by now by myself/my visitors.

I agree with everyone else - it's the dropped kerb (or lack thereof) that ought to have been taken into account.

Goodness knows - I notice dropped kerbs (or lack of) and I'm not a driver.

dunroving

KevinM wrote: »

<<snip>>
Anyway, I telephoned the council and asked why all the kerbs are dropped (for driveway access) except for mine, and he came out and inspected it, checked his records and said the reason is that a permit for Vehicle Access to a drive under the Roads Scotland act was never applied for...so my kerb was never dropped, like the others were...

<<snip>>

This is rather back-to-front logic. The reason a vehicle access permit was not applied for was because the owner didn't intend to install a dropped kerb. It's not as if you apply for a vehicle access permit and by magic a dropped kerb is installed.

KevinM wrote: »

Hi,
<<snip>>
Anyway, the council guy told me that the permit can be retrospectively applied for, and the kerb drop work carried out, but at my expense...total would be about £1200...

<<snip>>

As others have pointed out, you should have noticed the absence of a dropped kerb. The permit doesn't cost £1,200, most of that cost is for installing a dropped kerb.