House Sale - Un-adopted Road

[Jono8]

Paying a management/service company is risky, as they can raise their prices by silly amounts or demand extra money on top of your contributions

License to print money.

Have you bought a new house and do you know how it works? I have bought two now. Once the developer goes or after a specific contract length, the residents can usually choose someone to be a company director for this sort of thing etc. and choose their own management company.

The OP's Estate must be getting maintained somehow.

 

[Greebo]

Have you bought a new house and do you know how it works? I have bought two now. Once the developer goes or after a specific contract length, the residents can usually choose someone to be a company director for this sort of thing etc. and choose their own management company.

The OP's Estate must be getting maintained somehow.

Or perhaps its not and that IS the issue?

 

[413x]

Paying a management/service company is risky, as they can raise their prices by silly amounts or demand extra money on top of your contributions

License to print money.

Yeah when I was looking for a house it was one of the things I was particularly told to avoid. As you don't really have any control over it

 

[Nitefly]

Or perhaps its not and that IS the issue?

The OP has phrased this as an issue in respect of rights and covenants detailed in the transfer, rather than any ongoing lack of maintenance.

I’m deeply curious as to what the purportedly ‘onerous drafting’ is, as this issue doesn’t make sense to me at all. I doubt that a lender would refuse to act on bog standard wording, so something is highly awry one way or the other.

 

[Jono8]

The OP has phrased this as an issue in respect of rights and covenants detailed in the transfer, rather than any ongoing lack of maintenance.

I’m deeply curious as to what the purportedly ‘onerous drafting’ is, as this issue doesn’t make sense to me at all. I doubt that a lender would refuse to act on bog standard wording, so something is highly awry one way or the other.

This. There must be more to this than we have been told.

Or the buyers have just thought of an excuse to give to pull out.

 

[Jono8]

Yeah when I was looking for a house it was one of the things I was particularly told to avoid. As you don't really have any control over it

That is literally how almost all new build estates are.

 

[413x]

That is literally how almost all new build estates are.

Yeah I think it was generally avoid new builds. Inflated prices and those service charges

 

[HungryHippos]

Yeah I think it was generally avoid new builds. Inflated prices and those service charges

The trick is to learn to love the service charges. The trick hasn't grown on me yet

 

[Malevolence]

I have to pay a management company where I live. Kind of sucks but it's not the end of the world.

You have to or you chose to?

 

[HungryHippos]

You have to or you chose to?

Have to. I mean I could try and avoid it but it's in the contracts and things.

Fairly sure they would be able to legally chase me for the money.

Hope is the council will one day adopt the road properly!

 

[Shoza]

Check your transfer from the developer to you, when you bought the house. It almost always contains an obligation on the developer to maintain and procure adoption of the estate roads.

 

[BennyC]

Been in since 2011 and our roads haven't been adopted by the council yet. It's a multiphase development and final surfacing was due to take place around now prior to Covid.

My neighbours sold in 2016 without issue and I see numerous people buying & selling most months.

The parish flags defects to the developers directly for them to remedy, just like they do for streetlights or drainage issues.

 

[Nitefly]

You have to or you chose to?

He will have provided a direct deed of covenant to that effect on completion of the transfer.

 

[413x]

The trick is to learn to love the service charges. The trick hasn't grown on me yet

How much are they a year ? 100? 100s?

 

[HungryHippos]

How much are they a year ? 100? 100s?

That will vary a fair bit. Mine is a bit under £300 a year.

 

[GreatAuk]

This. There must be more to this than we have been told.

Or the buyers have just thought of an excuse to give to pull out.

That would be my guess - can imagine then getting nervous about paying pre-covid price for a house which might be worth much less in a year's time, and the road being non-adopted may have just been the trigger, or just the excuse.

I'd certainly be cautious about proceeding with a house purchase at the moment if I were in their situation. That said it probably depends on their situation - if moving between houses of a similar value then any market changes shouldn't really affect them directly. If buying a first house or upgrading, then a potential drop in prices would be bad news for their hard-saved money and potential for negative equity. If I were in the latter position I'd probably look at renting / staying put for another year to see how things panned out.

 

[Tom_ed1987]

Sounds like the buyers are just wanting out of the transaction with 'any old excuse' being the reason to me.

 

[Greebo]

Sounds like the buyers are just wanting out of the transaction with 'any old excuse' being the reason to me.

It might be yet if you google it you will find hundreds of house sales which have fallen through to the lender not being happy about the pre adoption rather than the buyer and it is quite often the buyer complaining and asking for help, rather than the seller.

 

[DanTheMan]

Depending on how much the service charge is and the terms of the maintenance contract, the lender might not think the buyer meets affordability.

I know when we looked at a property on a new build with unadopted roads a few years back, the monthly service charge was £80 and with potential for above inflation increase each year. Depending on the buyer's financial situation, that £80 per month could play a big part in their affordability.

It could also just be that the lender feels like the unadopted road could have an impact on the value of the property which makes it too risky for them to lend at the current LTV.

 

[Jono8]

It might be yet if you google it you will find hundreds of house sales which have fallen through to the lender not being happy about the pre adoption rather than the buyer and it is quite often the buyer complaining and asking for help, rather than the seller.

But this makes little sense, otherwise lenders would have big problems with new builds as a whole and I've never found that to be the case.

I've bought two new builds (therfore sold one as well), and friends have bought new as well and nothing like this has ever come up mortgage wise (or in any other capacity).

Maybe there are just some very picky lenders or something, but for a mortgage company, new or nearly new houses still within their 10 year nhbc warranty etc are probably some of the safest bets lending wise.