Yesterday I received a bill. The bill was from a neighbor (that I have only met once) who lives on the street behind me. It was to cover the cost of clearing a ditch which is on this his property (technically it's on my property too). Apparently it cost him $124 to pay his "yard guy" to clear debris. In the past, debris has blocked the ditch and cause flooding in his house, so he has taken it upon himself maintain the ditch and is billing everyone upstream from him. He is asking his neighbors to pitch in $17 to cover the bill. Don't ask me how the math on a $124 bill divides to be $17 per person, also I don't know how he decided who to send the bill too. There is a head wall at the beginning of the ditch that I suspect drains from the street so if he's billing people who drain into the ditch he should probably expand the recipient list. The only time I met this neighbor he mentioned the ditch overflowing once and his house flooding. I suspect there is an inlet structure at the other end of the ditch that got blocked and water backed up. My property is probably six feet higher than his, so I'm not to worried about flooding from this ditch. Is it normal for neighbors to send bills to one another for this type of thing? If it were my property, I'd just pay the $124 myself and be done with it. Well technically I would have done the work myself so I won't need to send a bill to anyone. I don't need to create bad blood with my neighbors for that kind of money. At the same time we've haven't even been in this house for a year, i don't want to be creating an issue with someone I share a fence with over $17.
So, what's the best course of action here? Ignore the bill? Nail a $100 bill to the front door with a note telling him this should cover me for debris removal for the next 5 years? Pay the bill and start dumping construction debris in the ditch so I get my money's worth out of his "yard guy"?
So, what's the best course of action here? Ignore the bill? Nail a $100 bill to the front door with a note telling him this should cover me for debris removal for the next 5 years? Pay the bill and start dumping construction debris in the ditch so I get my money's worth out of his "yard guy"?
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