Pipes from neighbour's new extension into our loft

thebigossu

Hi All,

A little background:
We live in a 100+ year old semi-detatched house. Our new neighbour has added a second floor extension to the single storey rear kitchen. We had no objection to extension but our neighbour did not bother to get a Party Wall Agreement. They made no attempt to discuss the extension with us and started to erect it much more quickly than I was expecting. As I had concerns regarding them building on the original party wall I had to stop the work while we came to an agreement. They decided to erect the second storey on an RSJ next to the party wall instead of building directly on the party wall. This lead to some 'bad feeling' between us.
Current problem:
I recently went into the loft space above our rear kitchen and found that they had placed pipework from their kitchen, new upstairs bathroom and new downstairs internal toilet through their new internal wall into the space above the old party wall (which is still open to our loft space). The pipes are: a soil and 'greywater' pipe from upstairs, a soil vent pipe (which I expect has an air admittance / 'durgo' valve and an extractor fan duct (I seem to be unable to add photos).

My concerns are fire safety and access.

Any opinions welcome.

Thanks

daveyjp

Use a photo drop website. The explanation doesn't help.

thebigossu

Hi Davey,

It appears that I'm not allowed to post with links as I'm a new user. Sorry.

Doozergirl

Post a broken link. We will fix it

thebigossu

OK Doozergirl, here goes:


//media5000.dropshots.com/photos/1324484/20160131/b_073755.jpg

//media5001.dropshots.com/photos/1324484/20160131/b_073330.jpg


Thanks

thebigossu

The first picture needs to be rotated 90 degrees clockwise (to make the block wall currently horizontal at the bottom of the photo become vertical on the left - it just gets more difficult!)

daveyjp

Time to ask the neighbours what they are going to do about this problem.

thebigossu

You are quite right Davey.

But before I did I thought I would ask here whether they are allowed to do such a thing (otherwise it looks like I'm just continuing to be difficult!)

I spoke to the building reg.s guy at the council when I saw the soil vent pipe but he seemed fairly uninterested.

daveyjp

If the area the pipes are in is part of your property its trespass. A third party cannot just decide to use your property for the benefit of theirs.

What happens if that soil or waste pipe fails? What if you decide to extend upwards?

Building Control are only concerned that the work is done to the current regs. Issues over land ownership aren't their problem.

Have an initial chat as they may be unaware what their cowboy builders have done. If they are aware then you need to start the process of getting them to have the work 'undone' and reinstating your property.

thebigossu

Thanks for your reply Davey.

Yes, there is the issue of 'boundary' lines. The pipes are directly above the party wall. The question is: exactly whose property are they on?

Any thoughts welcome.

stator

As above, it depends who owns the land/space. If you own it then they are very cheeky indeed and you should come to some kind of arrangement where they can lease the air from you.