Unadopted road

anandp

When I bought my house last year, I was not aware, through solicitors or otherwise that I was buying on a private road - not too fussed as I probably would have bought anyway.

The first time I heard about it being 'unadopted' by the council was when I requested them to add street lighting to the back of this small cul-de-sac as there had been a number of recent burglaries in the corner area, most probably incentivised further by lack of appropriate lighting.

Got responses from the Council saying it is not their policy to adopt 'unadopted' roads and in extreme cases, when they choose to do this, the street has to conform to their requirements prior to handover - naturally the cost being bourne by the owners of the road.

This brings me to the next point - neither my solicitors nor the council can tell me who actually OWNS the road. My solicitors have looked into it and have only provided options (i.e. residents own it, a housing association owns it - none exists, or the original developers own it - cannot be traced).

The borough in question is Harrow Borough council. What really annoys me is that I'm paying Council Tax and not getting the full benefit from it.

Does anyone have any suggestions or experience on how to tackle this?

I've spoken to the other 15-16 residents and they are of the same view - happy to have it adopted, but don't exactly know how. I'm thinking a petition may help...

Imp

anandp wrote: »

The borough in question is Harrow Borough council. What really annoys me is that I'm paying Council Tax and not getting the full benefit from it.

You are getting the full benefit of the maintenance of every adopted road in the borough. It's just yours isn't one of them.

If the road is not up to adopting standards, then it would have to be brought up to the right standards, probably by the home owners. You are probably looking at £1500 per linear metre if the road falls well short of the standards for adoption.

It may be worth while checking if the sewerage system was adopted by the local water utility or not. If not, then the residents would be responsible for any blockages/collapses.

The rules about getting things up to standard before addoption is so that the council tax payers do not end up paying more over the long term.

Petitions are useless. They are treated as one complaint, no matter how many people sign them. 16 individual letters is far more productive.

Richard_Webster

How old are the houses? If the builder bought the land after 1937, constructed the road and built the houses then the title will be registered and a SIM search at the Land Registry should show the title number(s) for the road. The you can get a copy/copies of the registry entries and find out the name of the owner. if the road was laid out or the land was bought by the builder before Middlesex became compulsory at some date in 1937 then it will be more difficult to establish ownership.

Presumably there is nothing in your Land Registry entries or any related documents about contributing towards the maintenance of the road etc.?

space_rider

The 2nd house I bought is on a private road. We were told by the solictors and given an estimated price for the work to be done. That was 20 years ago, all the same residents and no one is interested in paying to get the work done. The pot holes are quite deep now. Lighting isn`t an issue as everyone has security lights. There`s only 5 houses.

PasturesNew

If it were me I'd just get my own good security/security light installed. An unadopted road is most likely something you and the other residents would have to pay for any changes to - and as everybody's financial situation is different, while they'd like improvements to be carried out they are most likely not in a position to fund them.

So, I'd enquire of the other residents and their understanding of the situation. Find out if they were agreed in principle to pay an amount towards good lighting. Follow up any leads on other forms of ownership just in case.

But I'd expect the bottom line to be that even if somebody were deemed to own it, they'd not be interested in paying for you to have lighting. Even if all residents agree it'd be nice if something should be done, they'd not be in a position financially to contribute - and then you have the whole issue of the split of the costs. i.e. if it were 4 houses, the first might only agree to paying a small part because his is closest to the road, while the one at the far end won't fancy being hit with most of the cost because the first house points out that he will never benefit from the lights further along than his own house.

panichousebuyer

When we bought our current house six years ago, the sale nearly fell through because of this problem.

The road on which our house stands was originally unadopted and apparently stayed that way for a number of years, due to certain pipes being under a couple of people's gardens.

The water board wouldn't take responsibility for the pipes/sewer, can't remember which now, and so the council would not adopt the road.

However, even though this had been resolved a number of years before we bought the house, our solicitor still picked up on it because he said it might have implications on our mortgage as we would be responsible for the upkeep of the road and verges!

anandp

Thanks for all the replies.

Good suggestion on the Water Board piece - I'll check that.
I have read the land registry entries on my building, and there was no mention of road ownership.

The houses on the street were built in early 1980's so probing deeper into Land Reg. entries may prove useful.

I understand the council's position to an extent, however, the road in question is not in bad shape, apart from the lighting issue. Kerbs, surfaces, etc. are in good condition - therefore I'd like them to inspect it and give some direction but they seem hesitant.

SquatNow

In the meantime, pop to B&Q and get some security lights.

lonestar1

If you dont know who owns the road then you may not even have permission to use it!
If you can find who does own it maybe offer to buy it from them after expalining they would need to fund any reapir work to drains etc under their road.

Once you own the road turn it into a toll road and charge your neighbours to use it. After a few years you should have made enough cash to do any upgrades needed to get it adopted by the council

Richard_Webster

If OP has own LR entries then photocopy the plan, stick a red line round the road and send a SIM search off to the LR. This should give title number for road and then OP can get registry find out name of owner. If a company can then find registered office and if company still in existence by doing a free web search at Companies House.

Is there anyone who has lived on the estate since it was built? They might remember what was supposed to happen about the road.

In some cases the builder might have deliberately not built it to adoption standards and then set up a complicated arrangement with some kind of management company owned by the residents to look after the road. Then as no real maintenance would actually be needed for some years, none of the residents understood what was supposed to happen, and they got bored and let the company that was supposed to do the maintenance get struck off for not filing its returns at Companies House.

It is just possible that a person who has lived there since the houses were built might know this kind of background info.

anandp

Richard - whats OP and SIM search?

I've spoken to most of the residents and unfortunately, no one has been here since the place was built....might have a chat to the remainder to see if they did.