legal responsibility of rain gutter fall pipe

DVardysShadow

moonbadger wrote: »

Basically I would like him to route the drain pipe into a drain (it would be fine on our side, but preferably his) and I think he should pay for it. is the unreasonable?

You don't own the property you are buying. So you should not get any more involved in this than you are already. He has made his position clear. If you want anything different, negotiate with your seller to negotiate with his neighbour and get whatever work done. It keeps your nose clean with the new neighbour if the work is done. If that approach does not work, you must either accept it or walk away.

KateLiana27

First, I have a feeling this person is going to make your life, ahem, difficult over the coming years. His actions suggest that he is an inconsiderate person who flouts planning permission (not to mention common sense), disrespects your space and invents laws to suit himself. Exactly what you want in a neighbour.

If you are determined to go ahead, insist (through your solicitor, in writing) that the current owner fixes the issue to your satisfaction before proceeding with the sale. Be specific about what you want, and physically check that the necessary actions have been taken before exchange. And be prepared to walk away if it is not resolved.

Oh yes - his gutter = his responsibility.

JQ.

If you wanted to be really cheeky if you buy the house - get the neighbour to put in writing that the gutter is your responsibility as it sits on your land, then remove said gutter and watch them get damp walls.

Slinky

Is his extension reasonably recent? In which case why isn't his guttering via a downpipe to a soakaway? Where I live you can't just dump your rainwater onto a garden, it wouldn't get planning permission. And you wouldn't get planning permission to discharge it into a foul-sewer either.

JQ.

You also wouldn't get planning for a design that had the guttering on someone else's property.

sonastin

A stealth alternative would be to raise the bit of gutter that overhangs "your" property by a few inches. That way the run on the gutter reverses and the gutter will start to discharge at the other end. Remove the downpipe on your side and problem solved. Of course, if he is mid-terrace too, you could be causing trouble for the neighbours on his other side and making yourself a target for the whole row. If this is going to be a big problem, walk away now.

chris_m

sonastin wrote: »

A stealth alternative would be to raise the bit of gutter that overhangs "your" property by a few inches. That way the run on the gutter reverses and the gutter will start to discharge at the other end. Remove the downpipe on your side and problem solved. Of course, if he is mid-terrace too, you could be causing trouble for the neighbours on his other side and making yourself a target for the whole row. If this is going to be a big problem, walk away now.

The gutter is parallel to the boundary, i.e. along the side of the neighbour's extension - so the discharge would be against the wall of the OPs (if they buy it) house, even worse.

Richard_Webster

As a solicitor I get tired of people asking about legal rights in a situation like this when it is pretty obvious this neighbour is going to be difficult and therefore anyone with any sense would want avoid walking into a situation where they are going to have the stress and expense of a series of legal battles over fall pipes and then perhaps over trying to build their own extension.

Relying on legal remedies is plain stupid when you don't have to walk into the situation in the first place. Buy something else and tell the seller why you are walking away.