House deeds and neighbour

[FloofPaws]

Hi - advice please, our driveway has a right of access so the neighbour can access their garage, all fine, we leave access for them. Both deeds say that their house has to pay 50% towards maintenance. It's now 25-30 years old and is crumbling, neighbour is really awkward and has told us he wants to pay less because 5 years ago we had builders in for 6 months and it's shortened the life of the driveway. He's also said he won't pay unless he sees all the quotes we have and chooses the quote, he wants to take full control of it all. He tried this before with a fence between the two properties which had no 'owner' so we'd ageeed to go halves, however he took nearly 2 years, and we finally got it done, because we had small children and they could escape our property from the back garden, and he refused to pay because it wasn't done by him.
The fence wasn't in the deeds, however it's written in the deeds that that house owner pays 50%, he's being REALLY nasty, telling us we're going to rip him off (we're not) and he won't pay etc ... what's the chances of him being able to wriggle out of paying?
Thank you

Tell him you are happy for him to get quotes and you can both decide on the work being done, then you will pay half to the contractor. He sounds like he is doing all he can to avoid paying out.

It sounds like if you want it done to your liking in a reasonable time frame you will probably have to pay. Could you attack it differently and ask him for a fixed contribution of half the lowest estimate and you pick which one you actually want? I assume he wants to go cheap, not that he thinks you won't do a good job? He could be right that some damage was done by your builders.

What material is the drive made from that it's 'crumbling'?
Can you make sure it's done with something like reinforced concrete so you won't have to do it again in your lifetime?

Its tarmac, we were going to go with something that's reasonable cost wise, so either tarmac again or block, I prefer tarmac to be honest but would do block if it was a better option.
My concern is that when it came to the fence, he took our quotes and came back with I'll do it for basically what we'd be paying in total for our quote, so it was 1.5k quote we preferred, he said we could give him 1.4k and he'd do the work with his 'chap' but it wouldn't be til the following year ... then when we said we'll go with this quote then because it's waited so long we need it doing, he refused to pay. I should say he's the landlord so doesn't actually live there, so doesn't have to put up with the issues albeit the tenant also complains to him about the state of the fence and a variety of other things he just doesn't get around to doing

Tell him to get 3 quotes by x date and you will pick one. Or alternatively he agrees to pick one out of 3 quotes you provide. Again by x date.

Just tell him you will taje him to tge small claims court if he doesn't pay. He won't pay as he got away with it last time.

Ask him to get quotes, then when he says he and his 'chap' can't do it for x amount, ask him for details of his business insurance.

What is the layout of the driveway. Is it possible to surface the bit up to your property but not his? Refer to the fence incident if he complains. Yes it will be more expensive then splitting the cost of the whole job but f him.

It's in your deeds and his - he signed up to this when he bought the house. The fact you had builders there for six months is irrelevant as I can't think of any material a drive could be made of that would be guaranteed for 25 - 30 years i.e. it's reached the end of its life.
You will need to be firm with him - the law is on your side. Suggest you both get two tradesman each to quote (but you should all be present when they each visit). Then decide between you which one to go for. He can hardly claim you'd be trying to rip him off with this proposal when both parties are equally involved. If you can, get a fixed price QUOTE from the chosen tradesman, not an ESTIMATE (otherwise, I can see a situation where, if the final cost is higher than the original estimate, your neighbour will only agree to stump up half of the original estimated amount).
If he won't engage at all then you'll probably have to take the legal route.
Sadly, he sounds like an absolute arsehole. 😡

Sorry OP, just seen your second post saying it's made of Tarmac. It's definitely reached the end of its life as Tarmac drives typically only last 15 - 20 years - your builders had bugger-all to do with it!

This is a total pain because you can't actually force him to pay without taking him to court which would incur time and expense(and you would have to declare it as a dispute if you wanted to sell). I'm a solicitor btw.

A poster has suggested paying half each to the contractor. I dont think the contractor is likely to find that acceptable. They'd have to enter into contracts with each of you and I bet neighbour would refuse. Or one joint contract with both of you and if neighbour doesn't pay, contractor will just come after you anyway.

I'm afraid I had this issue with our old neighbour (we have adjoining semis). His guttering was old and blocked and kept leaking into our bedroom. He claimed not to be able to afford to get it replaced but agreed to give us permission to do so. Effectively we paid to repair his house because it was cheaper than suing him for nuisance/negligence.

Then our shared chimney was crumbling. His share of the work was £300 but he couldn't afford it so guess what, we paid. There was literally no point stabilising half a chimney!

Luckily he then sold up (rather scandalous circumstances but I shall not digress). New neighbour fortunately more reasonable and well off because the next thing that went wrong was a leak in our shared water main. We had it replaced with a split one - £5k each. He paid his half, phew!

I am racking my brains but unless you are prepared to go to court with a debt claim
(You'd need to keep all correspondence proving you made reasonable requests, got quotes and he still refused) you are a bit stuck. Making the dispute formal, which you'd have to declare "advertises" to future buyers what a pain shared access can be.

If you can't resolve it with him, I suggest you just repair the shared part of the drive and leave "his" bit unrepaired.

Small claims court if he doesn't pay. Don't get into an argument with him about it.

Just fyi, tarmac is the most expensive drive. The cheapest will be to lay loose gravel (lots of varieties in terms of material and colour). Then resin, then block paving, then by far and away tarmac.

You get quotes and he gets quotes, then you go from there. I think he is reasonable to expect 50% of input into who does the work considering he is equally responsible for the payment. No excuses for him being unpleasant though.

They are absolutely not. I've found any number of internet searches stating "Tarmacadam driveways are usually substantially cheaper than block paving driveways. This is partly to do with the price of the materials but is mainly determined by the time it takes to install."

In my deeds my neighbour has access rights to the alley at the back of my house for his garden and he too should pay maintenance, never does and therefore if he doesn't he can't use it so perhaps get some legal advice to check if that's the same for you if so you cna use that as leverage in your conversations so you can get an agreement sorted out quickly.

Can you post a plan and the wording of the right of way?

Sometimes a ROW is worded to make use of it subject to the dominant owner (your neighbour) contributing. fair proportion of the cost of the upkeep.

Also it's important to consider the total area you want to resurface as against the area that the neighbour has rights over (or typically uses). So if they only have access over half of your drive then they should only pay a quarter of the full cost of repair/replacement.