Our neighbour has told us that that he is planning to put his house on the market in early summer, and he has asked if we would consider painting our front wall and tidying our front garden. Can we ask him to pay for this?
This depends on how well you get along with your neighbour. While on first thoughts, this may appear to be a cheeky request from your neighbour, the following is worth consideration: If you are happy with the condition of your wall and garden, provided they are kept in a reasonable condition, then there should be no reason for you to do anything.
However, it would appear that your neighbour would not agree that the condition of your wall and garden are presented in a reasonable condition.
Both you and your neighbour are likely to benefit from having your wall painted and garden tidied as they have already approached you about this. Therefore, if you were to equally split the cost of carrying out your neighbour’s request, you will both benefit and build up some goodwill in the process.
Who knows? This may even increase the value of your own property.
Roger Berkeley is a chartered residential surveyor and member of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, scsi.ie
