To not contribute to private road fund

[RoadFundRefusenik]

We live on a council-owned road that can only be accessed by crossing a private road. When we first moved here, the committee that maintains the road used to send a letter explaining that although we aren't on the road they would appreciate if we would contribute to the fund. For ten years we have ignored these letters.

Last year the tone of the letter was more pushy and implied that our contribution was not optional. This year in addition to this year's charge they have said that last year's demand is still owing and if we don't pay they'll register it as a debt that may affect our credit rating.

In the past we have chosen not to pay because as we see it we live on a council road and pay our council tax to cover these things. In addition, for the first several years we chipped in with our neighbours to pay for a gardener to maintain a council-owned patch of land between our properties and the private road that the council never tends to. Now we take turns with our neighbours to mow it, rake the leaves, take care of the trees etc. As part of this we also clear leaves from the private road and cut back tree shoots that overgrow that road so we do contribute, just not financially. Some of our neighbours contribute and others don't.

So AWBU to continue to not contribute to the road fund? And do they legally have the right to threaten our credit rating over this?

We have this situation! Our cul-de-sac is 'adopted' by the council but we have to drive about 300m along a private road at the end to get to the main road.

We have paid about £50/year since we got here. There is a road association - it is well managed and the funds/spending clearly documented.IMHO it's money well spent, as without maintenance the road would be in a dreadful state with pot holes and blocked drainage.

There are always a few miserable buggers people who refuse to pay and everyone knows who they are. I think if you move into a house knowing the situation you should contribute.
The world is a nicer place with good neighbours.

Funnily enough, we had a situation a few years ago when the drains in our road were collapsing (old pitch fibre style). As they were within the boundaries of the houses we were each responsible for the cost of replacement of the section in front of our houses, and a % of the cost of all those houses 'up stream' (as arguably we were using some of their drain . Someone towards the bottom of the road who previously had refused to ever pay into the road maintenance fund tried to argue they shouldn't have to pay, but funnily enough, the other residents weren't very sympathetic!

Pay it! It will come back to bite you at some point!

After double checking the lease I'd write back informing them there's no such clause and that you have established right of access.

Tbf I can understand their irritation but that's something they need to take up with the council. I

Aargh, typed long post , lost it.

So, more briefly,
Access- Fizzy has it, Flora incorrect.

Download your deeds, the Title Register, not the plan, HMLR, £3.
Also, on HMLR site, Map Search the private road, to see if it's registered.
And download the Title of one house on the private road, and see what it says about ownership and maintenance of the road.

Ask the local council to clarify the position: here it would be County Highways Dept, but depends on your location.

I think someone might just be making this up in a fit of righteous indignation ."Register a debt" , do ask them who with ? (really, don't) If it's a legal liability, they would have to take you to court if you decline to pay. Not use a mythical " debt register ". They can only do that if they can demonstrate that you have a legal liability to pay.

"My neighbours who all live on a private road were split about this and ended up not doing it. Years later the road is so bad it has really knocked off the value of their houses."

This too.
If a private road becomes too badly maintained (due to lack of funds etc) the council can deem it dangerous and either a) do the work and bill the residents or b) adopt it as a council road.
Your house is probably benefitting in value at the moment by living in a 'naice' area, but this could disappear.

This makes no sense. You either legally owe money towards the road or not. The simple thing would be to go knock on the door of whoever sent the letter and ask them to show you documents that prove you have an obligation to pay. If they can't, then I don't see how they can "register it as a debt". (I don't know what they mean by that.)

Legally - you have to check your deeds. If there's an obligation to pay, they can sue you for the last 6 years or the years you've owned the house if less.

Morally - if there is no legal obligation, how do you "cross" it? If you just walk over it on foot, that's v different to driving down it multiple times a day!

By "register it as a debt" they must mean a CCJ. But you can only get a CCJ if there's an established obligation to pay!

If you use the road, why wouldn't you pay towards the upkeep? I can see why the residents are annoyed.

I assume you aren't legally obliged to do so, or they would have demanded your share long ago. However, as PPs have said, check for yourself.

If nothing clear comes up in your legal searches (land registry etc) and you or any of your neighbours have travelled across that land for more than 20 years you have established a legal right of way for all. If not, the owners of the private part of the road should be closing the road to all those who have no legal entitlement to do so to preserve the private nature of the road, advising the local authority this is what they are doing each year. I am surprised they do not do this already. If council dustcarts travel across the private road to your property they don't have a legal leg to stand on.

(NOTE They cannot physically prevent you from crossing their land but by posting notices/placing barriers they preserve their rights in law You can ignore this and carry on as normal, but it will come back to haunt you when you wish to sell your property.

If it were me, I would go and have a chat to them, and offer not money, but rather an extension of the tidying up of the verges that you are already doing. Don't mention paying, rights of way or closing the road once a year, just say you are happy to help keep the area nice (and friendly)! To stop you using the road by legal or physical barriers will cost them a fortune so If they are sensible they will be nice back to you.

As I said the problem will be when you come to sell. Potentially the same for them.

Good luck.

I suspect there is something in writing about maintenance somewhere and now the road has deteriorated so much that it needs maintenance you are being called upon to contribute.

If you use it and it's private land then you should help pay for it as others have said.

I note that you said that when you bought the house your solicitor never bought this up. This happened in my private road. Four new houses were built on a piece of land the builders kept. The new owners moved in and when they were asked for money towards the road, they refused. We downloaded their title deeds and there in black and white was a covenant that said they had to pay if they wanted to access their houses. They checked with their solicitors and lo and behold they all coughed up.

Not sure I would have been happy with their solicitors for not doing their jobs properly.

If the road degrades to u useable, would access to your house be affected? Do you have access to how much is in this fund, and if and when it is likely to be us d, or is it purely a contingency? I would probably pay if it wasn’t an excessive amount, and there was transparency with the money, and it wasn’t just being hoarded and much higher than the cost of repairing/replacing the tarmac would be. If you live on the public road, there is probably very little they can do. Do your neighbours all pay it?

What sort of date is your road and house? And those on the 'private' road? Reason to ask.

The possible complications when selling cut both ways- if there's a dispute, you have to disclose this when selling: but so do the owners on the 'private' road.
If the surface becomes very poor, that might put potential buyers off. If you acknowledge the need to contribute financially, that might put others off. ( Unless, should you choose to contribute, you take care to make it a voluntary contribution out of the goodness of your heart, and definitely not an admission that you have any liability to contribute. ( Unless of course it emerges that you do. But I'm betting you don't.)
Once you have all the info, you may need legal input as to how to word your reply, so as to preserve your position.

But first things first, get the info as to whether this is a real liability, or just wishful thinking on someone's part.

I never understood how certain roads never got adopted by the council. I always wonder if some developer's legal team "forgot" to include that bit.

We live down a private drive but there is access down the drive to some garages. We own the entire drive but the people with access have to contribute to repairs/maintenance.

I think yu should be paying, perhaps a lesser amount than those living down the private road, but a contribution none the less.

Phew! So many questions and so many helpful considerations.

I do plan to run this past the council but I'm not concerned about access being revoked: 1)There are probably 100 households on council-owned roads off the private road. 2)The 'new' homes have been there 40 or more years. 3)Some neighbours pay and some don't. 4)I checked the deeds and there's nothing specified about contributing to maintenance of the private road.

I think the change in tone is due to a change in the committee members. A new person has taken over the collection and I think they're trying it on.

I really am just trying to get a feel for whether we're BU. Part of me thinks yeah fair enough we use the road so let's pay.

But.

We went to a road fund AGM once and the tone was so up-their-own-arses I think I got my back up. I think the old guard of the road don't want it adopted because they like the feeling of elitism of being private - some of them aspire to making it a gated community. Now add the aggressive tone and I feel like digging in my heels just to make a point.

Oh yeah. I know it isn't necessary but I do love a diagram so...

What a ridiculous situation - the council should buy the private road and be done with it rather than some people paying for upkeep and others not paying.

Quilting technically they are meant to close the road once a year (there's a gate at one end) and the date gets mentioned in AGM minutes which we used to receive but in the 12 years I've lived here the gate has never been closed and I've made a point of checking on the specified date.

Sassy I agree. As I said, I think there's a contingent of residents who don't want that for ego reasons.

Who built your houses?
Council? Private developer? Approx date?

SassySausageSupper it's not that straightforward to get a Council to adopt a road. The road has to have the correct/minimum width requirements, good drainage systems, lamp posts, pavements etc. Not all roads have this, ours certainly does not.

If you have the right road width, the Council may consider adopting but all the other elements have to be right too. If the Council do the work to make things right, it can cost absolute thousands.

There’s no way I’d be contributing to an unadopted road if I lived on an adopted one! People who live on unadopted roads know what they’re letting themselves in for when they move there. Complain to council/highway authority and trading standards the committee can’t send you letters about money you don’t owe.

To be honest, if I had known all the hassle involved with getting monies from residents for the roads upkeep and liability insurance, I would never have bought this house I am in. Can't wait to sell in a few years time to get away from all the aggro.

Fluffy your situation sounds very like my area except I don't recall any drain repairs such as you describe.