Resurfacing a private car park when nobody wants to pay

AdrianC

Mortgage_Moog wrote: »

The quote I had for the work is totally stupid. They want £20,000 for a days work to resurface 8 bays!

And how much have other quotes been?

It's not really fair to say "for a day's work", like it's going to be just one guy who's getting paid a year's salary for one day with a shovel and a tamper...

How many people?
Material costs?
Equipment costs?
Disposal costs for the waste?

Tarmac is really not cheap.

It's also not just "8 bays", is it? What's the total area that you're looking at surfacing? There are various tools for measuring surface area from a google satellite image.
https://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-area-calculator-tool.htm for one.

Post the area, ideally with a satellite and streetview image, and I'm sure somebody can give you a better indication of whether the quote's realistic.

armchaireconomist

So what you're asking is how do you force the other residents to overpay for a car park they don't want to pay for, or in some cases don't use, for your benefit? Am I missing something here?

G_M

Thanks. Now can we clarify further?

There are 8 bays yes?
But only 4 houses?
Each house owns one bay as part of that property's freehold yes?
And the other 4 bays......?

Mortgage_Moog wrote: »

1) The car park forms part of the freehold.
Unclear. You mean the entire car park forms part of ... which freehold?
Or you mean bits of the car park (ie the bays) are part of the various freeholds of the 4 houses?
?????
Each house owns the space and it's shown on the land registry maps as a square for the house with a long thin bit extending from the top of the square stretching into the parking space.
OK - so the freehold of each house includes a bay. 4 houses / 4 freeholds / 4 bays ??
The whole car park is owned by the houses,
???? No. As I understand it, small bits of the car park (each bay) are owned by different houses
the turning bits and access are all someones land.
OK - now we move on from the bays. the turning bits and access are..... whose land?? Presumably there is another freehold (other than the various house freeholds which include the bays) covering these shared bits of the car park yes? This is a separate freehold? Who owns it?
The pavement you drive over to get into the car park is council owned as is a large tree in the corner causing cracks to the car park surface. Hey! I understand that it! Very clear!

2) The freehold is owned by the people living in four of the houses, me being one of them.
Sorry - what freehold? the various bays? The turning /access bits?
Two of the other houses are privately owned and rented out, two others are leasehold because they never bought the freehold and are now stuck with a 60 year lease that they can't afford to extend and nobody can get a mortgage to buy them so they've been for sale for years. The freehold for those is owned by the developer.
So 4 houses in all yes?

3) The shared areas are all freehold and it's up to each person to maintain them, i.e the path that runs in front of the houses. We each have to repair our own bit when it needs doing.
Unclear again.
* what shared areas? the car park turning bits and access?
* which freehold? A separate freehold to the houses? Owned jointly? Or what?
* why 'up to each person to maintain'? Is this specified in the freehold Title? Or elsewhere? What exactly does it say? (please quote).

4) Maintenance is just up to each individual freeholder to do themselves. I did check this before I bought and they just said each owner must look after their own bit, that's it.

Please specify
* how many houses
* how many freehold titles in all
* which freehold do the various bits of the carpark (esp the access/turning bits) come under?
* what exactly doe the freehold Titles say about
a) rights of access (eg across other freehold areas)
b) maintenance

Doozergirl

You'll find that tarmac is the most expensive way of rsurfacing at the moment. Block paving would be cheaper. Properly prepared gravel surface even cheaper but harder to maintain.

getmore4less

A map/drawing would be useful



from what's been said there are 8 house and 8 bays with each house owning the bit from their house.

I imagine something like this
12345678
hhhhhhhh : 8 houses
LLLLLLLL : 8 bit of land/drive/turning
TTTTTTTT : 8 bits of turning
BBBBBBBB : 8 parking bays.

each house owns one strip.

somewhere there is a path and a tree owned by the council.

comeandgo

Get a civil engineer in to suggest what needs done at what cost. A repair job could last for years.

Norman_Castle

Without interest or cooperation from the majority of the other residents you're probably wasting your time. Cheap repairs to areas that directly affect you and the other interested neighbour and park £2.5k somewhere safe for when this does eventually get done.

ReadingTim

armchaireconomist wrote: »

So what you're asking is how do you force the other residents to overpay for a car park they don't want to pay for, or in some cases don't use, for your benefit? Am I missing something here?

No, I don't think you're missing anything. That's *exactly* what the OP is asking, even if s/he won't or doesn't have the nerve admit it.

OP - you can't force this issue. Those who want it done are going to have to pay for it themselves. Or not do it. Their choice.

Your best course of action would be to find a quote which is acceptable to the greatest number of people, rather than wasting your time here trying to find ways to force people to do something they're not going to do.

david1951

Mortgage_Moog wrote: »

Two of us have said we would even thought it's a lot.
Two of us have said it's too much
Two don't have a car so have said no because they don't care
Two houses are rented so we'd need to contact the landlord

The question is: how do you go about getting a car park resurfaced when only some of you will pay?

Answer: you don't. This sounds like a complete non-starter until you establish if the other freeholders have an obligation to pay. At the moment you are quite far from establishing this.

Mortgage_Moog wrote: »

The renters don't care because it's not their problem

Well....yeh

ReadingTim

david1951 wrote: »

Answer: you don't. This sounds like a complete non-starter until you establish if the other freeholders have an obligation to pay. At the moment you are quite far from establishing this.

...and even if an obligation can be established, enforcing said obligation is a [STRIKE]fruitless task[/STRIKE] further challenge.