Shared work to neighbouring houses

svenrufus

Greetings
We own a ground floor flat in a converted victorian terrace house (and freehold). Over the front door is a 'porch' which is also a small balcony area for the first floor flat. The neighbouring house in the terrace is a mirror image of our so the balcony/porch is contiguous across the party line for both houses. Hope that makes sense.

My issue is that the balcony is in poor condition, and leaked during the winter so that water came into our flat. The neighbours one is also in poor condition, and leaks although he has put some felt down across the top which reduces the leaking. His side still shows salts washing out from the walls, and the ironwork is rusting fast too, so clearly he does have a problem, even if he doesn't see it as such.

I've had some quotes for getting the balcony sorted, and talked to the neighbour about this. We were told that only doing one side of the balcony would make the job less effective. We are keen to get the job done properly, but our neighbour is happy with his felt solution.

When talking with the neighbour, knowing he was content with the status quo, we offered to pay the bulk of the work if we could do it across both balconies, but when he baulked at that, we upped our offer, to pay for the whole job, just needing his permission to go ahead. We'd obviously rather share the costs, but feel it is a price worth paying if we can get things done right.

He has not flatly refused that offer and has asked us for more details which he will have to agree before agreeing, although says if he is not content he will refuse.

This leaves me wondering where we stand in terms of our property being adversely affected by the level of maintenance on an adjoining property? Has anyne come across this sort of scenario before? What are the options, or rights and responsibilities for each party?

Hope someone can help