Top Unadopted Road FAQs – England and Wales

It’s not always clear who the owner of an adopted road is. An easy way is if there is a title to the road registered on land registry as this will show the rightful owner.

In new build developments the ownership of the street will likely be held by owners of the land on either side, or can be the responsibility of the developer who built the estate.

Sometimes the owner of the unadopted road cannot be found if the documentation is not in order.

Put simply, an extra road for the local authority to maintain is a huge expense. There are ongoing daily costs (like street lighting), less routine maintenance (like servicing drains) and more costly long term renovation work (like road flattening and repairing potholes).

One less road for the council means less of a headache to worry about. But remember, even though your road is unadopted you as a resident are likely still required to pay the same level of council tax to the local authority.

Usually councils will run waste collection services on unadopted roads. But this can be at the discretion of the individual local authority.

East Cambridgeshire District Council announced a change in policy to require the owners of certain adopted roads to bring them up to standard. They claimed the roads were in such a poor condition that the refuse trucks were picking up damage driving on them.

An insurance policy can also cover other liabilities that home owners don’t always think about, like if someone slips on an unadopted road that is owned by residents.

It is not mandatory for unadopted roads to have street lighting, but some do. If the road was built as part of a new estate by a developer, it is likely that there will be street lighting installed. But this does have a running cost, and so until the road is adopted by the local authority and there is a new agreement over costs these running expenses will need to be covered by the owners of the road.

Not necessarily. A private road means there is no public right of way on the road – i.e. members of the public have no right to pass through it. An unadopted road simply means the local authority has not decided to adopt it into its network of roads that are maintained at their expense.

There are various combinations. You can have an unadopted road that is not a private road. And on the other hand, a local authority may decide to adopt a private road.

Unadopted roads can be adopted by local authorities, but this is no guarantee. More often than not the key discussion point is around the level of risk. A local authority will not want to take over the management of a road that either has gone into disrepair or is at risk of falling into disrepair.

The Highway Authority are also involved in the road adoption process (the Highways Act of 1980 details this).

Sometimes a housing developer will have engaged extensively with the local authority when building a new road. If a section 38 agreement was signed between the developer and local authority, this will outline the timelines and conditions that the developer needs to maintain so that a road is eventually passed over to the local authority and ‘adopted’.

A section 38 agreement is a good sign that there has been proper planning with the adoption of a road. But there are occasions where developers do not maintain the road to the level required in a section 38 agreement – such as if a developer later goes into liquidation. This can get very complicated for the owners of homes on the unadopted road as they are not always a party to the original agreement between the local authority and developer.

Even when there is no explicit section 38 agreement signed, the owner of the road can inform the local authority of their request for the road to become adopted.
This process can involve discussions back and forth between road owners and the local authority and can also lead to cases in court. These situations normally involve legal representation.

Local authorities will need to be brought into discussions early on in order to be comfortable with road adoption. They do not want to take on any unnecessary financial risk with public funds.

It is common for a local authority to require a house builder to pay for a performance bond, which effectively gives the local authority access to funds if the developer does not honour their obligations with building a road to an acceptable standard or maintaining a road.

If you are selling a home on an unadopted road, the buyer’s solicitor may ask for you to take out an indemnity policy. This would pay out in the event of certain conditions and provides the buyer of the property with more protection in a downside scenario.

The Highways Act of 1980 does have the legislation that concerns unadopted roads. The wording can be complicated and you will need to get legal advice.

The local authority often publishes details of roads that they have adopted and those that are unadopted. Some local authorities will provide information by request.

This depends on who is maintaining the road. Initially, the developer will build the new road. After this it will be dependent on the agreement the developer has with the local authority (if any).
In a good scenario, the developer will have a section 38 agreement with the local authority and will be responsible for maintaining the unadopted road until it is formally adopted. In a bad scenario, homeowners on the road will need to pay for maintenance to it at least in the short term.

Roads in England are some of the oldest in the world. This means that they were designed for travellers on foot and built according to the conditions around them.
Without the modern day equipment that we have available now, the settlers would have to swerve around hills and mountains to keep the roads flat. So you get curvy roads!