Private road - rough cost for development levy and right of access deed?

[Raine]

 

Hi,

 

Scenario:

 

• Well-maintained private road in an affluent suburb in a commuter town in south-east England;
• The road owners are organised and present;
• Existing deeds / covenants between the road owners & homeowners include provision for
  a) homeowners have full access rights & liberty over the road incl. vehicles and services laying / maintenance;
  b) right for road owners to charge a reasonable levy for development or building works;
• Several infill detached houses have been built already on various plots on the road, and each have been granted right of access similar to the other houses.

 

Does anyone have any idea what a private road owner may charge for:

 

   1. Levy for development work where an existing house is demolished and two new ones are to be built.  Bearing in mind it is required to be "reasonable".

 

   2. Grant of access for one additional infill house.

 

 

I know, I know, it's like saying "how long is a piece of string?", but I have no idea whether this is likely to be closer to £1,000 or £100,000?

 

I'm thinking to budget £50k and hope for £10k - thoughts?

 

I guess it'll have to be reasonable, right?  And I might have to end up bringing in valuers and potentially going to a tribunal if we can't agree a figure?

 

I'm taking some comfort from the fact that there have already been several infill dwellings built, so clearly the cost hasn't been prohibitive for them.

 

 

[Mr Punter]

I suppose they could work it on total cost to construct divided by number of houses, so if you are looking to build the 55th house, they could charge 1/55 of the original cost and contribute the same proportion to ongoing maintenance.

 

£5,000?

[ProDave]

If the road owners are "organised and present" can you not ask them?

[Raine]

1 minute ago, ProDave said:

If the road owners are "organised and present" can you not ask them?

 

I could, but I haven't even exchanged on the purchase yet, and I don't want to alert them (or anyone else) to my plans.

 

There is also a very old covenant (from the 1800s) to limit the number of houses that can be built on plots for which there is no plan (at least not with the deeds for the house I'm planning to buy) and hence no indication of whether adding a house would breach it (the plots definitely don't correspond to the current individual plots on the road) and no listed beneficiary, so it currently appears to be unenforceable.  I'm planning to get an indemnity policy for this covenant, which, as with all similar indemnities, relies on no one tipping off potential beneficiaries, and no objections being received at planning stage based on the covenant. 

 

So I'd rather wait till I've got the site and my planning permission before discussing with the road owners.

 

[nod]

40 minutes ago, Raine said:

 

I could, but I haven't even exchanged on the purchase yet, and I don't want to alert them (or anyone else) to my plans.

 

There is also a very old covenant (from the 1800s) to limit the number of houses that can be built on plots for which there is no plan (at least not with the deeds for the house I'm planning to buy) and hence no indication of whether adding a house would breach it (the plots definitely don't correspond to the current individual plots on the road) and no listed beneficiary, so it currently appears to be unenforceable.  I'm planning to get an indemnity policy for this covenant, which, as with all similar indemnities, relies on no one tipping off potential beneficiaries, and no objections being received at planning stage based on the covenant. 

 

So I'd rather wait till I've got the site and my planning permission before discussing with the road owners.

 

Interesting post 

We are buying two plots and a field 

The neighbor has a tank on the field with access granted via a covenant 

Our solicitor has informed us that The covenant died with the person that wrote it 

We can ask them to move the tank 

Or think of a figure 

There doesn’t seem to be any arbitration 

40 minutes ago, Raine said:

 

[JKay]

Did you purchase the property and complete the planned development?  Were the costs for the access rights and development levy reasonable? 

[Raine]

Hi @JKay,

 

Sorry, only just saw this message - notifications don't seem to be working.

 

I ended up pulling out as I discovered there were badgers on the site!!!!  Very lucky escape!  😨🦡