Real life MMD: Should we ask 'em for cash?

John_Pierpoint

AnthonyKirke wrote: »

I suggest a check on your title deeds to see if there is anything about shared services and their repair.

Be aware that under English law it is usually not possible to impose a positive covenant on subsequent purchasers.
There are loads of deeds that say something like "the purchaser and his successors in title will construct and maintain a good six foot high nine inch stock brick wall wall along boundary "A" (marked pink on the attached plan) at all times)".

When the wall falls down it gets replaced by a few concrete posts and a bit of chain link and there is not a lot that the neighbour can do about it.

tomterm8

A leaking drain close to your house can cause subsidence. So I would suggest you get it sorted soon, rather than wait to October.

Best way is to contact environmental health, they will send round notices, do the work, then charge everyone on the line. Since the sewage is leaking, it may enter the water table.

epm-84

If you are responsible for the pipe then you shouldn't expect each of your neighbours to share an equal cost of the pipe. Each person is responsible for the section of pipe running through their own property. As a gesture of good will neighbours may offer a small contribution as being the end house your section gets more intense usage.

epm-84

sweetsl wrote: »

Okay, lets imagine that the problem is with another shared resource e.g. your roof. Let's say that you lived in a top floor flat and the roof is leaking. Yes, it is your problem that you have water running down the walls, and yes, it will take some time until the neighbours below start to have a problem, but they do still have to pay. It is a shared aspect of the building. So, I can't see how this is any different to your situation.

A roof on a set of flats is very different. There is one roof for the whole block of flats whereas each property has their own section of pipe. This situation is more like the occupant of a flat on the ground floor demanding that the other occupants contribute to the cost of repairing their leaking radiator in their flat because the hot water goes in to their flat first.

With pipes every house has a roughly equal section of pipe. Why should the owner of house number 2 have to pay a share for 15 sections of pipe, whereas the owner of house number 30 demands his/her 15 neighbours all share the one payment? The answer is they don't. Unless the deeds state otherwise the owner of house 30 pays the whole cost of the new pipe on their property, the owner of house 28 pays the whole cost of the new pipe on their property etc. That is one reason precisely why two identical houses in the same street can be valued differently.