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 .

It might be your drive but you didn’t cause the damage. I would be fuming if I was your neighbour though as it’s been over a year . Pass the details of your drive person to them and let them deal with it. If they whine to much to him they might get a free drive out of him. I wouldn’t be paying though .

Not sure how run causes this…. But in the last 2 pictures …. If you look across the 3 houses at the back, the drive on the left, which is also tarmaced, seems to have the same staining problem ….which couldn’t be caused by run off , as the next door has a big strip of grass next to them.
maybe it’s just ‘aged’ tarmac..

If the contractor had been knowledgeable and competent, he should have foreseen that there would be sediment run-off every time it rained. The drives are at different levels so this should have been taken into account.

When you chose the materials for the driveway, did anyone tell you about the possibility this would happen? Is the contractor experienced? Had he used this material for driveways before?

Yeah once the bloke who did it refused to come back it was on you to get someone else to fix it. Not just claim it's not your problem. It is because you paid that worker to do it and now neighbours property is damaged.

I think there must be a solution less costly than a whole new drive though.

What is that white wall, is that part of your driveway or ndn, it's all green, could it be that and not the block paving, when did you have it done, none of it looks very attractive tbh.

This right here!

NDNs tarmac and drive are old, aged and fucked.

She's angling for a new driveway at the OP's expense. Aint happening.

I did that 18 months ago and he refuses to engage with her

I ask that because there's no visible staining on the black strip between your block paving and the white wall.

And that is NOT your problem OP.

If your NDN is so hell bent on wanting reparations, she can sue your driveway contractor.

And if she doesnt, well then thats on her. You arent liable. End of story.

That’s wooden sleepers we had installed at the same time . They’ve since been sealed

Yes he’s very experienced and no he did not mention anything about what could happen I can assure you

And this is why there are so many neighbour disputes.

It is her responsibility to fix it. Work she commissioned caused the damage. It is, for example, the absolute essence of why the Party Wall Act exists. If you, or someone you employ, causes damage to a neighbours property it's up to you to put it right. You can then try to get this money back from the tradespeople who did it.

@prh47bridge is a lawyer who has been giving good, accurate, legal advice on this board for years.

...which is even more fascinating since they roundly ignored my salient point around FM, for which the OP is not responsible.

No idea why you didn’t pay another contractor to sort, bet all your neighbours are talking about you. Sort it out, you caused the issue.

Tbh I don’t give a shiny shite what the neighbours are saying … why would I ? So I’ll just fork out 10 grand so the neighbours don’t talk about us 😂😂😂

I'd be bloody suing you for that mess too, your workman, your problem to fix.
Your photo did you no favours to be honest, you under stated it as a stripe which it clearly isn't.

And once they refused you should have found another solution rather than do nothing because the tradesman wasn’t responding. It was your responsibility to resolve it with your neighbour.

You didn’t deal with it properly for 18 months so your neighbour has had enough and is escalating matters.

Take the tradesmen out of this and resolve it yourself. Speak to a specialist to see what needs to be done.

Surely it will just keep happening when it rains until someone finds and rectifies the actual cause, paying for repairs or a new drive is not the solution. I'd maybe look at asking another tarmac specialist to take a look, there are cleaning solutions that might work. Is the water coming from under the block paving or off the top.

Have you got legal cover through your household insurance?

Yes agree with this. It looks like it’s worn through at the bottom. Also has anyone professional come and identified the actual cause of the discolouration as I would question if was all down to whatever you did to your drive. If you look at the drive of the house across the road (no 51) that also seems to have white blotching over it so looks like there may be an issue with whatever is under the tarmac? We’re both driveways laid by tge same people? If it’s a very old driveway there could be other things at play and it’s not just down to what you did to your driveway.

So you’re saying I paid a workman to do a job which caused that and it’s up to me to fork out again to rectify it ?? So tradespeople have no responsibility to correct things then ? If you paid for a service and it went wrong would you just pay up again ?? I think not ! Let’s face it it’s not a couple of hundred £ it’s 10 grand !!!

No I checked today

I believe it’s the rain soaked through to the hardcore and washed off the white residue due to height of our property