Neighbours sky dish on our chimney

TCB1

Morning.

Yesterday I noticed that some bricks in our chimney have come away in the recent high winds. That was when my husband noticed a sky dish on the chimney with a wire going into next doors house.

Before I go round to see them, as it is going to need to come down for the chimney to be re-pointed, where do I stand on things.

I think they need to pay to have it removed from my chimney and to be honest I don't want it put back up there. Our houses are more than 80 years old and for all I know it could have been a contributing factor to the bricks coming loose.

I don't want to be a horrible neighbour so do I just tell them the chimney is being fixed and they may lose signal for a bit and just have it put back to save any arguments?

I_have_spoken

LOL, you only just noticed the dish? Certainly tell them it's coming down and you won't be allowed them to 'trespass' by re-installing it.

Bear in mind, it'll almost certainly get re-installed on the wall of the house which will be more obtrusive and make the place look chavvy

princeofpounds

I doubt it has been there long enough to establish an easement over your property (I hope!).

It is definitely your chimney? not shared?

Tell them it will be taken down.

If the siting is ultimately acceptable to you then you may wish to allow them license to put it back up, but the important thing is that you need to record it was given permission. That way they can't gain rights over your property to keep a dish up there.

TCB1

How do you establish ownership of a chimney? The chimney is between our 2 houses (1930 semi), the dish is on our side.

It's on the back of the house so not something I've looked at really. I honestly don't know how long (I know that seems incredibly ignorant).

I'll have a word with them, they may not even know as it would have been the sky installer that did it.

Nebulous2

How is it fastened on? Drilled through the chimney and bolted on or strapped round the chimney?

I think it is perfectly feasible that it was a factor in the damage, possibly a small one though. Satellite dishes act a bit like a sail and catch the wind. Our last one several times lost alignment in high winds and it is in quite a sheltered place.

TCB1

It is drilled and bolted on. The damage is directly above it.

My neighbours are nice people but very laid back, if they did know they probably wouldn't see it as an issue as they wouldn't mind us putting things on their house!!

giraffe69

Are they going to contribute to the repair cost? If it is a joint chimney they should. If the dish then gets put back but on their side it could still cause damage in the future.

Davesnave

TCB1 wrote: »

How do you establish ownership of a chimney? The chimney is between our 2 houses (1930 semi), the dish is on our side.

Half the chimney is yours and half belongs to the neighbours. Not difficult at all.

The Sky dish is probably on your side to enable it to point south. It won't be much good on t'other side. Put it on an outrigger and it'll be even more vulnerable and likely to exert pressure.

They should be contributing towards the repair, and to be honest, if bricks are coming loose there should be a substantial re-build. It won't be cheap, but it's getting 'laid-back' people to contribute which will be the problem.

I'd have a builder or two to quote for repair and ask whoever gets the job to take down the aerial as a matter of "safety." Then I'd make sure there was a delay.

In that period it's likely that Sky will come along and fit the aerial somewhere else!

martindow

TCB1 wrote: »

It is drilled and bolted on. The damage is directly above it.

You weren't aware that the aerial was there so probably haven't looked closely at the chimney until recently. I would think that any damage to the chimney would be at the same level as the aerial or below it rather than above. I suspect that the damage you are looking at was there before the aerial.

If the chimney does need re-pointing or rebuilding getting the builder to take the dish down for 'safety' reasons is a good idea to get it repositioned somewhere on your neighbour's house.

Sideburno

I_have_spoken wrote: »

LOL, you only just noticed the dish? Certainly tell them it's coming down and you won't be allowed them to 'trespass' by re-installing it.

Bear in mind, it'll almost certainly get re-installed on the wall of the house which will be more obtrusive and make the place look chavvy

Agreed that I wouldn't want it put back on MY house when it's not MINE.

[Deleted User]

Are you sure you don't want Freesat / Sky? You could get them to install a splitter thingy do you can both enjoy it.