Eleven households have reached an unwritten accord on whose turn it is, in an agreement that has never been spoken aloud and is understood by everyone.

The subject of the turn has not been specified and does not need to be.

“It’s not a rota,” said resident Hyacinth Mbeki-Warren. “A rota would be insulting. We simply know.”

The Institute for Tacit Arrangements reports that such accords govern most neighbourhood life and collapse instantly on being formalised.

“The moment somebody makes a spreadsheet, the system fails,” said Dr. Tobias Lindqvist. “A spreadsheet reveals that two households have been doing everything for four years. Everybody suspected this. Nobody wanted it in writing.”

Under the accord, obligations rotate according to signals including the arrival of a skip, the state of a verge, and whether somebody has recently had scaffolding up, which confers three months of exemption.

Compliance is total. Enforcement consists of a wave delivered at a slightly reduced amplitude.

One household attempted to clarify the arrangement in May by asking, directly, whose turn it was. The Institute records this as a serious incident.

“Everybody said it was theirs,” Lindqvist said. “Nobody moved. The system recovered within a fortnight, but it was a close thing.”