Council Tax charges if Road unadopted

kaz131062

Hi there

First timer here

I have just found out after 4 years in my house that the road is unadopted. Would my council tax bill cover maintenance of the road etc? If so should I be paying this proportion of the bill if they haven't adopted it?

I only found out recently as the Builders sent me a letter saying that the Council will not adopt the road until we cut back shrubs which are supposedly hanging over the highway!. This I will add is partly on purpose, because of the shape of the house we have 2 sharpish corners on our property which if the shrubs were not there people would cut over our grass which they have done on the other corner. Could I say to the builder - yes I will cut them back but I want something putting on the corners (bollards)to stop the damage to our property?

Any advice would be much appreciated

LittleVoice

You can't get a reduction on your Council tax just because your road is not yet adopted.

I see no reason why you cannot ask for the bollards to be erected (unless there s a safety issue with where they would be placed).

However, given that road maintenance can be costly and you don't get a reduction in Council Tax if your road is unadopted, IMO actually stubbornly holding out is unlikely to be beneficial financially.

Are your neighbours keen to have the road adopted?

silvercar

Stick a gate at the beginning of the road, add "exclusive gated development on private road" to the estate agents description and add 100k to the value.:)

pennine

The developer is responsible for all maintenance until the road is adopted. The cost will not fall to you.

Debt_Free_Chick

kaz131062 wrote: »

Hi there

First timer here

I have just found out after 4 years in my house that the road is unadopted. Would my council tax bill cover maintenance of the road etc? If so should I be paying this proportion of the bill if they haven't adopted it?

CT covers all sorts of Council expenditure and it's doubtful that any of us get all of the benefits provided by the Council. So, no - no rebate. Anyway, CT doesn't cover all the Council's expenditure - it just tops up what they get from Central Government.

I only found out recently as the Builders sent me a letter saying that the Council will not adopt the road until we cut back shrubs which are supposedly hanging over the highway!

If the area which the shrubs overhang would obscure the highway, then this is normal. In fact, it's an offence to allow shrubs on your land to grow onto the Highway and you could be held liable for any resulting injury to a member of the public ..... but ...

This I will add is partly on purpose, because of the shape of the house we have 2 sharpish corners on our property which if the shrubs were not there people would cut over our grass which they have done on the other corner.

So is the grass yours? Or would it be Public Highway? Have you assumed it's yours as it joins your property? Or are the shrubs inside the boundary of your land?

Could I say to the builder - yes I will cut them back but I want something putting on the corners (bollards)to stop the damage to our property?

Any advice would be much appreciated

I think you need to be clear as to whether the grass is your land, or not. If it's your land, then you can ask the builder to place bollards to mark your boundary, but this is really your choice and your expense. Unless you have a specific agreement with the builder, it's not for them to place a physical structure to mark the boundary of your land.

But it doesn't sound as though ownership of the grass is particularly clear

pennine

I too had a similar problem with my lawn meeting the highway. You may find that there is a service strip that needs to remain clear of plants and suchlike.
In my case we were unable to put up fences as the development was open plan, once adopted however I placed railway sleepers around the boundry, this also stopped cars parking outside and letting their passengers walk across my lawn.

dzug

You are already (in theory that is) getting a Council Tax reduction. Your house is presumably worth less because the road is unadopted. That lower value may (I did say in theory) take you into a lower band.