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?! 🙏

Getting three quotes is not the law.

It depends who owns the road and what the responsibility is. If it's a shared responsibility it's different from if it's a freehold/lease/access situation. Anyone living in a flat, especially a big block, will not get asked to debate the quote for the repair works. And the OP was aware it was being mooted. Neighbour may have taken that for assent. Check the deeds!!

Just ignore it. They choose to go ahead without asking first. They can clearly afford to pay so let them.

We ‘own’ the land which forms part of the parking for all the other houses in our cul de sac. Somebody has to, it’s on our deeds. Any work/costs that needs done has to be shared among the people who park there. However, it all needs agreed on first.

My last house had a very long shared driveway. I owned half and had eight of way over the other half.

there is no way I would have undertaken repairs without agreement. £8k sounds like a lot for just the bit outside one house!

check you deeds and speak to your other neighbours.

but tell them you are surprised to receive a bill for works you did not agree to.

We need pictures.

When they come round, look confused and start walking towards the road, the bit outside your place and further up. Point at it and say, " Sorry to say it pal, that's a shite job! Have a look for yourself! They've not even tarmac'd it. You've been had, mate! I hope you haven't paid 'em yet!" Slap em on the back consolingly and walk away muttering something about cowboy tradesmen.

They have probably been duped by those scammers who knock on your door and say they have a spare lorry of tarmac and will sell it cheap. The way they have gone about it suggests that. Even more reason not to pay towards it.

And you really need to speak to the other neighbours. Make it clear that you're not going to be paying £1000 for tarmac laying in front of one house and they shouldn't feel they need to either. Let them know that they won't be the only ones not wanting to pay as they may be sitting there feeling like they don't have a choice.

Wow… £1000 for work in front of THEIR house? Ha! They can take that bill and shove it!

The only sensible advice here is from @KikoLemons

Sorry but they are not being CF here. Unless there is a massive drip feed coming and assuming it’s a private drive then it’s likely you all have to pay. They raised the cost with you BEFORE the work started - why didn’t you raise your objection then?

They have also offered to just pay and asked you to to contribute if you want. Why should they foot the bill? Why would they get a quote that is above the norm when they may end up footing the bill?!

I live on a private road and about 10 years ago we had to have all our roads resurfaced at a cost of nearly £50k. At our AGM residents agreed to the proposal, the committee went away and got 3 or 4 quotes then we held an EGM where we discussed finance option and appointed a contractor. We also had some immediate works done costing £8k (most of which was already in our bank account) and gave residents 2 years to save for the rest. Your neighbours haven't done any of this so I would just ignore the invoice.

Not a chance would I pay a penny, especially if it wasn't even outside my house! I'm guessing it's a private road?

Gosh, wonder what the tarmacing team made of it, they must see so much fuckwittery!

Don't pay, OP. Talk to the rest of the neighbours, make sure no-one is being bullied. Join forces to do the rest properly, if you all want to. MsSquiz listed the right steps.

We (7) terraced houses, had a brick wall repaired in private car park, a lot and was discussed properly, I think £100 each

Correct.

Who posed on your cornflakes😂😂😂

all joking aside i really don’t think OP is legally obliged to pay this bill.

I have lived in places with a proper management company and on a shared driveway. I have had both arrangements explained to me by my solicitors and I have never heard of being obligated to pay a bill presented by a random neighbour that hasn’t been agreed to for works that doesn’t even cover the full shared space.

OP did your solicitor not explain this all to you when you bought the house?

I'd be very careful about paying a much reduced amount or working out a payment plan, as some here have suggested. If you pay anything at all you might be agreeing in law that you should be paying towards this project. IANAL though.

It wasn’t presented after the fact. It was discussed with OP first and OP didn’t object.

Are there pot holes outside your part?

Muttering that the road needs tarmaced isn’t a discussion.

i would at very least expect a neighbours WhatsApp group. A discussion on what works needs to be done. Agreement from all neighbours on the specifics of the works and who to approach for quotes. Then a discussion when the quotes come back and agreement to proceed. That is how most adults operate.

this guy mentioned the road needed tarmaced. That is an observation not a discussion.

I mentioned to a neighbour that all our communal hedges need trimmed. I didn’t assume this was a green light for me to get the hedges facing my house trimmed then bill everyone else for the work! That’s bonkers

No proper discussion and agreement prior to work being done = no obligation to pay a penny.

Wonder if the other neighbours are paying up??

Don’t pay. If questioned remind them that they said “it’s up to you if you pay”.

I swear to god someone else posted a near identical situation during covid! Advice to you is the same - tell your industrious neighbours they can whistle for it!

If it’s a private road there will be some kind of maintenence agreement, check the deeds then check what others think, £8k does not sound much to serve 8 houses. How bad is the road ?, one person can’t just say it needs doing.