On Fri, 22 Jun 2018 17:48:50 +0100, pamela wrote:

On 15:52 22 Jun 2018, Scott wrote:

On Fri, 22 Jun 2018 11:05:34 +0100, pamela
wrote:

On 10:14 22 Jun 2018, Scott wrote:

On Fri, 22 Jun 2018 06:41:56 +0100, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

On 21/06/18 22:21, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Really, you all need to get together and decide what you want
to do with the garden, and who does which bits of the work.
Reminds me of a dovoce lawyer.

"What you need to do is sit down and negortiate a settlement"

"If It had ever been possible to sit down and negotiate a
settlement there would be no divorce...."

Indeed ... I could write a book about it.

Three absentee landlords. One owner unfit to carry out
gardening. One nervous about going into the rear garden on her
own. One hardly ever seen and listens to music on headphones.
One hates gardening. Person on the ground floor can't stand the
person on the first floor. Person on the second floor supports
the person on the first floor. Person on the second floor thinks
everyone is incompetent. I tend to agree with that viewpoint.
Nearly everyone pleads shortage of money. One seems to view
maintenance as a bourgois conspiracy.

We have roof repairs outstanding but no agreement to carry out
the work. I have sent a 'project fear' letter pointing out that
any future damage is highly unlikely to be met by insurers. I
do not want to open a second front on gardening.

My aim is a 'cheap and cheerful' fix without consent to make the
rear garden more presentable and to preserve the opportunity to
sell without having to explain the state of the garden. To that
end I plan to obliterate the weeds and plant some form of robust
ground cover plants. This is a 'metre margin'. The grass can
stay where it is.

Reminds me of a conveyancing lawyer:
"At least in a divorce the parties want an end-point. With a
neighbour dispute parties are more determined and there is less
incentive to settle. These disputes are usually only resolved
when one party moves."

Agreeing on how to deal with a shared garden is a nightmare.
There sometimes seems to be more opinions than parties involved.

Surely there is an obligation on the parties to pay costs incurred
by their representative or by the management company?

Yes, but we are 'self-factored' meaning the building is managed by
the residents, who at the last meeting split 4-4 on the vote.
This was for roof repairs where some thought the first bidder was
too cheap and others thought the second bidder was too expensive.
We therefore did not have the five votes needed for a decision.

Is this done through a limited company or is it arranged as a sort
of club? There surely must be some agreed process when a split vote
occurs.

It's in Scotland so regulated by the Tenement Management Scheme in the
Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2004/11/contents

I've seen such an arrangement come a cropper when provisions were
made for a unofficial sinking fund.

Yes, I'm a bit nervous about funds held by our Residents' Association.
I prefer to sideline the RA and convene as a statutory meeting, but
the others (apart from one solicitor) see this as purely academic.