Private Road

[Mr Me]

Hi, we have recently moved to a new home, which is a small private estate around 10 houses on a cul de sac. The road at the moment is owned by the company that built the estate and it was very much sold as a private estate. We have some shops at the front of the main road, just where our private road starts, that have access to the rear of their shops for delivery access, we like having the shops there however it's an ongoing issue of delivery drivers abusing access rights and the public using our estate as a parking lot. I have tried to speak to the company who built the houses and who still maintain ownership and upkeep of the road. My questions are:

First Question - We had requested a gate to be installed which would be push button access for all, so that the shops could maintain their deliveries but the estate gains the privacy it was sold on. This was rejected due to 3 out of the 10 houses saying they were against the gate due to costs. The company then said majority doesn't rule and that the 3 'nays' outweighs the 7 'yays' - is this correct?

Second question - We have asked for ownership of the road to be transferred to the residents, again they are saying every single house needs to agree to this, if 1 out of the 10 say no then it won't happen, again is this correct? The company who built and maintain don't make any profit so I'm sure would be ok with giving away ownership, as they have indicated.

Third question - Are there any banana skins in the transfer of ownership to be aware of? This one is a final thought, I'm sure the biggest question here, or the one that will need the most attention is the majority rules situation where the company are saying 1 'no' vs 9 'yes' equal 'no'.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

[cheasypees]

Ask the company for the paper work on voting rights. The typical set up I've seen is to have an association or management company in which all residents have a share/vote for major things. A residents management company would have a document called the article of association that outlines voting rights and where it applies. Hopefully the company can point you in the right direction.

[Scot22]

Are residents members of the Company that built and maintain the road ? If not, have they been given any rights to decide Company actions ?
No idea what the costs are. Will others agree if cost divided and paid by 7 ? Have the shops been asked to contribute ?

[Mr Me]

Ask the company for the paper work on voting rights. The typical set up I've seen is to have an association or management company in which all residents have a share/vote for major things. A residents management company would have a document called the article of association that outlines voting rights and where it applies. Hopefully the company can point you in the right direction.

Thank you for the reply, I will request the document.

[Mr Me]

Are residents members of the Company that built and maintain the road ? If not, have they been given any rights to decide Company actions ?
No idea what the costs are. Will others agree if cost divided and paid by 7 ? Have the shops been asked to contribute ?

Residents are not members of the company as far as I know, just live on the private road. I think one out of the 6 'nays' do not want the gate regardless of cost. Still the issue maintains that 7 of the 12, a controling vote are pretty desperate for the gate and would probably cover the cost between them. The further issue is the selling of the estate, while not marketed as a gate community, certainly was sold as a private estate and is being very poorly managed. Have asked all residents if they would like to own the road and as usual one says no, which results in all saying no effectively. Really need to see where we stand with the voting rights and how they are set out legally.

[Mr Me]

Ask the company for the paper work on voting rights. The typical set up I've seen is to have an association or management company in which all residents have a share/vote for major things. A residents management company would have a document called the article of association that outlines voting rights and where it applies. Hopefully the company can point you in the right direction.

Shops have not been asked to contribute. They maintain free use of the land, park a small van there during business hours, empty waste water into our drain on our property, have unsightly bins and therefore rubbish spewing onto our land. We like the shops being there and maintain a good relationship, issue is the back of the shops is the front of one of the houses, or what the house sees when they leave so we need to be able to control what happens in the space between the back of the shops and the front of the house. Ideally they need to pay towards the road, pay for cleaning monthly or fortnightly and generally accept that the area is the front of a house and not the back of a shop. Their land stops when they leave the back door. Not quite sure how the bins etc. are stored there legally. We wouldn't want them to remove them as it would cause them large issues with trading, but certainly a bin storage so they are hidden etc.