Neighbour dispute

[finallyhappyinlife]

In may 2024 we had our drive paved by a local businessman . We are very happy with the work he did for us however the white residue from the hardcore he used underneath the blocks has run onto our neighbours drive leaving a strip of lighter tarmac which shows up when her drive is dry . She is extremely unhappy as expected and I have made several attempts to get the workmen back to discuss this issue however he flatly refuses . I have been totally civil with neighbour agreeing that it’s unacceptable and I have tried many many times to get him to sort this issue . I have ended up falling out with the owner of the business as I believe he is totally out of order . He refuses to speak to my neighbour saying she is just jealous of us having the work done . This has caused us immense stress and she has stopped speaking to us . Earlier in the year her son said she was going to have a fence installed between us and was that ok ? I said that’s up to you as we cannot stop your mum doing anything on her own property and it was no business of ours . This fence has never materialised .
Now today I have received a recorded letter saying she has been advised to get 3 quotes for re tarmacing the whole drive . The quotes range from £8800 to £11000 as she is asking us to pay for this work .
She is asking us to respond within 14 days or she will take it to small claims court .
I feel she should be sending said letter to the workmen who did the work and ruined her drive . Am I wrong ? Why should we pay out £10000 approx for the workmen’s error . And advice would be much appreciated on our rights and the next steps for us to take .

Drives above square metres or so used to need to have large soak aways dug in. At least that is what my contractor did years ago plus drains too and it is all angled to handle the water. You cannot send it to a neighbouring property just like that or onto the street either.

The drains put in take the surface water down to the grid by the house

so do you even know for sure how the staining is happening?

Ultimately OP’s works have damaged the drive OP is not disputing this

granted the drive is old and faded but damage has occurred

theres 3 options

1. get a professional company to see if they can chemically clean it as pressure washing won’t fix it
2. paint it this is a cheap quick fix but I would point blank refuse if I was neighbour. Because once you paint it u have to keep painting it again and again .paint wears ,lifts and fades it will require regular maintenance
3. replace the whole lot

My Husbands a tarmacer..he paints our drive every year with black tarmac restorer to make it black again..maybe this would be the answer ? It's called Drive Seal and you apply with a long handled roller....drive will be black again looking good as new...and about £20 a big tin

Which is fine but then who going to pay for and paint it every year in the future

so the OP should paint the neighbours drive every year? and what when they move? Or are you saying the neighbour should do it?

Which is fine but then who going to pay for and paint it every year in the future

If the staining is no longer happening as Op says then it will be up to the neighbours to continue to maintain or not as they wish?

OP THINKS it won't happen again. I'd love to know what her THINK is based on?

no once you paint it you have to keep regularly painting it the it wears off

I can’t see why this isn’t the answer - and what the NDN should have been doing every few years already. As I understand it, whilst there are acrylic paint versions there are also bitumen-based resurfacing solutions that penetrate the substrate? Either way, even if the NDN has to re-do it every 2-3 years that is, surely, what everyone is required to do as part of tarmac drive maintenance? Ie, it would not be the OP’s responsibility to continue to do it?

Not being funny, but it seems to be standard annual home maintenance? Even my DH - a senior bloke in finance more at home behind a desk - manages to weed, spray and repair our drive every spring.

Or you allow it to gradually fade back to grey, as happened with the original tarmac? Only the fading should be even again as the staining is no longer happening.

Ie, so, it won’t HAVE to be done every year, plus this is what the owners of tarmac drives are supposed to do anyway on a regular minimum of 2-3 yearly cycles?

Or you allow it to gradually fade back to grey, as happened with the original tarmac? Only the fading should be even again as the staining is no longer happening.

Yes, this is what I was thinking.

It’s been perfectly ok without been painted for 30 years and neighbour probably doesn’t want to start painting it no sounds like she on her own and at least middle aged

Could you instead of your DH mange to dig out weed and paint your drive

They why has next door's drive been affected?

My drive is over 30 years old. Parts of it are shared with two other neighbours and a few years ago now one of them wanted to paint the drive with bitumen paint. All he wanted was our agreement and for us to pay for a share of the paint which we agreed. The paint wore off over around 3 years and that was the only thing that has ever been done to it. Yes it looks worn but its in good order, odd weeds around the edges which abut our front gardens and which we pull out or spray. Apart from that, none of us do anything and the drive remains in good order. So no, in my experience tarmac drives do not need regular maintenance let alone repainting annually. Can I ask who "requires" you to repaint your drive annually?

Yes, so the neglecting to seal the tarmac is very likely WHY it was porous enough to become stained by the run off. Had she maintained her tarmac and sealed as advised by tarmackers, the likelihood is that it was not have stained, would it?

Whilst the construction of OP’s new drive may be the cause of the staining, they could have a defence in law of contributory negligence. The NDN’s lack of maintenance of the impermeability of their drive’s surface, as advised by installers, may actually be the reason it stained. A Tarmac specialist can easily advise on this (as can any industry website and google search).

And, yes, I have helped weed and spray the drive, but I prefer to re paint the rendered patio walls in the garden while he is doing it instead, as the chemical spray triggers my asthma. Not sure what that has to do with the price of cheese, unless that was a veiled misogynistic comment that was vaguely alluding to the NDN maybe being an older woman who is incapable of hiring a man to reseal her drive every few years?

How can it been her intention all along? She didn’t have a say in the staining of the drive!!

Noone requires you to - but it is advised:

https://www.kaneconstruction.co.uk/should-you-seal-your-tarmac-driveway/#:~:text=preventing%20future%20repairs.-,2.,the%20best%20time%20to%20reseal.

… just one of several thousand industry links on google.

We also get bombarded with leaflets all year by tradesmen offering the service.

Totally up to you whether you feel you need to do it, but should you have building works, or a car with an oil leak parked on your drive at any point, [or have a neighbour relay their drive and experience some run off], you’ll soon see why maintaining a waterproof surface/seal is recommended. But it is unreasonable, if you decide it’s unnecessary, to then expect other people to financially compensate you for damage to your drive that would have been avoided had you done so…

its not unreasonable to expect someone to be responsible for the damage that they cause to my property...and yes I can see why companies who supply the service should advise that people do it.....not entirely unbiased?

I didn’t mean that I meant as soon as it happened she thought now’s my chance to get this drive replaced free of charge

Honestly if you were my neighbour I wouldn't be bothered. It's a bit of marking on an older tarmac drive they're all marked unless you're willing to do the maintenance which your neighbours haven't.

We can only think that the water that penetrates under the drain has caused it … we don’t know ? We didn’t do the job 🤷🏽‍♀️

But it’s not ‘damaged’ - it still functions as a drive. It has a stain, and steps need to be made to remedy that - chemical cleaning or resealing/painting for example.

As an analogy: If the some kids in your street came and threw paint at the brick work of your house, would you sue to have the wall rebuilt? Or would you sue to have it professionally cleaned (and possibly repointed)? The wall is not damaged - it still functions as a wall, supporting the roof and windows within it, but it is cosmetically stained. The restitution isn’t a new wall, it’s restoring the wall to an unstained version of itself.

The drive is no different. OP should get a tarmac restorer to advise on remedial steps.

This should of been resolved as soon as it happened, if the contractor didn't respond an independent specialist should have come out, assessed and traced the cause., it's dragged on too long and now relationships have all broken down which both parties may need to declare in the future if they want to sell , no one will buy either house with this ongoing issue,