Guttering on terraced house

paddy.maguire

It doesnt really matter where the water comes from ie what part of the roof. Your builder has lied by saying he needs to put a downpipe in to solve the problem the problem can be solved by correctly joining the two up. If your neighbour before the gutters were changed had no leaks then the leak has been caused by the replacement, your repairs on your house have caused a leak on your neighbours property, forget about downpipes or your neighbours gutter being in bad nick, if its leaking at the joint then it is entirely down to the poor standard of the repair work, bite the bullet go round apologise and get it properly sorted and perhaps take a bottle of wine round and suggest leaving the front door to dry out, but of course if it needs sorting you will have to cover the cost. Just to clarify if it wasnt leaking at exactly the point it is now before the repair work then by resolving your leak in the middle you have caused a leak for our neighbour and they need do nothing to sort it out and it is entirely down to you to sort it. Dont bother speaking to your surveyor as that is pretty irrelevant. Also the adaptor hasnt been fitted because your neighbours gutter is in poor nick it hasnt been fitted because your builder either couldnt be bothered or didnt know how to.

kitt19804

This job had to be done as i had an extensive leak outside my front window.

Comparing pictures to then and now it seems there could have been a small leak at this place as there seems to be moss growth on the walls at the same position.

I shall wait and see if I can get hold of a better picture from the surveyor.

paddy.maguire

I understand completely that the repair needed to be done as you had a leak, but what you must realise is that if your builder has simply taken down your guttering and replaced it and not correctly jointed it to your neighbours then it is totally irrelevant whether there is moss or possibly may have been a leak at some point before. When repair/replacement work is carried out you/your builder have a responsibility to ensure that the work doesnt impact upon your neighbours. If your builder was not able to leaklessly joint into your neighbours gutter then he shouldnt have started, wedging your neighbours gutter into yours is cowboy behaviour. Put yourself in your neighbours position, one day nice working gutters and a neighbour with leaks, next time it rains heavily your neighbours gutters work fine but where your cowboy chopped your gutter off it leaks down the front of your house you would go bananas and rightly so. Sadly this is one of lifes lessons but on this occasion you will need to stick your hand in your pocket and get it resolved properly

iamcornholio

kitt19804 wrote: »

The builder told me that they could not join it up, and that the neighbour would need to get theirs replaced.

Your builder is wrong.

There are plenty adapters for new to the various types of old gutters.

Get your builder back, or get someone more comptetant back and charge to costs of this to your original builder

At it's most bacic level, you have caused the probelm, and you can't expect your neighbour to have to incur costs because of your actions.

If the situation was reversed, then I'm sure you would be quite annoyed

kitt19804

I understand where my neighbour is coming from, however I am hardly there.

When I have been there they never attempted to speak to me by knocking on the door when they knew I was in. I was originally unaware of the problem. The only conversations have been when we have been passing or I have approached them at their house.

They know that I can be gone for weeks and they have never even attempted to get someone out to look at it. I know people will say why should they, but if it was me I would have done this.

I believe there was an existing leak, maybe not to this extent. When the works were done there was no leak. What if this leak has been caused by their gutters rotting evenmore?

I appreciate all your comments, thanks

bryanb

I understand the position is that your neighbour's roof water passes into your gutters. Are you happy with this situation? Is the right for it to happen in the house deeds? If not it seems to me you could fit stop ends to both gutters and each deal with your own roof water. Just an opinion.

iamcornholio

bryanb wrote: »

If not it seems to me you could fit stop ends to both gutters and each deal with your own roof water. Just an opinion.

No, there is an implied obligation on owners of shared properties to accept the passage of neighbours rainwater run-off via the gutters if that is how the properties were built

bryanb

iamcornholio wrote: »

No, there is an implied obligation on owners of shared properties to accept the passage of neighbours rainwater run-off via the gutters if that is how the properties were built

Interesting, (The situation applies to me also) Where can I find reference to the implied obligation? Does it have the force of law? Or even build regs/planning?

iamcornholio

It comes from estsablished precedent in property law, not from any statute law such as planning or building regulations.

However under the Building Act 1984 the local council can take action to compel homeowners to rectify faulty, or ineffective drainage systems. This would be via the environmental health dept, not the building control dept, and the drainage system must be deemed to be causing a potential health issue.

There may be instances where shared drains (and gutters) means a shared cost of all the homeowners in the drain run. So that if you are in a run or at the end of a run serving other properties, then you are responsible for any repairs within your own boundaries, but the other owners "up-stream" may have to contribute pro-rata to the costs. To enforce this you may have to end up suing the neighbours.

paddy.maguire

It would hardly be a neighbourly thing to do to fit stop ends to your gutters and let your neighbours look out for themselves. I wouldnt want a neighbour who would do that, I would prefer to live in a community rather than live in isolation, perhaps thats just me. I like to get on with people, ie sorting my neighbours shower out on friday, getting given a skinned rabbit for my tea yesterday, giving some off cuts as firewood to another neighbour and woodshaving for another neighbours horses and getting some eggs and parsnips as a thank you. Maybe thats what needs to change in society, a bit more looking out for each other and a little less selfishness, despite what the law entitles you to do.