Road maintenance liability - coloured Yellow in title plan

kobonet

I would like to get some advise regarding the house that I'm purchasing. The title plan show there is a yellow coloured area which is covering a public road where car and bus would be passing across.

What does that mean in terms of who is going to liable for the road repair?

In the title plan/deed, it has the following wording:

Second schedule (Rights excepted and reserved)
(3) A right of way over that portion of the said estate
road or roads which. is Included In the Plot and coloured
yellow on the said 'Plan and the right to construct a road
or roads and footpath thereon

Third schedule (Tranferees convenants)
(b) to pay a fair proportion (such proportion being
determined in the event of any dispute by the Transferors
in their absolute discretion) of the expense of cleansing
repairing and maintaining the following:—
(i) the sewers and other services serving the Plot
(ii) the said estate road or roads upon which the Plot abuts
(iii) the said common access way referred to in the
First and Second Schedules hereto

Does it mean I have to contribute for the road repair? Is this common?

davidmcn

Is it still a private road? Or has it been adopted for maintenance by the council? If it's private then yes you (and everyone else) will be liable for maintenance. That is common.

kobonet

How do I tell if it's a private road or has it been adopted?
I can see at some point a very small slice of the yellow coloured area, quite likely the kerb, got transferred to another title but all not.

But the road or yellow coloured area is the area where car would be passing by. In event of a repair or resurfacing the road, would council come to every owner and ask for a contribution? Is that practical?

MaiseMeal

Ask the Sales Manager about your road/home owner (if preowned). Sounds like you are using the developer's solicitor? Because an independant solicitor would be making all enquries with your best interest.

I'm speaking from personal experience. I opted to use the developers solicitor for a fast purchase of a new build. I knew they would have a vested interest in association with the developer, but I never knew it would be to this extent.

What I wasnt ok with was the fact the NO enquries were being made about the unadopted road, or anything for that matter. The solicitors even tried to lie to me. I guess they thought I was stupid enough to believe them and sign anything they gave me.

I even had to send them my OWN enquries because I knew something wasn't right. There was nothing in writing on covenants/land registry documens about the private road maintenance. I was given NO deed information to the house. I couldnt even see what part of the private road/house I owned. And they actually expected me to sign the documents.

The incompetent solicitors even tried to convince me that the management company that would be tending to the green spaces on the estate/sewage-drains under these spaces would be liable for the maintanance of my private road. This was not the case.

I told the developer sales manager, unless I get everything in writing about my private road and the rights of way of the road, I will pull out of the purchase. I pulled out. Everything in my land registry document was about the soon-to-be adopted road adjacent to my private road.

By the grace of God, and researching on this forum, I dodged a f****** bullet! I mean, what other imperative information was I not getting about the developement? This was a 380K house, Davidsons Group Developemts & BHW New Build Solicitors.


Also, the council will have nothing to do with your road. If there is damage on your road, every house will have to find a company together to come and fix it. Tensions can brew when some people don't want to chip in. Maybe because they don't have cars, so they didnt cause the damage. Suddenly you are forced to either leave the pothole/damage in the road or fork out money between the 3 of you. Same goes for resurfacing. The compnay your road hires would have their own policy on how that is paid. Your deeds will show how much of the road you are liable for and that will determine how much you have to pay for resurfacing.

davidmcn

kobonet wrote: »

How do I tell if it's a private road or has it been adopted?

You ask the sellers? You check the council's website to see if they have information on adopted roads? Your solicitor will in any event check. What stage are you at in the process? How old is the house? Has anything been said about a service charge or similar being payable for common parts of the development?

In event of a repair or resurfacing the road, would council come to every owner and ask for a contribution? Is that practical?

If it's a public road then the council maintain out of their own funds like any other public road. And the title conditions are now redundant.

kobonet

I’ve just checked from the council website and indeed the road is Highway adopted status. Also the search report show the road is Highway Maintainable at Public Expense (carriageway and footway are public).

Glad to have asked here and thanks for pointing me to the right direction.

I’m at the stage that exchange will be taken place in the next few days. It’s an old house. I was clarifying this with my solicitor, they told me that I will have to contribute for the maintenance because the title said so. Yes I agree there are solicitors don’t really do the job properly they should have pointed this out easily as the search report have already indicated that.

Many thanks for your help.

bouicca21

The site on which my block of flats sits has a similar clause. It similarly worried my solicitor. The road was adopted some 50 years ago, so the solicitor agreed it was an imaginary problem.

davidmcn

kobonet wrote: »

I’ve just checked from the council website and indeed the road is Highway adopted status. Also the search report show the road is Highway Maintainable at Public Expense (carriageway and footway are public).

Glad to have asked here and thanks for pointing me to the right direction.

I’m at the stage that exchange will be taken place in the next few days. It’s an old house. I was clarifying this with my solicitor, they told me that I will have to contribute for the maintenance because the title said so. Yes I agree there are solicitors don’t really do the job properly they should have pointed this out easily as the search report have already indicated that.

Many thanks for your help.

If you're about to exchange then I would have thought your solicitor will have their search results showing that the road is public.

G_M

kobonet wrote: »

Does it mean I have to contribute for the road repair? Is this common?

Yes.
And yes.


If you are doing the conveyancing yourself, don't.


If you are using a conveyancer/solicitor, go in and see him and ask for this to be explained.