No vehicular access

[Beccaroo456]

we are looking to leave London for better schools and lifestyle and have found our dream house - hurrah! Only (major?) drawback is that there is no vehicular access - boo! Parking is on a road approx 100 metre walk away across a common. It doesn’t particularly bother us from a day-to-day perspective as we don’t use our car much and the house is only a 5 minute walk to a train station and less to a bus stop. BUT will this be an issue for resale, particularly with electric cars and access to chargers becoming more important? Anything else to consider? I guess our car insurance will go up. Would love to hear thoughts from anyone with a similar set-up and whether it drives you mad (or not)? Do deliveries still get to you ok? Any insight on how it will work with the removal company/skip hire/trades when we come to do building work would be greatly appreciated too. TIA

This would put me off yes, and I suspect a lot of people. So reducing your potential resale market. On street parking is one thing, but this is another level.

Who owns the walkway?

Where will you park your car?

What's the bus and train service like and will it stay like that?

Is the house easy to find for deliveries etc?

Are you sure you have a right of way?

Personally I wouldn’t touch this, it is the sort of thing which sounds fine on a nice Spring day, but when you are wrestling the shopping in and it is pelting down…

What about deliveries, come to that?

You don’t use your car much in London. As someone who lives rurally and depends on the car to go anywhere, I’d check how frequent and reliable those train/bus services are.

Well I would look into whether you can create access or not. What happens when an ambulance needs to get to the house? I’m sure you would be given permission but I would want to guarantee that. So long as there is permission then it would be fine to buy as any other buyer can factor that in (and its costs)

This is a tricky one. Is there any access in front of the house even briefly for things like deliveries to just drop something off? Or is the house totally inaccessible?

I park my house 75 metres down our lane away from our house. As far as I'm aware it hasn't affected our insurance premiums and if anything it's away from the busy road we live on so quite positive in that sense. We have to park one car behind the other and it's a huge pain to walk up the lane and then realise the car you want is behind the other- that's probably the worst bit! We don't have any small children so no lugging car seats / prams etc.

The most annoying aspect is having to take food shopping / packing to and from the car but we can briefly park in front of our property, just not for more than about 30 mins. This makes a big difference to us and my mum is disabled so this is the only way we can get her in and out of the house.

If I'm honest, without that access, I think you'd curse it- particularly in the rain and in bad weather and with young children- what if one breaks their leg or something in the future?

Otherwise, for us, it was definitely a factor in why it took our estate a long time to find someone to live in our property and it really has been a fantastic find for us...so it CAN work.

Fair point above about how much you use your car when you don't live in London- you will use your car much much more than you think when you live rurally!!! Bus services are often once every few hours if that!

You don’t use your car much in London.

This is a good point. Twenty years ago I was living in a house and I needed a bun tray in as a matter of urgency and since then when we move, which has been many times, dh and I always think about where we would need to get to for an emergency fairy cake tray. I bet you could get a bun tray in minutes in London!

Surely there is some sort of right of way?

If not, look for something else. You never know when acess becomes essential - this cold be building work to elderly/ disabled relatives or friends visiting.

I have lived in what could be termed 'a middle of a field' BUT there was a farm (shared) track of approx 200 yeards to the property. Navigation was difficult by car or any vehicle but I loved living there.

You want to renovate - I would ask why but assume it is too small/old-fashioned for your needs- there is rural and rural (takes a certain type of person) and I do not think you are being realistic especially coming from urban living.
What about bad weather, medical emergencies. power cuts - and the rest.

If you have enough money - it should not be that difficult to find a rural property with access.

Parking is my absolute priority now when I buy a house, not because I'm lazy but because people get so riled up about it.

We have previously had unspeakably terrible experience with a neighbour which involved parking and I would now never buy a house where our car could not be parked on land that we own.

its going to be nightmare with builders etc. is it that the house doesn’t own the access and you have to pay annually to cross the common land? Many villages in the north york moors are like this. People have to pay the Court Leet or Duchy depending on the village. Can be a few hundred a year

When you are the taxi for your kids from first play date until they leave for Uni (because rural friends live further away and the bus will stop running too early for teens) you will come to dread that 100m.

Of course it will be an issue for re-sale.

We spent about 4.5 years in rented accommodation with no parking and I'd never do it again.

Flat one - access down an alleyway, about 30 meters. Some deliveries were ok some not. Heavy items were hard work and you always had to let people know about the access issue.

Flat two - you could park outside to deliver but we then had to park at least 100 meters away.

Dropping things off then parking up then walking back to put things away, go to the loo etc was soon bloody annoying. If we'd had small children it would have been much worse.

No way would I buy a house like thos, sounds awful!

I wouldn’t rent a property where I can’t park for a two week holiday.

I can't even get past your first day. How are you going to move in?

With a removal company presumably! People move in to difficult homes all of the time. Tops of tower blocks, steep drive, spiral narrow stairs, no parking. The removal company will assess the new house and give an estimate based on it.

Bin collection?? You will probably have to haul them to nearest road and back in all weathers. Parcel delivery/supermarket delivery?Tradespeople?
I wouldn't touch this house with a barge pole- speaking as someone with who lives very rurally and knows how much you will rely on your car and deliveries!

Another one who's going to point out that "don't use the car much" is something that will definitely change in a rural area.
I live in a rural area with an hourly bus service Mon -Sat 07.30 - 18.30. Nothing in the evening or Sundays. We also have a train station with a 2 hourly service. Trains are frequently late or cancelled meaning a car is used to 'rescue' whichever family member is stuck 15-20 miles away at the main station or racing to the main station by car to get there in time for a connection.
If you're moving rurally then you need to do a bit more research on rural living! Plenty of other threads on MN about the pros and cons!

We lived 50m from the nearest road... which was too narrow to park the removal lorry on. They had to take everything outside and pule it up, then bring the lorry to load it quickly. They had to move a few times to let cars past.

Its easy for example to say you can get groceries delivered... but you still have to carry them from the road. And furniture, gardening equipment... everything

You've already thought of electric cars...

It can be a pain. Its whether the aggravation is worth it for your "dream house"

Emergency services would be a problem.
Drains and water pipes won’t be insurable. So if you get a leak somewhere it will cost a fortune.

You need to check whether there is any ROW to access the property. What about emergency services, is there a fuel or septic tank which requires a truck, deliveries, waste collection? Can you park long term over the common or are there restrictions, what about visitors, if you or family are injured or unwell so cannot make the walk, walking in bad weather with shopping etc. Would definitely put off future buyers but if it is your dream house that may not matter.

Lots of good advice in this thread, OP!