Unadopted Roads

[AngryFeet]

How much of an issue are they? The one we are looking at is a crescent and is fairly long. Probably 100 houses. It is not in a bad state of repair no potholes and pretty smooth. No pavements but there is street lighting. Not sure hoe repairs are dealt with so will ask the vendor.

Does anyone live on one? Any problems?

Actually parts have pavement but not if front of house we are looking at.

They are absolutely no issue at all, until they need repairing, have any sort of parking issues or want double yellows or dropped kerbs put in, then there is gritting and getting the drains serviced.

Or best of all big lorries start using it as a cut through, tearing up the verge or making pothole you need to repair.

Worked in local authority highways department and I hated unadopted roads with a deep passion, as people always forget 5 years down the line that's what they have.

That said, if there is a really good management company taking care of an estate it could work well as local councils won't have any money.

Well i cant imagine lorries would use it as a cut through or anyone else as it is a crescent. What happens with drains/sewers?

Normally you pay a decided amount into a fund, managed by some management company or one of the residents. Unadopted roads can mean huge expenses ( drains, road surfacing etc) some time or the other. You still pay council tax but don't get any benefit from it!

Usually drains, sewers, street lighting are your responsibility not the councils. Sometimes street lighting gets adopted separately.

We have one next to our house. No one on the street is willing to pay to have it repaired. It has big potholes and a right mess.

We pulled out of a sale of a house on an unadapted road when our lawyer told us what the ramifications were. It was years ago - can't remember exactly, but we were young and poor and just couldn't afford to take the risk.

unadopted

If its a new development, sometimes the council won't adopt the road if there is a planning application in to build on a neighboring plot.

So if there is any empty/re-develop-able land around the site i'd be very wary as the unadopted road could end up being used for access to the building site.

In my experience - the road fund usually comes up short, one of the numpty neighbors starts campaigning for a gated community (to keep the hun at bay presumably ) - and then another starts parking their fleet of work vans tying up parking spaces.

The only people who benefit are developers as they don't have to bring the road up to a certain standard that a council would insist on before leaving the development.

There is also road marking, street signage, speed control to consider.

I would contact the highways department and ask if they are aware of any issues (to see if have tried to get the road adopted but failed).

I wouldn't, DF has had endless meetings about whether the flooding is road or private drain related.

I think they ended up deciding not to spend a fortune digging it up, but it's been a right stressful saga.

Don't buy a house on an unadopted road. It is a nightmare and if it is a long road, even more so. Potential problems are potholes, damage to cars, how repairs are paid for (there will be people unwilling to pay). Then when the road is damaged, you will find that taxi drivers, relatives etc won't want to come down the road.

Find yourself a nice property on an adopted road. That is the best advice I can give you.