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PIxelAud
Posts: 3 Newbie
Hello and I'm sorry if this is in the wrong forum.
We have a non-gated un-adopted alleyway with a massive hole down to the drain which poses a real risk to the public as it's used as a cut through. Is it correct that the council has no responsibility to maintain this? As residents we keep the alley clean and tidy but this is quite dangerous and beyond our skills to repair.
Thank you for any help you can offer.
Audrey
We have a non-gated un-adopted alleyway with a massive hole down to the drain which poses a real risk to the public as it's used as a cut through. Is it correct that the council has no responsibility to maintain this? As residents we keep the alley clean and tidy but this is quite dangerous and beyond our skills to repair.
Thank you for any help you can offer.
Audrey
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If it is not adopted then it is not the council's responsibility. Do you know who owns it? When you bought your house did your solicitor give you any information on who was responsible for maintaining the alleyway?0
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It's the responsibility of whoever owns the land. So you need to find that out first.0
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Ah ok, seems I need to do a bit of hunting. Thank you for replying. This is not going to be a simple one to solve!0
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I'm wondering how the alleyway got to be there in the first place??
I know you've said the Council say "Not ours guv" - but are they the ones that put that alleyway there in the first place? (which would rather indicate otherwise imo).
I'm saying this because my last house had an alleyway at the back and the land of that alleyway had been taken off the back gardens of the houses it served - courtesy of the Council some time before asking the house owners if they wanted a back alley and then taking a bit off the back garden of the houses concerned to provide that alleyway.
So I'm wondering if you've had the same sort of thing - or whether that alleyway was put there in the first place by a private developer that built those houses?0 -
The houses were all built in the 1890's. The alleys are all cobbled and ancient and have never been part of the gardens. I think I'll have to do a land registry search to find out who owns them?0
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I would ring Land Registry, they're lovely helpful people.
I did something similar to find out who owns the 10-foot that runs along the back of our gardens (we're in a terrace). It turned out to be unadopted but not unowned. It's a strip of land that we all use to put our bins out etc and it's mentioned in our deeds that we all have easement (.......or something).
The LR didn't have a record of an owner but suggested I go to the library and use their computers to research previous owners of our houses (there's 7 in our row). One name that kept coming up was Mrs x and her brother Mr y. The library people were also V helpful and showed me how to use their Ancestry program. The library gets the full version and all new updates, hence LR's suggestion I use theirs
It worked a treat. I spent a few happy days trawling through ship logs and manifests, and poorhouses and workhouses and insane asylums, and all the usual births/deaths/marriages. Very interesting actually.
In my case it was all to no avail. The farmer who originally owned the land 120 years ago didn't include the 10-foot when he sold off land for our houses. So it's currently owned by dozens of "heirs and assigns" as it travels down through wills and estates etc. I doubt any one of them even realises it frankly ha haa!
Bit long, but I HTH. Or at least gives you some inspiration The second man to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, Bobby Leach, survived the fall but later died as a result of slipping on a piece of orange peel.0 -
The houses were all built in the 1890's. The alleys are all cobbled and ancient and have never been part of the gardens. I think I'll have to do a land registry search to find out who owns them?
In those sort of circumstances (ie historical interest basically) I tend to advocate seeing if one can find a local history enthusiast (some places have societies for it - others will have the occasional solo enthusiast). Someone like that might well know - and would probably thoroughly enjoy doing that sort of research out of interest.
I have no interest in history at all - but, if I did, I'm imagining somewhere like the local Anglican vicar or any local museum would "point you in the right direction" to start with. In this day and age - there's also the local Facebook group.0 -
If the drain is a water authority one (Sewer, gully pot for surface drainage etc) I would talk to them.0
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It might be more time efficient if you all clubbed together and found a local handyperson to do the fitting of a grid, if that's what it needs and there's nobody willing to take it on, or an authority to accept responsibility.
Not the sort of job I'd baulk at, and I'm not skilled in the real sense of the word.0 -
YoungBlueEyes wrote: »
I did something similar to find out who owns the 10-foot that runs along the back of our gardens (we're in a terrace). It turned out to be unadopted but not unowned. It's a strip of land that we all use to put our bins out etc and it's mentioned in our deeds that we all have easement (.......or something).
Are you in Hull by any chance? That's the only place I've ever heard it called a 10-foot.0
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