Un-adopted footpath /pavement and Homebuyers Survey questions from a seller

3or4magpies

Hi All,
I'm a newbie here and am hoping for some advice please.
1) We're selling our end of terraced house and the buyers solicitors have discovered that the footpath around the back of the house(s) belongs to a now defunct housing development company. The footpath only access the rear gardens of the 6 or 7 houses in the terrace and doesn't cut through to other roads etc. Apparently the development company retain ownership/responsibility for the footpath until it should have been adopted by the local council, but this didn't happen. My solicitors have just written to the council to get their comments as to why this footpath/alley wasn't adopted. Is adoption of a tiny footpath/access alley common and will it be an issue to our buyers if it's un-adopted?.

2) I'm also extremely nervously waiting to hear from my buyers regarding a homebuyers survey done last Thursday (I spoke to the surveyor and she said it'd be with them early this week, she said nothing hugely worrying, just 'a few bits'). How long would you expect for the buyers to contact us (via EA/solicitor) if there are any issues with the survey?
Thanks for you help.

davidmcn

3or4magpies said:

Is adoption of a tiny footpath/access alley common

No.

and will it be an issue to our buyers if it's un-adopted?

Shouldn't be.

3or4magpies

Hi Davidmcn,
Thanks that's helpful. I'd already answered many questions about this alleyway (no, it's never been blocked/restricted, no contributions for maintenance, never heard of the development company, etc etc), so was quite surprised when the buyers solicitor asked mine to write to the council for comments. I always though these tiny alleys were a communal responsibility for the houses they serviced.
Any comments on question 2?

eddddy

3or4magpies said:

I always though these tiny alleys were a communal responsibility for the houses they serviced.

Only if they have entered into some kind of legal agreement that makes them responsible. Is there anything in your deeds about it?

I guess a problem arises when the alley gets into poor condition - and maybe 3 homeowners are happy to pay for repairs, but the other 3 homeowners don't want to pay. (Although, TBH, you can have the same problem even if the deeds say that all  the homeowners have to to pay.)


Regarding how long the buyers take to contact you about the survey - I guess it depends on what the survey says, and what the want to do as a result.

For example, if the survey mentions that some roof repairs are required, the buyers might want to discuss this with 'knowledgeable friends', a surveyor, some roofers etc, before coming back to you - or they might mention it to you first, before approaching anyone else.

Maybe the best plan is to tell your EA that the survey has been done, and suggest to the EA that they call the buyer for a status update.

ladywho

I had a similar situation to you in the summer when I sold my house. We were the end terrace (of 3 houses). When the houses were first built, each of the houses had an alleyway at the back of the garden (supposedly to take bins out) . It hadn't been in existence for as long as anyone could remember, although you could see it used to be there as there were flags at the back of the garden and not grass.

This didn't come up when we were buying our house, although when we sold it, our buyer /their solicitor insisted we complete a statutory declaration advising that we don't use the alleyway and to the best of our knowledge it hadn't been in use for years. Our buyer was satisfied with this. Like yours, the alleyway was owned by a now-defunct development company.

3or4magpies

Thanks ladywho, seems I was wrong though and its the footpath at the front of the house. The road was adopted by the council so why wouldn't the footpath have been?

Section62

davidmcn said:
No.

Agreed. I would expect adoption only in situations where a footpath led to another public highway and provided a through route with public benefit, or if the footpath led to land owned by the council or land they intended to purchase - perhaps for another development or something like a school or recreation ground?

3or4magpies said:

Is adoption of a tiny footpath/access alley common and will it be an issue to our buyers if it's un-adopted?

If I were your buyer then I would want to get to the bottom of why the council wanted to adopt but then didn't. But that isn't necessarily a problem for you. Your solicitor's enquiry to the council might have opened a long forgotten can of worms, and I wouldn't be confident anyone currently working for the council will have knowledge or access to paperwork to explain why the adoption wasn't completed.

The only other matter of possible concern to me could be that if the original intention was for this path to be adopted and become a public right of way then the individual properties in the terrace might not have been granted private access rights over it. Do your deeds say anything about this?

If there is no explicit right of way over this path then things could get complicated if one or more owners along the terrace decided to do a land grab and incorporate a section of the path into their garden. The absence of the development company to defend their property combined with any lack of any explicit RoW could lead to an interesting legal problem for mid-terrace owners. (I can't comment on the legal aspects of that).

Edit: Just seen the issue isn't the rear path.

Section62

3or4magpies said:

Thanks ladywho, seems I was wrong though and its the footpath at the front of the house. The road was adopted by the council so why wouldn't the footpath have been?

If the path runs alongside the road then it would be a footway rather than a footpath. (Legally they are different things).  Is the path next to the road (with or without a grass verge)?

In 1968 it would be unusual to adopt the road but not the footway - my initial thought from that might be that the developer failed to complete the work to an adoptable standard and the council (possibly with a lot of reluctance) adopted the road (only) because of the problems unadopted roads cause when there is nobody around to take responsibility for them.  Even so it would be unusual not to adopt the footways as well - but perhaps it was the footways the council was unhappy with?

Is this a through road ?

davidmcn

Just because the other side are asking questions doesn't mean it's a deal-breaker - they're asking questions because this is their only opportunity to ask questions.

I presume there's no question about a right to use the pavement, if it's been there for 53 years. So the only question might be what happens when it needs resurfaced. Which is once-in-a-blue-moon stuff. Not a big deal either way.

3or4magpies

Hi Section 62, yes the pavement (footway) runs next to the road, then theres a verge, then an inside footpath/footway, then the houses. I've just been onto the highways dept and they say they can see the pavement WAS adopted along with the road but can't email me proof of this, but I can ask my solicitor to email them and they'll respond. Loosing the will to live now....

davidmcn

3or4magpies said:

I've just been onto the highways dept and they say they can see the pavement WAS adopted along with the road back in 1968 (or thereabouts) 

Then it isn't a problem (it won't have been un-adopted later).