Buying a house without established right of way

Dergolem

Hi. I'm in the process of buying a flat but have found out that the road outside is an unadopted, unregistered road and our lender has said they can't proceed without establishing legal right of way. The seller has offered to provide indemnity insurance and a declaration that they've been living there for a long period of time but our lender said that wouldn't be enough.

The seller has tried to find out who owns the land but has so far been unsuccessful. The houses were built in 1924 and none of the neighbours have any knowledge of who owns the road. The seller thinks another lender might be willing to give us a mortgage and is asking if we'd be willing to consider that.

So I've got three questions:

1. Is there any way to find out who owns the road?

2. Is it likely that another lender would give us a mortgage or is it standard for them to say no in this situation?

3. If we can't get a mortgage a family member might be able to lend us the money to cover the purchase price but we don't want to be stuck with a house we can't sell in future. Is it difficult to sell houses without legal right of way?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Brie

Can a local history group help?  Talk to the oldest resident in the area?  (recently met a neighbour who moved into their newly built bungalows as a 2 year old in the 1930s so knows everything about our area).  Ask the local librarians?

lincroft1710

Dergolem said:

Hi. I'm in the process of buying a flat but have found out that the road outside is an unadopted, unregistered road and our lender has said they can't proceed without establishing legal right of way.

Is it difficult to sell houses without legal right of way?

Your prospective purchaser may discover their lender will say they can't proceed without establishing legal right of way

GDB2222

lincroft1710 said:

Dergolem said:

Hi. I'm in the process of buying a flat but have found out that the road outside is an unadopted, unregistered road and our lender has said they can't proceed without establishing legal right of way.

Is it difficult to sell houses without legal right of way?

Your prospective purchaser may discover their lender will say they can't proceed without establishing legal right of way

This is the point, really. If the house is not easily mortgageable, then you should regard it as defective. Indeed, if it can only be bought by cash buyers, it's much less valuable than a similar mortgageable property - possibly only 2/3rds of the value. 

Even if a few lenders will lend on it, you should pause for thought, as they may change their minds by the time you come to sell. 

user1977

If somebody isn't prepared to accept it with 99 years of use backed up by an indemnity policy, they need their head examined.

How many houses are on this road?

Dergolem

Brie said:

Can a local history group help?  Talk to the oldest resident in the area?  (recently met a neighbour who moved into their newly built bungalows as a 2 year old in the 1930s so knows everything about our area).  Ask the local librarians?

The estate agents have asked various locals and have had no luck. We think we know the original builder of the houses in 1924 but he died in 1930 so that doesn't help us much.

Dergolem

user1977 said:

If somebody isn't prepared to accept it with 99 years of use backed up by an indemnity policy, they need their head examined.

How many houses are on this road?

14 houses (some flats). And according to the estate agents nobody they've spoken to on the street has had any trouble with the status of the road, and at least a few flats/houses have been sold on the street over the last 30 years.