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To further trouble you: If I were to buy that house, would the frontage liability be massive ball ache and money pit?
Weeeeell, probably not. It's not clear whether it's a public right of way or not. That wouldn't necessarily determine whether or not there's a potential liability under Part XI of the Highways Act. Section 203(2) of the 1980 Act defines a private street as being ‘a street that is not a highway maintainable at the public expense’. The term ‘street’ is defined for these purposes by section 329(1) of the 1980 Act and is defined as having the same meaning as that used in Part III of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 (‘the 1991 Act’). Section 48(1) of the 1991 Act defines ‘Street’ as ‘the whole or any part of any of the following, irrespective of whether it is a thoroughfare ... any highway, road, lane, footway, alley or passage...’ According to the decision in West End Lawn Tennis Club (Pinner) Ltd v Harrow Corpn (1965) 64 LGR 35 you can have a private street over which there is no public right of way. However, unless there is a public right of way and unless it is used by the public (which seems unlikely given it's a cul-de-sac then I'd say the chances of the local authority deciding to carry out works on it are fairly minimal.
Also what, if anything would prevent the owner of the land the service road sits on from developing it in to, say, a block of flats? How would usage rights be captured for the unadopted road, if at all?
From the cobbles at the end of the street/alley/driveway it looks like it's been there for a while. Even if there are no public rights over it, and even if no-one ever granted the owners of adjacent properties the right to use it, I'm pretty sure that the owners of adjacent properties would have acquired rights of way over it through user. If they've been using it for at least 20 years then they have a right to do so either under s. 2 of the Prescription Act 1832 or under the doctrine of lost modern grant. Building on it would be an actionable interference with those rights and so could be prevented by anyone who had the benefit of a right of way over the land.
If there's no express right of way for the benefit of the house, it'd be worth getting the current owners to make stat decs about their usage of the service road, but I'm sure any solicitors would ask them to do that. Any halfway competent one, anyway.
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Brommers
Howard
Good to know. Thank you.
To further trouble you: If I were to buy that house, would the frontage liability be massive ball ache and money pit?
Also what, if anything would prevent the owner of the land the service road sits on from developing it in to, say, a block of flats? How would usage rights be captured for the unadopted road, if at all?
I also note that the owners have been using the service road as side access to their garden to the point where they've constructed a car port and driven the car in to the garden.
So its a risk / reward thing. Off street parking is helpful and rare around that way, unless you go south of Pitshanger where everything is £200k more expensive. Also the thought of being able to get a digger and building materials in to the rear of the property appeals.