Shared driveway cost dispute

dream888

Our neighbour recently tarmacced our shared driveway after saying he would pay for it as he was tarmaccing his own drive. Nothing was in writing. He’s now sent us a £5K bill and asked us to pay for half! I told him we were under the impression he was paying for it as he chose the tarmac. I looked at our deeds and we each have rights of way over the drive, with an obligation to keep it in fair condition and state of repair. The council owns the shared driveway. the neighbours englished isn’t very good or he is sneaky (we have recently moved in). Should or do we need to pay half? As I said our deeds only talk about paying a ‘fair proportion to keep it in a good condition’ rather than costs being  split 50:50. The neighbour is giving us a sob story about how he can’t afford to pay for all of it and he wouldn’t have done it if he knew we weren’t paying half. He told us twice he would cover it so that’s the impression we got. We were never given a choice of tarmac or asked to ok the price beforehand. The neighbour had inferred he will use the driveway as his own now which obviously I don’t want him to do as we need it for access. to keep the peace should we pay half?? 

gwynlas

If he expected you to pay half  for it this should have been clearly stated beforehand and you would have had the opportunity to get quotes for comparative costs.
It might cause bad feeling but i would not be paying anything towards it and it sounds quite possible that you would be paying at least half of the total cost though I do not know how much a good restoration might have cost. You could measure the square meterage and phone around for estimates.

GDB2222

Can you explain how the neighbour has his own driveway and you have a shared driveway? 

Is the £5k the cost of the shared drive? Or is it half the cost?

Is the cost reasonable?

Has the work been done correctly?

Did the drive need repair? 

dream888

for clarity; we each have our own driveways but there is a shared driveway in the middle as each house used to have a garage at the back (both houses have removed the garages). £5K is the cost of the tarmac for the shared driveway only so he’s asking us for £2.5K. Before it was Tamarac it was just gravel and sandy. It was fine condition. The neighbour damaged some of our paving as his skip was in the Sheree driveway, so some of the tarmac effectively repaired/made good this paving. We can afford to pay it it’s just the principle of him not being clear beforehand. We would have never agree to do anything to the shared drive had he said let’s split the cost, all we would have asked him to do was replace our pavings and made good that damage. 

dream888

The work has been done nicely and the shared driveway does look lovely, definitely an improvement. I must also add that he repaired our fence for free (without asking us) so paying half might not be a bad thing it’s just the principle of how he went about it and made us believe he was going to cover the cost! 

dream888

Also he said he chose the most expensive tarmac which also made us infer he was footing the bill, it was like he was showing off. Really strange. 

Baldytyke88

"englished isn’t very good or he is sneaky"

If he has fixed your fence, maybe he is a good guy but being foreign has made communication difficult.

dream888

Yes maybe, I guess I don’t really trust him due to his u turn about the shared drive… 

Brie

Maybe pay but make it clear that it's going to be over 3 months or something as nothing was agreed in advance.  Accentuate the  fact that having nothing agreed in advance is an issue so that he really really knows that these things must be agreed.  There may be a point when he does something that you don't agree or don't have the ££ for so agreement is absolutely necessary.  

ThisIsWeird

dream888 said:

The work has been done nicely and the shared driveway does look lovely, definitely an improvement. I must also add that he repaired our fence for free (without asking us) so paying half might not be a bad thing it’s just the principle of how he went about it and made us believe he was going to cover the cost! 

Do you have to pay? No, because it wasn't required, and it wasn't agreed beforehand.

What if the shared area was in poor condition? Then likely yes - your deeds suggest you do need to contribute a fair proportion to its upkeep. But, of course, that should have been agreed beforehand. So, not a good move by your neighb.

On the basis, however, that you accept that it's a good job, it's decent quality, looks good, and was a reasonable price, then I'd personally be tempted to pay - whilst making it clear that such decisions must be agreed in future. Nothing else is 'shared', no?!

Had it been a poor job and/or unreasonable price, then 'non'. And there's nothing they could have done about it - including using it as his own; nip that misconception in t'bud, should it be inferred again. The deeds dictate.

MysteryMe

Remember you are living next door to this person so it is up to you how pleasant you want relations to be.  I think you need to be open to the possibility that is was a genuine misunderstanding due to language barrier rather than just assume it's all very sinister and dodgy.