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Public Footway
I purchased my property over a year ago in a cul-de-sac. Our solicitors did all the usual local searches & everything came back with nothing regarding a portion of our front garden for a public footway. Not the council has advised us that approx 2 metres of our front garden was adopted by them in 2004 under the original agreement with the developers back in 1994 (when the estate was built). They say that although it was adopted someone (from the (highways agency) didn't take the end of our garden & convert it to a footpath. Not sure where we stand legally on this as all our legal docs & boundary docs contain our front garden right to the road. The council is going to dig up 2 metres of our garden near the road & pay for a path to be built there. By the way, there is no continuous path after our house either.
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Sounds like there was s mistake made when the plot was originally sold from the developer to the first purchaser.
Often more senior lawyers will do the site acquisition and deal with all the documents such as s.38 agreements for road adoption which are usually backed by a bond.
More info on them here...
http://www.manualforstreets.org.uk/uploads/cha pter%2012.pdf
See if you can get a copy of the s.38 agreement, if there is one, from the local authority planning department. There should also be plans in it.
There may also be provisions in the original transfer or lease to the first purchaser relating to the proposals for road adoption.
More junior people then usually do the sale off of the plots.
Plans will have been drawn up by architects to the required scales for Land Registration purposes for the separate transfers or leases of the plots.
It's likely the plans were drawn up without proper reference to the proposed adoption of the highway in error or not properly marked up when being reproduced for all the leases.
It would be interesting to see which was completed first, the transfer or lease (date it was completed rather than a term commencement date) to you or the adoption agreement.
Often a new development will have private roads with plans for adoption at a later stage.
Obviously your property has been valued with the additional land and, I would imagine, yoru mortgage valuation done on it (whether there is any effect depends on the amount of mortgage you took out against the property).
What would be gained by having a footpath made up? Would it serve any purpose to anyone?
Often more senior lawyers will do the site acquisition and deal with all the documents such as s.38 agreements for road adoption which are usually backed by a bond.
More info on them here...
http://www.manualforstreets.org.uk/uploads/cha pter%2012.pdf
See if you can get a copy of the s.38 agreement, if there is one, from the local authority planning department. There should also be plans in it.
There may also be provisions in the original transfer or lease to the first purchaser relating to the proposals for road adoption.
More junior people then usually do the sale off of the plots.
Plans will have been drawn up by architects to the required scales for Land Registration purposes for the separate transfers or leases of the plots.
It's likely the plans were drawn up without proper reference to the proposed adoption of the highway in error or not properly marked up when being reproduced for all the leases.
It would be interesting to see which was completed first, the transfer or lease (date it was completed rather than a term commencement date) to you or the adoption agreement.
Often a new development will have private roads with plans for adoption at a later stage.
Obviously your property has been valued with the additional land and, I would imagine, yoru mortgage valuation done on it (whether there is any effect depends on the amount of mortgage you took out against the property).
What would be gained by having a footpath made up? Would it serve any purpose to anyone?
The property was built in 1994 & the adoption apparentely occurred in 2004 (we moved in in 2007). The adoption is not stated/shown in the land registry document/plan. All documents relating to our property show our boundaries going right up to the road (unlike our neighbour's who has a footway in front). The council claim to have highway adoption plans which include this piece of land & that the developers clearly 'forgot' to turn it into footway & turfed all the land in front of our house right to the road instead. The council claim that this has gone unmissed for 14 years as they do not 'spy' on residents in their county & it has only come to light due to an anonomous complaint from a passer-by.
Why would someone complain? Is there or has there been a problem with that part of land not being used as a footpath.
The road adoption wouldn't show on the Land Registry title as council related orders, agreements etc... aren't.
It would normally show up on a local search result.
I'd get a copy of the original option agreement and see when it was signed.
I'd say the piece of land in question should either have been transferred to you or rights granted to the council to make the footpath.
I'd want to see who had which first, although, given the length of time which has gone by without anyone realising or any major problems would be suggestive it would be hard for them to assert that the land should now be a footpath. Really it's around 13 years as I'm guessing that the previous owners had no problems either.
If the rights were granted first then it'd be a matter of looking into whether you bought the land subject to those rights if they are seen to have come with the land. The contract for sale signed by the original purchaser and other information supplied and obtained (or not) may come into this.
If the property was demised to the original owner first then it could be questioned whether the developer had any right to enter into the adoption agreement with the council depending on any reservations in the original transfer/lease for them to grant rights, errors made etc...
If there was an error on the part of the developer/solicitors etc... then I'd say it would be worth looking into a possible civil action for loss if it is found that the council are allowed to put the footpath in place.
The road adoption wouldn't show on the Land Registry title as council related orders, agreements etc... aren't.
It would normally show up on a local search result.
I'd get a copy of the original option agreement and see when it was signed.
I'd say the piece of land in question should either have been transferred to you or rights granted to the council to make the footpath.
I'd want to see who had which first, although, given the length of time which has gone by without anyone realising or any major problems would be suggestive it would be hard for them to assert that the land should now be a footpath. Really it's around 13 years as I'm guessing that the previous owners had no problems either.
If the rights were granted first then it'd be a matter of looking into whether you bought the land subject to those rights if they are seen to have come with the land. The contract for sale signed by the original purchaser and other information supplied and obtained (or not) may come into this.
If the property was demised to the original owner first then it could be questioned whether the developer had any right to enter into the adoption agreement with the council depending on any reservations in the original transfer/lease for them to grant rights, errors made etc...
If there was an error on the part of the developer/solicitors etc... then I'd say it would be worth looking into a possible civil action for loss if it is found that the council are allowed to put the footpath in place.
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