Right of Way payment

ThisIsWeird

The covenant appears to be very clear - he has a RoW, and a condition is that he pays his proportion of the repair costs.
That would it appear to be it, yes? Cool.
The £5k appears to be something that even you are unsure of! "It was agreed...", you say? Lawdie.
Ok, it would be 'usual', I think, for the applicant to pay a sum to the owner for the privilege of being granted a RoW. You, as the owner, have the sole right to grant this, and you could instead have decided, "Enough traffic already - no more houses...". And he'd be stuffed; he would not be able to build the additional home on his plot, so, your permission had great value to him. £5k is quite cheap, in some ways.
So, that all seems very usual, reasonable, plausible, and likely. It was almost certainly a payment as a 'thank you'.
What would not be usual or likely would be for him to pay a sum for future repairs. That's bonkers. No-one else has done this, and no-one knows what sort of sums would be involved in future. Why £5k?!
So, imo, that is unlikely, implausible, unusual.
And, if it were the case, he'd have - or should have - some means of evidencing this. He presumably doesn't?
There is another option, tho', that the £5k was a sum to compensate for any damage caused by the heavy loads and builder's deliveries? Any recollection of this? 
Assuming he has no way whatsoever to evidence that the payment was for future repairs, then he is as liable as all the others to contribute. And what a tool he is.
Do you have Legal Protection included in your house insurance? If so, call them up - it costs nothing - and ask how to enforce a covenant. I am hoping it'll be something like you applying for a court order, and if he reneges, he'll be in 'contempt'. You may then be able to revoke his RoW.
No idea, of course, and you'd need to confirm. But quite persuasive, I'd have thought?

Hermann

Ultimately you're in the realms of getting the work done, making sure it is a reasonable and fair requirement, and then pursuing those who do not pay their fair share through the Small Claims Court. Then the court can decide what the covenant requires to be paid.

Ideally you would all have co-operated in advance, discussed quotes etc and agreed everything in advance but ultimately if someone won't agree and the work is essential then do the work and make a claim.

Iceniboy

ThisIsWeird said:

The covenant appears to be very clear - he has a RoW, and a condition is that he pays his proportion of the repair costs.
That would it appear to be it, yes? Cool.
The £5k appears to be something that even you are unsure of! "It was agreed...", you say? Lawdie.
Ok, it would be 'usual', I think, for the applicant to pay a sum to the owner for the privilege of being granted a RoW. You, as the owner, have the sole right to grant this, and you could instead have decided, "Enough traffic already - no more houses...". And he'd be stuffed; he would not be able to build the additional home on his plot, so, your permission had great value to him. £5k is quite cheap, in some ways.
So, that all seems very usual, reasonable, plausible, and likely. It was almost certainly a payment as a 'thank you'.
What would not be usual or likely would be for him to pay a sum for future repairs. That's bonkers. No-one else has done this, and no-one knows what sort of sums would be involved in future. Why £5k?!
So, imo, that is unlikely, implausible, unusual.
And, if it were the case, he'd have - or should have - some means of evidencing this. He presumably doesn't?
There is another option, tho', that the £5k was a sum to compensate for any damage caused by the heavy loads and builder's deliveries? Any recollection of this? 
Assuming he has no way whatsoever to evidence that the payment was for future repairs, then he is as liable as all the others to contribute. And what a tool he is.
Do you have Legal Protection included in your house insurance? If so, call them up - it costs nothing - and ask how to enforce a covenant. I am hoping it'll be something like you applying for a court order, and if he reneges, he'll be in 'contempt'. You may then be able to revoke his RoW.
No idea, of course, and you'd need to confirm. But quite persuasive, I'd have thought?

Thanks. Yeah you make a good point. How is it ever possible to agree how much future repairs would cost? That's virtually impossible. Either way 5k doesn't last forever.

ThisIsWeird

It doesn't help, tho'' that you have seemingly no recollection of this £5k. Where did the money go - into your own account, or a separate one marked 'road upkeep'?
If this guy doesn't pay his share without an argument, imagine how galling it would be for the other contributors

Section62

Iceniboy said:

ThisIsWeird said:

Thanks. Yeah you make a good point. How is it ever possible to agree how much future repairs would cost? That's virtually impossible. Either way 5k doesn't last forever.

It is fairly common when roads are adopted that the council calculates a 'commuted sum' to cover maintenance costs for a period of time - it is possible to have a reasonable guess at what work will be needed in the next 5, 10, 15 etc years.  Especially on a low traffic driveway.

The organisation or person accepting the lump sum takes on the risk that repairs will be more expensive than they expect, but benefit from having the cash in the bank and could make a profit if less work is needed than paid for.

Without sight of the agreement it is possible the £5k was a lump sum to cover a share of construction and/or maintenance costs.  You would expect someone gaining a RoW to pay a sum just for the benefit of the right, but it can't be ruled out that this payment was something else.

silvercar

Do you have covenants with the other property owners, requiring them to pay their share? If not, you are relying on their good nature. 

If the one that paid 5k for their RoW refuses to chip in, you could exclude that share and divvy up the cost between everyone else. If they do end up paying you could keep that money in reserve for future maintenance.  Another option would be to download the deeds and see if they have a mortgage. Inform the lender that they are breaching the covenant and at risk of losing their RoW, the lender may pay up and add the cost to the mortgage. It will be in the lenders T&Cs that they can do this.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Why would someone pay a random £5K in advance of maintenance actually occurring (if the sum was actually for maintenance)? 

tetrarch

Is he happy to pay 1/17 but not 2/18 ?

Regards

Tet

Section62

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Why would someone pay a random £5K in advance of maintenance actually occurring (if the sum was actually for maintenance)? 

 If it was made a condition of being granted a RoW?

I'm not saying it was in this case, but if you are giving someone RoW over your land it wouldn't be a bad idea to ask them to make an up-front payment for maintenance.  In the context of building a new home (or a whole estate of new homes) £5k (/property) is not a vast sum to secure access which will be a requirement to be able to sell the property.

Getting people to pay for maintenance of private roads is often a thankless task.  It can be made easier by collecting the money before the work needs doing.