Out of the blue £1,000 bill from our neighbours!

[MamaVikki]

Help! I’m stunned… My neighbour knocked on the door on a Monday to say that they’d organised for our road to be tarmacked on that Wednesday at a cost of £8K between 8 houses. A year ago they’d muttered something about the road needing to be tarmacked but that was that. We’ve had no discussion since. They then bizarrely said that they would pay for it and whoever wants to chip in can chip in. We don’t have a spare £1k sitting around and if there’d been a discussion about it we would’ve wanted more time to try and save for it – but would’ve also liked to have looked into all the options (like patching the potholes maybe?) We have no idea if they even compared quotes. The work has now been done. They ended up only tarmacking the part in front of their house, although we drive over this to access our house. They’ve come round with the bill – which we need to pay into their bank account – in a fairly aggressive manner but still saying it’s up to us if we pay -? I’m upset and confused and have no idea where we stand with this? Can anyone offer any advice?! 🙏

Might be worth mentioning in legal, OP? I'd think if there's nothing in writing, no quotes, no agreement, then they did the work they chose to do in their way, on their terms, and you're under no obligation to be involved, surely? They can't just do work they feel like in the way that suits them, and then hand you a bill.

I’d write back to them something like;

dear neighbour

if we had employed someone without prior discussion with you, to tarmac only the small bit of road outside our house and then asked you for 1k what would your response be? Because most people would say no. You should have consulted us first so we could have some input into the details of the work being done, discussed quotes, etc. in view of the lack of prior discussion and also the fact that the work barely benefits us we will not be paying.

Diagram?

As they haven't done the entire stretch either, which was costed at 8k over 8 houses, and have only done their own stretch, how are they working out the costs now? Have they shown you any evidence of the bill and how doing only an 8th of the planned work still costs out at 8k?

Why should she pay for someone tarmacing only the front of his house and not clearing it with her first? I say no.

8k for a strip right in front of their own house

tell em to get stuffed

Tell them you're thinking of installing a new bathroom and ask them if they'd like to contribute to the cost.

^This. No consultation, I wouldn’t pay a penny at all.

Just when I think I've read it all on Mumsnet 😂

"Dear Neighbour,
I think you need help with your blatant cheeky fuckery.
We won't be paying, end of"

Definitely check your deeds.

Just say - this is not how you organise joint repairs. I didn’t agree to this and so no won’t be paying.

They've only put tarmac outside their house? You don't pay! Even if they'd chosen to tarmac the whole road, you didn't sign a contract. From what you've said it sounds like you need access to go over their bit, but they can't charge a toll 🤣. I'm not a solicitor, just using common sense, and I might be totally wrong.

Measure the width of the road. Measure the width of your tyres. Express as a fraction. Work out what the equivalent faction of £1000 is. Explain to your cf neighbour that had they asked you would have been prepared to pay that amount, but since they didn’t ask, they ain’t getting.

😁
This!
My initial reaction was "get to fuck" but yep just a note back saying Lol says it all but politer 😁
As if they can send you a bill for that, are they mad?!

They're telling you that you don't have to pay because legally you don't have to pay. They're being aggressive about it because they want you to pay it even though you don't have to and are complete CF's.

Definitely check the deeds of it's a private road. They may not have the authority to do repairs on the road?! You haven't signed anything or even verbally agreed to pay so just send it back saying no.

They've tarmaced in front of their? So if you want to do yours, you'll have to pay twice? Nope. Hard nope. And watch making offers because that does imply that you think you should pay. Don't pay anything.

They are emotionally bullying you, either because they think you will just pay up or because they think you wont have the bottle to say no. do what others have said simply say no sorry I we cant afford that and you should have arranged with people beforehand.

What do the rest of the neighbours think? Have they been asked to contribute and are they happy about it?

It may be easier to challenge as a group rather than individual.

Send the bill back in an envelope full of glitter... Tell them you are sending a prank back in return..

For gods sake there is always one. Why should OP pay anything towards work that she didn't agree to, can't afford and doesn't benefit from? People rolling over and paying is why CFs get away with nonsense like this

I am surprised that any liability for road repairs wasn't flagged up by your solicitor when they did the searches?
I would contact them to check the situation.

In any event, there should have been some discussion/consultation before organising this.

Tell them to take a running jump

Tell them no as you werent involved with the consultation or saw any of the multiple quotes OR AGREED.

If they threaten you with small claims court let them sue you. It would get thrown out.

I would neither give a token sum not arrange a payment plan because that is acknowledging the 'debt', which doesn't exist unless they have anything in writing from you agreeing to this scheme of their's.