Buying a Property on Private Road

moneyistooshorttomention

Quick check on date - and it was 1 July 2011 as the relevant date for Welsh Water for instance. Think/presume it was the same date for the whole country?

EDIT; Get your point - as sometimes the frontager thing might apply - ie owning half of any road in front of one's house (though I'd guess that would come under the same heading as "anything that goes wrong with drains in one's own garden"??

need_an_answer

That's right money...very technically the road belongs to the front gardens of 3 houses to half the road and one house the other side of the road who owns the other half as "garden to the side of their property.

all with a right of way for any users.


Private roads come in all shapes and sizes. I don't think there is a set pattern.

Our houses were built at the turn of the century when cars or indeed lots of traffic was not the norm,I assume the builders always just saw our road as an extension of the gardens but as traffic increased so did the flow over the road.


At some point developers also built either end of the road whereby the right of way access was then granted or at least came into play.


100 or so years later and we collectively decided it was time to tidy our front gardens...just short of £25k but it should see me out!

Cash-Cows

My concern is that if one person refused to pay for upkeep then everyone else stops paying. The one person not paying will probably be a buy to let landlord because they have no interest in keeping it pot hole free.

need_an_answer

Cash-Cows wrote: »

My concern is that if one person refused to pay for upkeep then everyone else stops paying. The one person not paying will probably be a buy to let landlord because they have no interest in keeping it pot hole free.

Thats true and could be part of the reason that it took many years to finally have a set of residents who would see it as a benefit to improve the road.


You assume wrong on your BTL scenario....I am the owner of one property and its currently let to a lovely set of tenants!
The property in question was my family home for many years but has been tenanted for about the last 5 years.

Why wouldn't a LL want to improve the property and the surroundings?
Afterall a better road is always going to be a plus point when re advertising the property either for sale or rent.

mije1983

need_an_answer wrote: »

Why wouldn't a LL want to improve the property and the surroundings?
Afterall a better road is always going to be a plus point when re advertising the property either for sale or rent.

Probably for the same reasons we have numerous threads on here about LLs and the poor state of repair of the property, trying in on when it comes to deposit witholding etc. They just care about money with no thought to the tenants. You would think that keeping the property in a good state of repair would encourage tenants, and keep the ones they have, but they seem not to see it like that!

Now it IS only a minority that give the rest a bad name, but unfortunately the bad ones also tar the goods ones with the same brush.

I will say though, that when I was renting, I was in the same property for over 13 years with a very good LL. Rent was also below market value which was a bonus!

I also appreciate that the same could happen with owner-occupiers regarding not caring about the general area.

need_an_answer

mije1983 wrote: »

Probably for the same reasons we have numerous threads on here about LLs and the poor state of repair of the property, trying in on when it comes to deposit witholding etc. They just care about money with no thought to the tenants. You would think that keeping the property in a good state of repair would encourage tenants, and keep the ones they have, but they seem not to see it like that!

Now it IS only a minority that give the rest a bad name, but unfortunately the bad ones also tar the goods ones with the same brush.

I will say though, that when I was renting, I was in the same property for over 13 years with a very good LL. Rent was also below market value which was a bonus!

I also appreciate that the same could happen with owner-occupiers regarding not caring about the general area.

Although if you had quoted a little more of my post you would see you are preaching to the converted already!

G_M

Talk to the neighbours. They'll tell you far more than the vendors will (the vendors just want to sell, as do the EA).


And if the neighbours won't talk to you, that in itself tells you a lot..........

moneyistooshorttomention

G_M wrote: »

Talk to the neighbours. They'll tell you far more than the vendors will (the vendors just want to sell, as do the EA).


And if the neighbours won't talk to you, that in itself tells you a lot..........

....and do remember to take anything they say with a pinch of salt - as they may be trying to say how they personally want things and/or how things have been done in the past and that may not be the same thing as how things are/ought to be.