Taken Down Chimney

jessicacox3

Back in March, my next door neighbour removed an ajoining chimney without mine or my upstairs neighbours approval. She claims that it was unsave (the renderring was crumbling slightly) and I wrote to my neighbours son at the time (my neighbour in in her 80's) and said that I did not approve for this to happen and could not afford to pay. I heard nothing.

Today I receive a voicemail from my neighbours son saying that he had been trying to claim through the insurance but as the chimney was not unsafe in their opinion, a claim could not be made and could I call him back to talk about money.

Could someone please advise me where I stand legally on this? I really have no money - I live alone (as does my upstairs neighbour) and struggle financially anyway and would never have agreed for this to happen.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I am really stressing.

wdw2003

I'm no legal expert, but I can't see how you can be compelled to pay for something done at the whim of someone else. Even if your properties have some sort of agreement whereby you share the cost of roof repairs etc, at the very least you should be closely involved in the decision as to the necessity and cost of any claimed repairs. I would have thought getting more than one inspection would have been sensible for your neigbour. Possibly she was hookwinked by a dodgy builder, but that's not your problem.

For what it's worth, my chimney has large cracks all through the render and a roofer I had up there for a different reason said it wasn't any big deal and that if it got worse or if I was worried about it, the simplest and cheapest answer would be to take off the render and just paint up the brick. If that's true, I could do that myself for the cost of a tin of paint. Knocking it down would be total overkill unless the structure of the chimney itself was weakened in some way.

Citizens Advice should be able to sort this one quite easily, I should have thought.

jessicacox3

That's what I thought too - thanks for your reply, it has helped to put my mind at rest!

wdw2003

I'm sure someone else will be along soon with a much more informed opinion. Here's hoping.