Party Wall above roof

darleydame

Can anyone tell me who owns the wall of a roof.
My roof is taller than my neighbours and the rendering is falling off on the exposed bit from his roof to the top of my roof.
The actual wall if you follow it down is his side of the party wall but he says that his responsibility ends at his roof level- which seems logical really but he is the one that had it rendered and now its all coming off and he wants us to repair it.
Hope that is clear

GClyde

Best check your title deeds, as an ex-building control officer, I'd expect ownership of a party wall to be shared (50/50) all the way up to the underside of the roof between the 2 house holders.

Although, you may have a Block Plan attached to your title deeds showing your boundaries highlighted in red and anything shared/commual in another colour. If this is the case, then I'd expect the title deeds to go into further detail and describe owenership in more detail.

However, I'd suggest that you get your title deeds checked out by your solicitor - it could end up a Civil matter.

Hope this helps.

iamcornholio

A Party Wall ends where it ceases to be shared.

If I understand the situation correctly, this is a stepped roof with the neighbours roof at a lower level, and then the OP's wall extends higher (albeit built off the party wall) to the underside of the higher roof?

In these arrangements the neighbour had no right to render the wall as it is not his to render. He can fix his flashing to it, but that's it. The OP owns the wall and is responsible for maintenance, but does not have to render it or repair the render. It's not up to the neighbour to dictate what maintenance is done.

However in this case, the neighbour has committed a trespass in applying render to a wall he does not own. If the wall was not previously rendered, then he has now forced the owner to incur future maintenance costs. Alternatively, the render has not been done well (it should last 30 years plus) and so again forced owner to incur costs and has potentially damaged the wall

Point his transgression out to him. Give him the opportunity to arrange and pay for its reinstatement and then you wont have to sue him for your repair costs

darleydame

thank you for your help.
I cannot see anything on the title deeds that cover this area though.
iamcornholio- I like your style!
he said he had to pay for it to be done as water was coming into his property.
He could have mentioned this fact when we had the scaffolding up for renewing the roof last year and it was noted by the roofer that the rendering was very poorly done and they had not installed a proper lead flashing only one of the stick on sort so thats the cause of the leaks not the rendering. We didnt renew the rendering just painted the area with waterproofer when we first bought the house as we intended to redo the roof but only got around to it some 9 years later!
If a wall needs to be rendered to make it waterproof then every bare brick house in the land needs rendering!

We shall try some negotiation using your reasoning but without the sueing threat and hope to reach a compromise as we do have to live next door and dont want to be on bad terms!