Days from exchange then solicitor saw this.. Compulsory diagram included!

[Buckinghambae]

New build, 3 houses on a private new road.

Pink shading indicates adopted highway. Obviously the non-shaded area not so. Was built a few years ago and serves houses to top left.

Our solicitor has raised the fact that our private road is potentially off a private road with no guarantee of access. in a state of mild panic, obviously we aren't liable yet though for various reasons are heavily invested in the house including financially.

Assume if the worst comes to the worst our developer will have to come to an arrangement with the developer who built the road? It's not a catastrophe for us as we are in rented at the moment on a rolling 1 month contract.

But guess this could turn into a bit of a nightmare?

It could be a problem but the developer has an incentive to sort it because that's three houses if im right. I'd be pretty aggressive with the developer and have a moan about your additional costs.

Developer here ( very small , own business) who has had the same problem. Access is a shade iffy on one of our build sites - no-one claims to own the access, and hasn't for 150 years+.

Funnily enough it isn't the overground access that you should be worried about ( this quickly becomes a right ) but the underground access without permission is a big problem. It sounds odd - but you would need this much more if something went wrong..... water...sewage....electricity...broadband and phone cables etc

I have taken out insurance in the very unlikely case that this becomes a problem in my case. I would expect that you would sue my company if anything went wrong and so my insurance would cover this ( and therefore you) . We sorted this out - by writing to everyone in the area to ask if they owned the land - no-one did- , and then insuring the risk ( and it delayed our build for nearly a year - which cost me a fortune!)

I wouldn't build without knowing that this problem was solved - so if your developer is decent, it won't be a problem.

If your developer has not either bought or insured against the rights to both under and overground access ....run a mile. You could end up with an uninhabitable and unsellable house. Be careful!

I was going to suggest an indemnity, I'm surprised your solicitor hasnt suggested that??

I am currently in the middle of an access dispute and really would say 'run a mile' if the developer doesn't have a very quick and proven solution.
My case is very unique and a very long story but I have been told it could take years to sort out and i currently have a landlocked property sitting empty and unsellable. My case was actually caused by my (now ex) lawyers negligence and it caused me to lose the buyers on my property (they stuck in with it a lot longer than I would have) It's all a bit of a shambles really....
Fingers crossed your developer/solicitor can come up with a good solution.

Gladisgood thank you for such a comprehensive and very helpful response. Thinking about it, they've just pulled the services under the queried road which I'm assuming they wouldn't have been able to do without permission/rights?
Ours is the starred one, we are the closest to completing, our neighbours on the right are due in a month behind us. Ours is due to be ready for handover at the end of the month.

We knew we were taking a risk but have had a lot of work done to the house as we got it at 1st fix so worked with their electricians directly, upgraded a few things around the place. We are hugely emotionally invested and in for about £16k. It would be painful but we still have a good deposit if the worst absolutely came to the worse.

We won't take any risks on the actual purchase, we were ok with the upgrade risk but it's a big mortgage and way too much to spend not knowing we had a potential liability risk.

Talk to your solicitor about indemnity policies.

If the road is genuinely unouwned and no one is trying to claim ownership, adequately covered by insurance, lots of houses in this situation. Not the end of the world.

Been searching for more info.

Road was built to provide acces to 12 houses, top left. Houses look pretty new. Maybe 5 years ago. RM names the developer.

In front of my property is currently a Rugby pitch being built on by the same developer due to start any time soon. So I'm 95% sure they will own the road and are still invested in it. Is it worth knocking on the door of one of the 12 to see what the situation is? They must know if it's adopted surely?

Being able to see the deeds of one of the other previous houses would be a good start. To see whether it is shared ownership, shared access etc. Even just a rough idea from a few of them would give an indication if they are all in agreement.
I think you'll be right in that the other developer will own the road and that makes it easier for your developer to negotiate with them.

The Highway Authority should know if a road is adopted because they have responsibility for maintenance if it is adopted. If it is private, the householders do. If you have right of access then that's fine but I would expect the developer to ask the Council (Highway Authority) to adopt it. It could be expensive for you to maintain if they don't.

Have a similar issue - we bought 16 years ago. There is no doubt that the road / lane / connecting potholes is not adopted and is unlikely to ever be adopted. Oldest resident on the lane says no-one has claimed ownership of the lane for about 50 years and any likely candidates have denied ownership for that period. Therefore no owner no permission to use it (the only access to ours and the other residents homes).

We took out an indemnity policy to cover legal fees in the event of an owner appearing and shouting 'get off my land'

It is unlikely anyone will claim ownership as the responsibility for maintenance will come with ownership and no one wants that! As it is every 8 years or so we all club together and get the worst potholes dealt with.

We've been always known the private road in front of our house will be unadopted, there's a well thought out plan for maintenance and funding. It's just the 5m or so where we have to cross the unadopted piece from our private road (my dodgy red pen) to the adopted in pink.

Our city has a very easy to use look up system that's verified the diagram I have, all I guess we can do now is wait and find out who knows what. I'm massively surprised that this wasn't picked up by our developer before we got here, they have a 7 figure commitment on these 3 houses so I'm shocked to some degree that the solicitor their end who bought it for them and is now handling the sale isn't aware of the issue.

I have had planning permission and adoptive road rights to build for over a year. I could have had them built and sold in that time! I didn't because I didn't OWN the rights, so until I had insurance.... and the insurers specifically request details on "underground" rights now.

I'm guessing some developers don't know ( or care)

OP - CHECK. £16K is a lot of money, but you could lose a hell of a lot more, I'm guessing. CHECK some more! Not all of us developers are bad people - but you shouldn't literally bet your house on it.

The developer of the private road (not your private road obviously) has most likely entered into a road bond with the local highways authority that they will bring the road up to a pin adoptable standard and there is a bond in place which means if they don't or the developer goes bust then the local authority can call in the bond and complete the roads themselves and then they are adopted. Until they are adopted highways there should be a right of way which should have been agreed and granted by a deed in favour of your developer over that land until adoption takes place, there should also be agreements in place for easements and wayleaves to allow for the connection of your properties and continued use of the sewers, drains, gas, electricity and other services which run through or over the other developers land. When builders develop land like this it is most usual that they agree all of these at the time the land for the development is being purchased. Your developers solicitor should have all of this information to hand and should be able to produce it on request by your solicitor. There is no excuse for this information coming as a shock to your solicitor as when buying a new build property all of this information should come with the draft contract and the title right at the start of the transaction or should have been requested if not supplied automatically.

Really appreciate all of your assistance, it's very much appreciated. We are exceptionally lucky in that we aren't in a chain, it's no issue to keep renting and it got caught now.

There's no two ways, we will want to be totally sure about the situation. As stated, £16k is one thing, our eye watering mortgage is another!!

Just wanted to say a huge thank you again to all involved in giving us feedback and making sure we asked the right questions.

Turns out that the Right of Way does exist, it's just not been passed over on the deeds from 3 transactions ago. Solicitors, thank goodness, have been really thorough and tracked it all down and they are confident it can be resolved and transferred onto the developers deeds and therefore to us.

So a few weeks and we should be exchanged.. and who knows, we may be in in August!!

Thanks again..