[Closed] House on private road ..... Any horror stories?

My dad does. It’s more pothole than road...

@jam-bo as is this one but past the property we are looking at. This at least suggests nothing looks to have been enforced!

My old work had a private drive. 1km and 230m climb.
£160k to replace it. Every 15-20 years.

Our road is unadopted, serves 16 houses. There is a road committee and we pay a small annual subscription in to a road fund account. We are all jointly liable for it’s upkeep, and we’ve resurfaced once in the 10 years we’ve been here. The annual payments went towards that and we spilt the shortfall evenly, no rancour so far. Seems a good system.

They’re pretty common around here - lots of houses off farm tracks type thing. If they are steep and have a lot of water running down then they can get very washed out and some need repeated and expensive repairs. I have a friend that lives on one and she finally managed to get some work done but it took a change of neighbours and her taking on the admin of the ‘repairs committee’ to get quotes, have a shared account to pay into and so on. Doable, but it could be you that has to invest the energy in making it happen if there isn’t something set up already. If one neighbour doesn’t want to pay, it can be a pita forcing them to do so, especially if there’s a landlord on the street that owns multiple properties on it and doesn’t want to shell out for it (this happened in Hebden Bridge!).

We live on one thats about 150m in length with 8 dwellings. Its got loads of potholes which we accept, but when it gets too bad me and a couple of neighbours get a few bags of scalping, a whacker plate, a digital radio and some beers.

Some chip in for the scalping and tool hire and some don't, but there's no animosity.

I suppose it boils down to how nice your neighbours are.

The council have said they would adopt it but most don't want it. Im ambivalent.

I'm on a private road that I own most of and is a similar length of around 25m. It's good quality tarmac and gets very little traffic. Absolutely zero issues so far and no obvious degradation in the 12 years I've been here.

We live on an unadopted road. It’s 50/50 potholes vs normal surface but I like that as it stops it being used as a rat run and basically only people who live on the road drive up here.

We have a communal pneumatic drill, a few wheelbarrows and a cement mixer that is ‘owned’ by the residents. We all (pretty much) chip in £20 per household twice a year, and around April/Oct one of the blokes up the road gets a few builders bags of type 2/cement and the able bodied blokes grab a few beers and spend a few hours filling the potholes. It’s actually a very nice social and communal effort.

Not actually on a private road but there is one that runs behind the properties for access to garages/driveways (big hedge running along front between road and access path to front gardens).
we are about 1/3 of the way down it. Neighbors are manly older retirees and a few new younger couples.
It’s tarmac so fairly hard wearing luckily.
It gets a bit potholed over time, especially on the corner as it comes round past the end house.
I have filled the potholes with cold set and a whacker on several occasions and the last time I did it one of the neighbors came out offered to pay for the tarmac.
Between me and my next door neighbor we keep the bushes/trees tidy (we both actually have the tools to do so) and each resident puts their bits in their green waste bins.
This informal arrangement works pretty well and I think it also helps them ignore the sound of power tools and banging when I’m working on my truck, or my dog telling the local cats off! 😂

I used to do. It was a pig in winter when the stones that had filled the numerous pot holes had washed away leaving holes that could do some serious damage to your car.

We had a lane committee for the 9 houses/farms but the kitty couldn’t cover the cost to rebuild a bridge when it collapsed so everybody had to park on the main road for a while and walk for a good while it was sorted out. Some lived over a mile from the main road.

The private road that is the access for where I live has recently been sold at auction.
We received a letter from the agents for the new owner telling us that currently parking is stopping emergency vehicle access and so they will be closing the road for a few days in a month's time, and marking out parking bays which will be available for rent on a first come basis and which will then be enforced by a 3rd party. This will also reduce parking by about 30%. Some of those people will have nowhere to park their vehicle(s) shortly.
I'm amazed that there hasn't been a mob gathering holding placards and burning torches.
It doesn't bother us as we have never used that road, and I'd made certain that we were included in the properties eligible to register for a permit for the CPZ that came into force about 4 years ago. The people in the close refused to do so.
I had briefly considered making an offer for the road, but too busy at work to work it through.

I used to, it was fine.

We live on one,(I think everybody owns the bit in front of their house to halfway across)

No real issues but some people are more willing to maintain/pay for scalpings than others. There are a couple of ‘persistent non contributors’ and some really nice helpful people, e.g elderly lady at end, never does any work (she is 70+) but she always keeps a tonne bag of scalpings on her bit and is happy for me to help myself when I’m filling potholes.

Check out the drains(* I’m not clear on this but I think under public roads - council problem, private road - your problem but I think there may be law changes) and who actually owns it and any weird covenants etc around ownership, access and any rights/easements about access, stuff around maintenance etc etc

*edit, before we bought a builder offered to modernise all the drains at a pretty fair per house price, not enough people wanted to chip in, so I *suspect* if there was a big purchase item it might get smelly

We bought a bungalow at the end of a private road 25 years ago, no one knew who owned the road and before we bought ours the road was Tarmaced paid for by five residents of the other houses. The old lady living in our bungalow didn't contribute, she didn't have a car, so when we moved in and made plans to be connected to mains gas that's when it all started. The posse told us we couldn't have gas because it would damage the drive even though they all were on the mains. We carried on regardless and had the pipe moled in, so no damage, but it riled some of them and didn't make for good neighbourly relations. We pretty much rubbed along for 20 years until we sold up.

My old house was on a private road, there were about 15 houses on it and we all got together to share the cost and work of repairing it when needed. It was a nice way of getting to know everyone on the road and fostered a considerate mentality when it came to parking.

My current house is on the corner of two roads, my house is on a road but my garage is on a private road (although next to the house). Again we all get together and do tarmac repairs, clear snow and help each other out beyond that. Our end of the road is way better maintained than the other end of the road, it’s a bit like a tarmac in bloom competition with them.

As long as there is an indemnity insurance policy in place for loss of access (literally peanuts to set up) I’d never be worried about buying another property on a private road.

As is quite common around Malvern we live on an unmade track that belongs to the Malvern Hills Conservators (trading as the Malvern Hills Trust) on each of the houses deeds is a requirement to maintain the upkeep of the track. We have all paid them for an easement to our properties. We have done some simple maintenance over the years but it has got pretty bad recently. However, even though the group of seven properties all have said in principle we should do something about it, it is getting any sensible agreement from the Trust that is a real problem. The chief exec. Came out two years ago and we had a discussion and he said we should use one of their approved contractors but wouldn’t contribute a penny (even though we know that they have contributed to other similar schemes locally) but when we asked for a list of their approved contractors all has gone silent... even after numerous phone calls and emails. Frustrating

Yes here too

400m with 15-20m height gain. Its actually all owned by one household meaning we needed insurance against loss of access to the full market value of the house. That was around £50 iirc.

Maintaining the road is a voluntarily shared cost that fortunately nobody weaselled out of. We retarmacced the lower half recently and I think we paid 6-700 per household.

The only problem is if one household refuses to pay. It’s almost impossible to make them, even with legal proceedings. If the majority of households chip in it should be fine. A formal agreement helps, but I still don’t know the practicalities if someone refuses to pay.

Even if one of them doesn’t have a car, they still need the postie, ambulance, deliveries etc etc ! So they should all contribute if it is the sole access.

We live on one but on a newish development, so a company that we are all owners of was set up and we all pay am annual charge into it. It had built up a decent buffer (£20k or so) which will pay for a repaving when needed (brick over concrete, 100m or so).

Our whole estate hasnt been adopted. 11 years but there are drainage issues apparently.

Biggest problem is broadband. The cityfibre (100meg) wont go into our estate so even with fibre i am living with 18 meg (supposedly 30) and it dropping every day

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn00402/

We live on one. It’s been fine, bar the odd parking irritation. Same as everyone else the road was potholed etc but one of the neighbours, looking to sell, wanted to get the drive done. It was about £1,500 each, which we would have preferred not to spend, but now it’s done it’s fine. I suppose the problem is when everyone else wants it done, you have to agree.

My dad's flat was on an unadopted cul de sac. The flat association got it adopted by the council. Two weeks later the council put double yellow lines around it, which pissed off most residents as it was easier to leave their cars on the road then in the garage block.

The only problem is if one household refuses to pay. It’s almost impossible to make them, even with legal proceedings. If the majority of households chip in it should be fine. A formal agreement helps, but I still don’t know the practicalities if someone refuses to pay.

We’re a bunch of petty vindictive curtain twitchers, they’d stand no chance.

The only problem is if one household refuses to pay. It’s almost impossible to make them, even with legal proceedings. If the majority of households chip in it should be fine. A formal agreement helps, but I still don’t know the practicalities if someone refuses to pay.

Ours has a specific covenant to contribute to the upkeep. That's pretty common, at least in E&W, as a condition of the right of way being granted.

yup, on short one circa 50 metres, gravel not tarmac, land belongs to the nearby farm and we have historic right of way across it

there's a covenant on it for particular houses to maintain it... predictable mixed adherence to that

we fill our potholes with ash and stones, got a bunch of old breezeblocks to smash and use this year; guys on the end nearest the road did tarmac in a lot of the holes near them last year, guys on the far end laid a couple of ton of 50mm chippings around their end (shame nobody else drives over that bit)

next door wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire and don't do squat to upkeep it apart from curtain twitch when you're outside pouring some stones into the holes on "their" bit

the other next door are polite enough but never seen them bother do any upkeep, probably because "their" bit doesn't wash out when it rains.

it's not worth getting shirty with anyone over, life's too short

but don't expect everyone to pull their weight... just like the rest of life

No problem is you have the right attitude. I’ve owned 4 houses. 3 of which have unadopted roads.

When it needs work get out and give it some. I’ve got a few days works to sort the drainage and relay part of ours. I could go chasing money from the lane owner but it’s an estate road and as long as a 4*4 can pass it’s not a problem to them.

My last house was at the far end of an unadopted road - there was some wording in the deeds to say our property had vehicular right of access over the rest of the road but it still wasn't without its problems – on several occasions I had to ask people to move their cars so I could get out, including one time a neighbour who had just got in the shower and initially refused to get out (which I did kick off about as I was in a rush to get somewhere).

Then there was the issue of the quality of the road - rutted and pot-holed as you would expect which caused dust issues in summer and mud-dirt issues in the winter. One year I decide I would sort the whole road out (which severed 20+ houses so quite a large area) and everyone agreed to chip in toward the cost of some scalpings and the hire of the impacter (or whatever they are called). Three days of hard graft in the middle of December in snow and rain and it was sorted. Almost all of the people paid up (with extras such as cases of beer and bottles of wine) but of course a couple of households refused to pay up (and it was only about £30 each FFS).

I didn't do it again and thankfully I have moved to a detached house with its own drive at the end of a cul-de-sac. Bliss.

Tbh I've lived on a private road and I live on a council maintained country road.

The council road is like Beirut but I'm ok with that as it slows what little traffic we do see right down.

The old private road was fine , the farmer would run his digger down it couple times a year. Forget it if your into pointless sporty cars with lo profile tires will do your nut in but average cars will cope just fine if you take a bit of care on the road and don't let it deteriorate to far between workovers.

It is Worth it not to be looking across the estate into my neighbours house.

So if the house is right and you are not buying a ticking time.bomb with a 100k road bill looming in the deeds I'd have no issue with it.

We have vehicle access to the rear of our house via a private road.  Deeds grant us access for any purpose so all good there.  However, it's a mess and needs some repair work. Offered to do it but the person we believe owns the road wouldn't let us do any significant repair as they felt it would make the road more attractive as a rat run (it really wouldn't!)

We did patch one significant hole, but the people who live in the house directly by the hole claim the road is theirs at that point and told us we should have asked them for permission.   So, we're in a position where we are unclear who owns the road and who is responsible for upkeep. If it gets too much worse we won't be able to get down with a car at all.  Not the end of the world for us, but we have older neighbours who are more reliant on being able to get a car down.

So, it can be a pain and I'm not sure I'd want the same arrangement again.

We did patch one significant hole, but the people who live in the house directly by the hole claim the road is theirs at that point and told us we should have asked them for permission.

You should have retorted that you'll just send them an invoice or a letter before action due to the blocked access, alternatively they could help and everyone could get along

Hiya,

Live on one myself 12 houses on it. We all help and keep it tidy. Road mainly pot holes, but is a dead end so no risk of through traffic, These days mainly used by delivery drivers. To be honest every so often we all go out and sweep and tidy it, then I use patching tarmac that you can get from DIY stores to repair.

BR
JeZ

Yeah.....live up a single track farm road...for 30 years we drove past my house and did a 3 point turn in a gate entry and drove back to my house 15 metres away.
Neighbour then put land into a trust fund for the three children , only one of whom lived there.
Next thing is a letter through the door , with a copy of our deeds , demanding 50% of the cost of cutting the roadside hedges and grass ;our deeds stating we're liable for 50% of the cost of road repairs.
I pointed out to the neighbour that the deeds were written 50years ago when there were only two houses ,there are now nine as he has long lets and short lets but I would be happy to pay a fair ninth share.
Next thing is electric gates are erected preventing us from going past our house , necessitating a 5 point turn to park in front of my house.
Long and short is £20k of legal bills later we are no better off ; we now have a code for the gates but I have to get out of the car, open gates , turn the car , get out of car to reopen gates because of the 20 second timer he has set for closing.......
Happy days 😡😡.

You should have retorted that you’ll just send them an invoice or a letter before action due to the blocked access, alternatively they could help and everyone could get along

Yep, but I have a tendency to say things I later regret if I think someone is being a dick so I decided to keep quiet for the sake of neighbourly peace.

@woody2000

That sounds similar to our situation. We own a track, but have to allow access to five houses access to their garages. It's a gravelled track, and not even.

It's fine 99% of the time; one of the other five runs a sports therapy business out of a shed, and some of his clients go a bit fast up it. Quick word with him, and they're more understanding for a while

Another one's ex partner had a racing Porsche (so even more low slung than a normal Porsche). He used to try and level the track to allow his car to get up and down. We had polite words. The deeds say 'access' not 'access in a sports car'

As the servient owner we allow access. They're the dominant users and are allowed to maintain the road for access. They are not allowed to improve it without my permission.

A quick read confirms that maintenance of a right of way by the servient owner is optional in common law and that if he/she choses to do so then it is entirely at their cost. The dominant user of a right of way has ancillary rights to maintain (at their cost) up to the standard, for example to bear the wheels of a carriage, if that is the permitted use. They may not however improve or upgrade the surface beyond the permitted purpose.