Shared parking/garage enclosed area at the back of a row of 6 houses. Tarmaced, wooden and brick fencing/walls. Entrance to area is underneath mini roof that is perched between 2 houses.

1 or 2 tiles are beginning to come loose on the mini roof. The wooden fences are getting to the point where I think they will fall in the next 1 – 3 years tops. The tarmac is fairly OK but at some point will need redoing I imagine, though not in immediate future.

So, what can happen about maintaining the parking area?
The person who owned the property was mentally ill,there are no deeds or paperwork about maintenance. There seems to be no residents association.

How can one enforce shared maintenance in such an area?

Before anyone asks, no I do not own this property but I am duty bound to help maintain it.

no I do not own this property but I am duty bound to help maintain it.

Have you checked your deeds? Are you lease hold or freehold?

AFAIK if you do not own it and there is nothing preagreed you are not obliged to maintain it.
However, it would make more sense to get something drawn up between the 6 houses as it helps no one if it falls into disrepair.

IANAL.

Get your lodger to fix it. 😉

I am a trustee of the property.

No mortgage. No papers held by the bank or building society. The mentally ill owner threw out all out all relevant paperwork she had possession of, other than a diagram of who owns the garden fences, which does not aid the shared area issues. It does include info on which houses own which garages, but I have been told some of that info was amended during the build, so is not correct.

There are no deeds or maintenance agreements, there is no regular payment to any upkeep fund. Its unclear if the other owners have any paperwork about maintenance, but then, if they don’t wish to pay I am sure they can ‘loose them’ anyway. The builder who built it went bust part way through the build so no records there either.

I think its best to assume there is no formal agreement.
So how can upkeep be enforced legally?

Lodger – different property. 🙂
I don’t live in the property I am trustee of.

It should be registered land most is now. The land Registry will have a title certificate defining the land and rights attached to it this may give an idea. Otherwise talk to the neighbours they all benefit if this is sorted it needs yo be done before their is a problem or they try and sell / remortgage.

If it is on the land registry docs you’d need to look at the paperwork for every property with access to see who should be maintaining it. It’ll cost £2 per property and the search is pretty vague so it’s a bit of a job. Even if there is something on there it’ll likely be very vague. How big a deal are the jobs? Tiles sounds easy enough, can you get up there with a ladder? Can you whack a few brackets or bits of timber into the fence to extend the life? An hour’s work to save a load of hassle. You’ll need the land owners permission and you risk some comeback if you somehow make things worse though

I would guess the repair jobs, if someone came in to do it would be at least £1000 for the fencing, potentially more. In the circumstances I dont want to do this work by myself due to both level of work involved, cost and liability if there is some issue with it later. I would prefer either group co-operation with the residents (not going to happen, none are DIY folks) or for someone to be employed by the residents.

Some of the wooden posts are set into concrete which is below tarmac. Some of them are above a small retaining wall (2 feet high), set into a bank. I am not sure if the wall would need work. The fence is heavy duty bording. I have not looked closely at this stuff as I can see from a distance its not good.

To give added financial context, 2 of the people who have garages there have both said it needs work and is run down. Neither wants to contribute money, even though there is no sign of them moving house for at least some years.

The property would have been registered with the land registry 15-20 years ago. As the builder went bust, I do not know what quality of info may have been registered anywhere – the printout I have from the land registry is minimal and just shows a boundary for the house on a map and nothing much else – do they offer a deeper search?

I suspect though this could end up as a legal issue as its pretty clear no one wants to pay, or are unable to afford to perhaps which I have more sympathy with. Its not a run down area, its quite nice, but its going to become very run down unless people do something soon.

write to all the owners outlining the issue and asking what they want to do about it?

the printout I have from the land registry is minimal and just shows a boundary for the house on a map and nothing much else – do they offer a deeper search?

They should hold two documents for each property the title plan and title register. Sounds like you just have the title plan. The register should have any rights of way and restrictions including maintenance obligations on shared access but not guaranteed it’s there. Its £2 per doc. Maybe download one at see if it looks useful

went to look at a house a few weeks ago to buy,resoanble area, good location, shared car park and lawns, covered in dead mulched leaves, rubbish in areas, plastic bottles etc.

Didnt even go inside for a viewing, if the neighbours cant pick up the litter and tidy up, i dont want them as neighbours.

You appear to have the same problem, and nobody wants to pay or do anything, welcome to the real world for some.

Owner has a responsibility under H&S legislation to make sure shared areas of domestic property are safe so if there’s a risk tiles may come down on a path & hit someone, or fabric of building is becoming unsafe they have a duty to put right. Try the HSE for advice.

England or Scotland?

England.

Thanks folks for contributions, some really helpful stuff, very grateful.