Shared Road Joint Maintenance Fund

phoebass

I'm hoping someone will be able to help, I've searched the forum and the internet but struggling to find an answer. 
I've recently moved into a house that has a shared road that gives access to 4 other houses. They all have right of access over the road but I own the road, in my deeds. All houses that have access over the road have it written into their deeds to contribute towards reasonable maintenance costs of the road. It is newly surfaced so unlikely to need it doing again for 15+ years- I hope! My question is, can I set up a fund that all houses that use the road contribute towards (say £100 per year for example)? I'd like this to go into a 'pot' that can be used when we need to carry out maintenance, this will stop any large unexpected bills for people. Understandably my neighbours will want to make sure I don't spend this money on beer so how do I go about this in terms of keeping the money safe? What sort of account would I have to open? Is there a company that could provide this?
Thanks in advance! Any advice greatly appreciated! 

NameUnavailable

You can certainly suggest the idea to your neighbours, but you can't enforce it (as with a service charge for a leasehold property for example).

I think if I were a neighbour I'd rather make my own arrangements for saving for future repairs as opposed to paying into a sinking fund that I may or may not benefit from in the future.

Sistergold

Every house owner is best advised and most likely keeps an emergency. When the time comes you get quotes and everyone will have to cough up, £100 a year for the estimated 15years makes no sense. This will be £1500 over the 15 years which most home owners would rather find and will likely afford at the time. 

Personally I would not contribute to such a fund but I will also be mindful of possible future obligations and save for it. 

eddddy

The deeds are the legal contracts that you have all agreed to.

If the deeds say that you can collect £100 per year (or whatever) from each owner then you can enforce that. If the deeds don't say that, you have no way of enforcing it.

You could invite them to voluntarily pay you £100 per year - and/or you could invite them to voluntarily sign a new deed promising to pay you £100 per year (you might want to pay a solicitor to daft the deed, and make it watertight). But it might get messy if some decided to voluntarily pay/sign, but others didn't.

As NameUnavailable suggests, I think it would be much simpler and much less risky if everyone just saved up their own £100 per year in their own bank accounts.

(You say you've just moved into the road, so your neighbours don't know you very well. How will you convince them that you won't spend their £100 per year on beer, cigs and betting?)

Davesnave

eddddy said:

(You say you've just moved into the road, so your neighbours don't know you very well. How will you convince them that you won't spend their £100 per year on beer, cigs and betting?)

Would it make a difference if it was kale, yogurt and a donation to the Donkey Sanctuary?

princeofpounds

Just talk to them. When you think that the road may need resurfacing in a couple of years, bring up the topic, given them plenty of notice and there should be little problem. I agree with the others that there is probably little appetite to start a voluntary sinking fund at this point.

Ultimately if the road deteriorates, its will be more painful for them than for you. Do you actually have an obligation in your title deeds to maintain the surface. If not, you don't actually have to, but bear in mind that those with a right of way over it also have the ancillary right to maintain it at their own expense if you do not. 

SallyDucati

One point also is what would happen to the funds when one of the owners sells?  

eddddy

SallyDucati said:

One point also is what would happen to the funds when one of the owners sells?  

Going a bit off-topic - but the main point of a sinking fund is that you don't get your money back when you sell.

As an example...  if the road is resurfaced every 15 years, and there is no sinking fund...

• You own a house for 14 years - in-between resurfacing dates. You get to use the road for 14 years and never have to pay a penny towards its maintenance and repairs.
• I then own the house for just 1 year - which coincides with the resurfacing date - and I have to pay a huge bill to repair 15 years of wear and tear. But I only get to use the road for 1 year.

But if there were annual contributions to a sinking fund, you'd pay 14 years of contributions for wear and tear, and I'd pay 1 year of contributions for wear and tear - which is probably fairer.

(But in the OP's case, I still wouldn't be in favour of a sinking fund.)