Neighbour to rented accommodation asked me to pay for her plumber

omnithanos

The house where I grew up is rented and shares a drain with the next house with the manhole in our garden.
Whenever there was a problem in the past the neighbour would ring me and I would go out and rod the drain.
The last time I went out there were roots of a tree blocking the drain which I cut out.
My neighbour rang yesterday to say that her downstairs toilet was low so she rang a plumber who told her the problem was that the roots of the ivy from my garden was blocking the drain so she asked if I would pay for her plumber.

Should I be expected to pay because it was my ivy blocking the drain?
Should she pay because she called the plumber without notifying me of the problem?
Should we split the bill?

aristotle25

If you can go and cut the ivy to sort it out once and for all then that would be best.
I would be inclined to give her half the plumber bill as the cause of the problem is on your side and she is being inconvenienced. But I would not pay it all.

Bigcheeze

If it's a shared drain you split the bill between the houses sharing the drain.

Mrs OBumble

Am I understanding this correctly:

A property that you own (rented out vs lived in is irrelevant here) is causing the neighbours an on-going sewage problem, which you have been given many opportunities to fix over the years. But each time you have only pottered away at the symptoms rather than dealt with the real problem. And now you are thinking that the neighbour should have called you yet again, rather than a drainage professional, when yet another problem arose.

I know that's a bit harsh: it could have been a different problem each time. But still I think I can see where the neighbour is coming from.

Pay half (at least) and be thankful it's not the full bill.

ted1

you should get rid of the IVY, and py for the plumber. Its your fault.

but I'm more worried about broken pipes, how are the roots blocking the drain? are the pipes broken?