Private road management agreement

[Guest Bigman]

Myself and a few others are hoping to build our own houses on a single site and we will need an access road that will serve all properties. From what we can gather our local council won't adopt the access road and therefore we will need to have a private/unadopted road management contract agreed between everyone. I've heard all sorts of horror stories about these sorts of agreements if they're not set up properly (ongoing maintenance costs/expenses etc.) so does anyone know if there's any standard agreement that we can refer to ensure that everything is watertight both now and in the future? We realise that every agreement will probably need to be different to suit each individual case but as we've never done this sort of thing before we just need a starting point.

Many thanks in advance

[Declan52]

I think this is a question you really need to be asking solicitor with experience in these matters. 

As far as maintenence goes if you put the road in as hard-core it will require constant upkeep.  If it's concrete or bitmap/ ashphat then it will need much less.  More money upfront but less hassle long term. 

[Ferdinand]

Your solicitor .. if the right one ... should have one on file.

 

But I would look up a couple of the group builds we have seen on here, and talk to the organiser and ask if you can have a copy of theirs for a crate of wine. There are a few around, but you may have to be creative in searching for them

 

A solicitor will perhaps charge you 500-1000. And there may be potential for some saving there. At the worst, you will get the benefit of some good experience.

 

@MikeR is some way down the road doing a group build in the Green Belt near Bristol, with himself as animator.

https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/3527-group-self-build-bristol/?tab=comments#comment-55439

 

There has also previously been a chap up in the Lakes somewhere, going back a few years, and one quite recent that I cannot immediately find.

 

Ferdinand

Edited January 6, 2019 by Ferdinand

[Ferdinand]

The Council May adopt the road, but the conditions could be onerous ... eg iirc here you have to provide a commuted sum to maintain the lamp posts you are required to install for 25 years.

 

F

 

Edited January 6, 2019 by Ferdinand

[scottishjohn]

been here  and bought the T shirt 

you can make any agreement you want ,but if one of the nieghbours says they don,t have the money to repair --what you going to do ?

would need something  to written into the title deeds some how,same as you would do with shared septic tank --so if they don,t pay you can sell their house to get the money 

sounds bad i know --you can,t get blood out of a stone . or a neighbour you fell out with 

 

so you need a default position in the agreement  that everyone understands and is enforceable without spending years in court  arguing about whose car is damaging the road .

if it is a possibility for council to take it on ,what ever it costs  it will simpler.

we had all these osrt of problems up here with new estates --builder built house --said hr would do the roads last  to stop damage 

guess what --he went bankrupt 

so now council insists on all roads and services be complete before ANYBODY moves in.

my problem was with an equestrian center who ran horseboxs up the road and damaged and never had the money to repair it

tried blocking it --not allowed to --so If i got all that crap when it was only  one other person --what would it be like with more!!

 

 

[Vijay]

Having a shared access road has got to be one of my biggest regrets. I put so much thought into trying to deal with the contract to buy my land that I didn't really think about all eventualities to do with the shared access road. It's totally taken the shine off my build.

 

As already said, problems arise when different house owners have different views/finances and it can get extremely messy and stressful. I also agree something might have to be in the title deeds to cover yourself for future owners.

Edited January 6, 2019 by Vijay

[Lesgrandepotato]

We’ve had three houses on shared access roads including the current one. They’ve all been little hassle (more than none) and if you have a couple of active residents both physically and proactively it’s fine, we resurfaced the first two and sorted bits of drainage cost a few hundred per house. 

The current place will be sorted in the summer, we’ve stopped run off from the main road washing it out, and we’ll put some proper fall into the beck and resurface in summer. Not big effort compared to building a house but some effort involved. 

[scottishjohn]

would never buy a house with shared access -

not getting this sorted now will make it hard to sell later and certainly devalue it.

which is why I,m trying to buy both plots  --not just one --so i get control of everything to start with  

[Guest Bigman]

Many thanks to everyone for their comments and experiences and it looks like having a solicitor with experience is going to be essential. There's not a great deal on this subject on the internet. 

 

 

Edited January 10, 2019 by Bigman
Commercial link / reference removed in accordance with BH T&c’s