Letters re roads and services in charge
The Conveyancing Committee has decided to make changes to its previous recommendation that a purchaser may accept either a letter from the local authority or a vendor’s solicitor’s certificate, certifying the position as to whether services including roads, lanes, footpaths, sewers, and drains abutting and servicing a property have been taken in charge by a local authority.
The committee has become aware that it happens more frequently than had previously been thought that an ‘in charge’ road can have its status redesignated to that of a road not in charge. This can happen as a result of changes to the location or path of a roadway or as a result of a new development providing a new means of access to a property and closing off a previous access. It can also happen as a result of a local or road authority abandoning a public road or extinguishing a public right of way under sections 12 and 73, respectively, of the .
Because of the above possibility, it may be the case that a local authority letter or a solicitor’s certificate given in a previous transaction may no longer reflect the up-to-date position. It is therefore the recommendation of the committee that an up-to-date certificate from the vendor’s solicitor in the current transaction should be obtained from now on and that historical letters or certificates given by vendors’ solicitors in previous transactions should no longer be accepted. If you are on enquiry of a possible change in circumstances in relation to an old local authority letter and are not satisfied as to the correct current position, you should obtain an up-to-date local authority letter, with accompanying identifying map where appropriate.
The committee reminds solicitors that they should not give certificates about roads and services (including roads, lanes, footpaths, sewers and drains) abutting and servicing the property having been/not been taken over by the local authority except where this has been verified by an inspection of the local authority records or their own personal knowledge.
The recently published 2015 edition of the Society’s Objections and Requisitions on Title reflects this revised recommendation.