What are unadopted roads, and should I avoid buying a house on one?
ASK THE EXPERT A. Unadopted or private roads are basically roads which, while they may be public rights of way, do not actually belong to the public road network. In other words, they are not owned by the local authority – normally the County Council. There are tens of thousands of such roads all over England and Wales. They come in all shapes and sizes, from tree-lined suburban avenues of elegant Victorian villas, through brand new, highly exclusive developments, to ill-lit, unmetalled country lanes. The key thing that all unadopted roads have in common is the fact that they are not maintained out of the public purse. Instead, responsibility for their upkeep rests entirely with the residents and/or property-owners. For this to work properly, a degree of organisation is obviously required. This is best handled through a special residents’ association, or even a private company, which collects contributions, organises the maintenance and deals with other issues such as insurance, parkin
