Hi Back Roomers,
The drive to my home is actually a private road (more like a track) which is shared by several households, but owned by a local farmer. It used to be properly surfaced (years ago before I used it), but now it's in a poor condition with lots of divets and ruts, and it doesn't drain properly when it rains heavily. The final straw today was when, despite driving over it slowly and carefully, I managed to ground the car. Don't think any damage was done (will check), but I want to get it sorted.
Is it simply a case of writing to the farmer explaining the situation, and asking what he intends to do about it? Do I need to mention that I grounded the car today? I know some of the other residents who use it are also unhappy - should we send a joint letter?
I'd like to do it in a friendly manner and avoid hostilities if possible :-)
Thanks very much,
Antony
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It might be a good idea to offer to make a contribution to the cost. Unless you are paying rent for use of the road - or even if you are actually - the farmer won't be too keen on spending his own hard-earned to protect your shiny little cars (if I know anything about farmers).
How long is the road and what is involved?
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good post lud
this could be a hornets nest being opened by the OP
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I live on a similar track, luckily in quite good shape, but to date I've repaired it with the owner's permission. Since all he needs to do is access one field about 10 times a year, on a tractor, he really has no interest in spending money on it. Perhaps the same might be true of your farmer?
Clearly you need to look at the legalities, but my guess is he'll say it's fine for you to repair it! I'd suggest getting some loads of roads planings (I pay £150 for 20 cubic metres) and hiring a man plus digger to spread them, and a sit on contractor's roller to compact it down.
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Thanks Lud
Don't know if we are paying rent - hadn't considered it! Will find out.
The road is a windy, single-lane track (no passing), probably several hundred metres long.
At the end of it, there's a grainstore which the farmer has sold to a developer for converting to residential dwellings (he doesn't use it). We would expect (hope?!) that, as part of the development, our track would be sorted out (the only way for the developer to get in), but this may not happen for ages anyway.
I appreciate the farmer may not want to stump up, especially if he can get the developer to do it (I'll see if I can find out what was agreed) but either way, nothing will get done anytime soon.
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check your deeds to see what rights/obligations you have in respect of the road.
You may find (as someone I know did) that you have no vehicular right of access and so choose a conciliatory approach.
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Local Yokel -you don't know anyone in North Manchester that can do that do you?
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Nsar, despite being of good Bolton stock, I'm a soft Southerner living between Oxford and Reading.
It's really quite easy to do oneself. Find JCB operator (local paper, parish magazine etc), find local roads contractor (Yellow Pages, or spot their wagons around the area) and hire roller from decent hire centre.
A couple of rakes and shovels come in handy, and set Mrs Nsar to work on the roller!
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Anthony
You dont want to set any precedence for you or your neigbours who share the road at this point. The developer will be looking at getting the road done and if he finds out the existing users are maintaining it he may expect to get this arrangement formalised IE YOU and your neigbours!
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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If you have right of way over the track, then it's likely that - the right to use it only. Its probable that the farmer has no obligations to maintain it at all. I believe rights of way are very specific - e.g the right to walk, or to ride a horse, or to drive a car only. You might want to find out what rights you have before doing anything - if, for example, you don't have a formal written right to drive a car over the track then I wouldn't want to rattle any cages! Although people often refer to "right of way", your legal rights will be much more specific and narrow in their definition - the right to walk does not infer the right to drive a car, for example.
Assuming you do have rights to drive a car on the track and there's nothing in the deeds that says the farmer has to maintain it to any specific standard, the most sensible thing might be for the residents to club together and offer to pay for the work. I live in a private road and can tell you the whole thing relies on goodwill - there's very little legal recourse for me to insist on any particular work, even though my road is much more formalised and has a residents committee. Even in this situation work will only be undertaken when there is a consensus.
You might also want to think about libability. My road fund pays for public liability insurance. If you fixed your track yourself badly and a neighbours car was damaged as a result, you could be help liable. All a bit complex, so I'd advise proceeding cautiously and being aware of the legal implications.
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Re road planings - if the contractor has to pay tipping fees he may well give you them for nothing. I did a site reclamation job and we received 4,000 cubic metres of clean fill for nothing.
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every post sensible informative and helpful
is this a record?
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Good point BB - we haven't had anybody posting 'it's your fault for living there' or 'farmers are vicitmising tax paying motorists'
long may it continue
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This was one major factor I took into consideration 20 years ago when buying my remote house in the country. It is an area notorious for disagreement, so you are well advised to go carefully and check the actual, rather than presumed, legal position before stirring things up.
Typically there are two extreme scenarios: 1) the farmer doesn't care, because his tractors don't need a nice flat surface, and he isn't going to spend money for your benefit,
2) the domestic users are quite content to have a rather primitive track, and jointly fill in the ruts from time to time at negligible cost. But the farmer decides to concrete it from end to end so that he can get even bigger and heavier machines along it, at enormous expense, which he is now going to pass on to the other users.
Worste of all is when the users club together to do modest and adequate repairs, but the farmer rips it all up by taking large tractors along it. A carelessly driven tractor can fling out all your hard-shovelled rubble in seconds, but the farmer can just put it down to wear and tear.
It all really depends on your relations with the farmer.
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Just as an interesting anecdote, I am a member of a charitable trust in almost exactly the position of the farmer.
We own a 1/4 of a mile of single track roadway leading to our station, which is also used by 20 or so residences beyond. They maintain their portion immaculately, tarmaced & so on, and just keep complaining about our pot-holed section. Eventually after many years of trying to patch up, we spent money on new tarmac; however we then put on a 20mph limit ( the track is as straight as a ruler ) backed up by enormous speed bumps, ho-hum, to avoid it being cut up again by the youths bling cars and mumsy's 4x4's.
Incidently a developer did build 6 x £500.000 houses up there recently, now did he consider upgrading the track in order to help sell this properties; yes correct first time.
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One mans junk is another mans treasure
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I should have said that we were legally required to *maintain* the road without the standard being specified, i.e. a bucket of ballast in the worst pothole could be considered maintenance.
The reason for tarmacing was a concern that we might be sued for consequential damage to the cars; the speed bumps ( which are no problem if the 20mph is adhered to ) are our metephorical two fingers to the residents; there are lots in the 1/4 mile.
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One mans junk is another mans treasure
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interesting subject, i also live on a short private road, the general problems up here are that if you fill the potholes, cars come flying up, [plus the associated dust at this time of year] and if you dont fill them it looks a mess , in talking to the neighbours in general , i hear views ranging from " im not paying for tarmac when i havent got a car " to " why should i contribute to the repairs in total when i live at the start of the unmade road " which i suppose is fair ?
interestingly there is a lamppost half way up the unmade road , and i keep hearing off different people that the council should maintain the road because of this ? any thoughts? when i moved into this house it was noted by the surveyors that it was a private road and that i may be responsible for repairs, but the seller of the house noted that they had never been made aware of anything about repairs,
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Antony
Firstly I would read what conditions are in your house deeds regarding access and its maintenance. This may provide the solution to repairs, but probably not.
If a developer has bought the barn, then a badly made approach road will hinder any sale so he will probably repair it to a good standard - you may or may not be asked to contribute something.
In the interim I would buy a couple of bags of type 1 ballast to partly fill the worst pot holes. Do not tell anyone you did it as you might be forced to pay for the track's upkeep.
A basic repair will certainly be cheaper than damaging your sump or exhaust, and you will stop loosing any sleep over your car getting damaged.
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Roger
A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
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Don't take responsibility for repairing the road, all this should have been clarified by your solicitor when you purchased your house. As mentioned by others, wait until the developer makes a move, perhaps view the plans for the development and start talking to your local councillors. Midnight repairs when no-one is looking might be an option.
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You clearly live in the Country by a Landie !
As everyone says you need to look at your deeds, depending on when the place was built it could be written in plain English. As the others suggest you need to be very careful.
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As stated earlier, the OP needs to check his rights carefully. I have a friend whose family also lives at the end of such a road, but they do *not* have the right to repair the road, only to drive along it to reach their farmyard.
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