Liability question re traffic calming on private road

Bodkin64

Hi,
We recently bought a house on a private road which is sometimes used as a rat run, so the issue of vehicles speeding and attendant road safety concerns is a hot topic amongst residents. According to our deeds we own the verge in front of our house as well as the stretch of road in front of it, out to the centre. There is a residents association that currently collects sufficient funds to maintain the road but not enough to install any traffic calming measures.
We’ve recently been asked by another resident (not through the residents association) whether we’d be prepared to have a wooden barrier on our verge with a speed limit sign on it. At present the road doesn’t have anything like this, just a few small signs attached to telegraph poles. While I don’t want to appear to be obstructive to well-intended measures to manage speeds on our road, my largest concern is around liability issues arising if the barrier were in some way be a factor in an accident on the road outside our house, bearing in mind it’s unlit and fairly narrow. Should I expect the legal cover on my home insurance policy to cover me in these circumstances? Personally I think there’s enough uncertainty around this to avoid taking any risks. It’s my understanding that although the residents association has liability insurance it wouldn’t cover this and though there would probably be a fund set up to jointly fund the maintenance of these barriers it wouldn’t cover insurance.
Thanks

DullGreyGuy

Does the plan in your deeds actually show that it is party of your property? My assumption is that it isn't and therefore I wouldn't be confident on Home covering liability relating to a structure outside the boundaries of your property.

Bodkin64

DullGreyGuy said:

Does the plan in your deeds actually show that it is party of your property? My assumption is that it isn't and therefore I wouldn't be confident on Home covering liability relating to a structure outside the boundaries of your property.

The plan shows our boundary is actually right at the edge of the road (or at least appears to be), so I’d think the barrier would be within the boundary. However the road is outside it.

Teapot55

We have a fairly new estate near us, where a small road  - about a dozen houses on one side only and looking onto a recreation area - was equipped from the beginning with large planters halfway along. All the houses have their own drive so turning a car isn’t a problem. Not sure what larger vehicles like delivery lorries do. 

Any good for your situation?

Bodkin64

Teapot55 said:

We have a fairly new estate near us, where a small road  - about a dozen houses on one side only and looking onto a recreation area - was equipped from the beginning with large planters halfway along. All the houses have their own drive so turning a car isn’t a problem. Not sure what larger vehicles like delivery lorries do. 

Any good for your situation?

Are you on a private road though? And in this case who has taken responsibility for maintaining the planters, and any insurance costs that might be associated with any liability claims?

user1977

Why would there be liability? Are you saying that if a driver left the road, mounted the verge, and then hit a stationary object in your garden (and in this case it sounds like the verge is part of your garden), it might somehow be your fault? You're insured anyway.

Bodkin64

user1977 said:

Why would there be liability? Are you saying that if a driver left the road, mounted the verge, and then hit a stationary object in your garden (and in this case it sounds like the verge is part of your garden), it might somehow be your fault? You're insured anyway.

That’s exactly what I’m saying unfortunately. I understand that a homeowner on a neighbouring private road was sued by someone who injured themselves walking in a pothole on the road outside their house. Have seen the text from the homeowner confirming this so it’s not rumour blown out of proportion. I don’t know if their home insurance covered their legal costs.

LightFlare

Bodkin64 said:

Hi,
We recently bought a house on a private road which is sometimes used as a rat run, so the issue of vehicles speeding and attendant road safety concerns is a hot topic amongst residents. According to our deeds we own the verge in front of our house as well as the stretch of road in front of it, out to the centre. There is a residents association that currently collects sufficient funds to maintain the road but not enough to install any traffic calming measures.
We’ve recently been asked by another resident (not through the residents association) whether we’d be prepared to have a wooden barrier on our verge with a speed limit sign on it. At present the road doesn’t have anything like this, just a few small signs attached to telegraph poles. While I don’t want to appear to be obstructive to well-intended measures to manage speeds on our road, my largest concern is around liability issues arising if the barrier were in some way be a factor in an accident on the road outside our house, bearing in mind it’s unlit and fairly narrow. Should I expect the legal cover on my home insurance policy to cover me in these circumstances? Personally I think there’s enough uncertainty around this to avoid taking any risks. It’s my understanding that although the residents association has liability insurance it wouldn’t cover this and though there would probably be a fund set up to jointly fund the maintenance of these barriers it wouldn’t cover insurance.
Thanks

how do you plan on enforcing this if its a private road ?

user1977

Bodkin64 said:

user1977 said:

Why would there be liability? Are you saying that if a driver left the road, mounted the verge, and then hit a stationary object in your garden (and in this case it sounds like the verge is part of your garden), it might somehow be your fault? You're insured anyway.

That’s exactly what I’m saying unfortunately. I understand that a homeowner on a neighbouring private road was sued by someone who injured themselves walking in a pothole on the road outside their house. Have seen the text from the homeowner confirming this so it’s not rumour blown out of proportion. I don’t know if their home insurance covered their legal costs.

That's a rather different situation from a driver deciding to take a detour into your garden!

Teapot55

Bodkin64 said:

Teapot55 said:

We have a fairly new estate near us, where a small road  - about a dozen houses on one side only and looking onto a recreation area - was equipped from the beginning with large planters halfway along. All the houses have their own drive so turning a car isn’t a problem. Not sure what larger vehicles like delivery lorries do. 

Any good for your situation?

Are you on a private road though? And in this case who has taken responsibility for maintaining the planters, and any insurance costs that might be associated with any liability claims?

I have no knowledge of financial liabilities re the planters: I just know that if I were to walk along that road I wouldn’t be able to get past because of the planters - not that I would want to take a detour from my route anyway. Certainly wouldn’t be able to drive that way. 

Bodkin64

LightFlare said:

Bodkin64 said:

Hi,
We recently bought a house on a private road which is sometimes used as a rat run, so the issue of vehicles speeding and attendant road safety concerns is a hot topic amongst residents. According to our deeds we own the verge in front of our house as well as the stretch of road in front of it, out to the centre. There is a residents association that currently collects sufficient funds to maintain the road but not enough to install any traffic calming measures.
We’ve recently been asked by another resident (not through the residents association) whether we’d be prepared to have a wooden barrier on our verge with a speed limit sign on it. At present the road doesn’t have anything like this, just a few small signs attached to telegraph poles. While I don’t want to appear to be obstructive to well-intended measures to manage speeds on our road, my largest concern is around liability issues arising if the barrier were in some way be a factor in an accident on the road outside our house, bearing in mind it’s unlit and fairly narrow. Should I expect the legal cover on my home insurance policy to cover me in these circumstances? Personally I think there’s enough uncertainty around this to avoid taking any risks. It’s my understanding that although the residents association has liability insurance it wouldn’t cover this and though there would probably be a fund set up to jointly fund the maintenance of these barriers it wouldn’t cover insurance.
Thanks

how do you plan on enforcing this if its a private road ?

It can’t be enforced. All measures are just a means of discouraging speeding, however that’s not really the thrust of my question. I would be very happy to support all means of discouraging speeding on our road to something reasonable so long as we didn’t run the risk of ending up in hot water if an incident occurred that was somehow attributed to these measures, however well-intentioned they might have been.