HELP - Neighbour dispute over party wall agreement

MisterBaxter

If the waste pipe has always been there and is common to most of the properties in the street then I would say that as you want to move the drain for your benefit you would have to meet the costs of the move.

As per previous post just make sure your neighbour is aware of what is happening and when; you don't want to create issues when they come to use the bath/shower.

Any work you do now will however need to comply with Building Regulations but your builder/architect/surveyor will sort that bit. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'open air drain' and whether that is a gulley at ground level or a hopper-head at high level.

kh904

MisterBaxter wrote: »

If the waste pipe has always been there and is common to most of the properties in the street then I would say that as you want to move the drain for your benefit you would have to meet the costs of the move.

As per previous post just make sure your neighbour is aware of what is happening and when; you don't want to create issues when they come to use the bath/shower.

Any work you do now will however need to comply with Building Regulations but your builder/architect/surveyor will sort that bit. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'open air drain' and whether that is a gulley at ground level or a hopper-head at high level.

Hi sorry for the delay in update.
The party wall agreement was signed and the external walls and roof are up! The builders have built the internal wall and plastered the inside.

The extension didn't end up being a 'full width' as such, it was approx a foot within each side of our boundary (to allow space for guttering and waste pipes etc).

The issue is still the neighbour wanting us to pay to re-route their bathroom water waste pipe that was originally discharging in the 'hopper' that was on our side of the boundary.
That hopper is no longer functional as the extension is 4 meters further out.
Just to save the headache and cost, can we just pay to extend their bath waste water pipe to run along the side of the garden (on their side of the boundary fence & above ground level) and an angle joint into our new hopper that will be installed within our side of the boundary?
We don't want to pay a bigger expense of digging in their garden up for them to have their pipes hidden below ground level etc just so it looks nice for them.
This should only cost a few £ for some plastic pipe, however we are not sure if this route is sufficient for us to fulfil the bare minimum our duties in moving their pipe (if their is a legal obligation for us to do so).

They are threatening getting solicitors involved and my parents are upset and stressed.
Our builders & building control inspector have said it should be their responsibility as it's their waste pipe, however they are not legal experts.
My dad will be gong to citizens advice for help but I have found in the past not that great when it came to advising us on the party wall agreement

Many thanks for your advice as always

Mr.Generous

I wonder if the wastes could be tapped into the soil pipe instead? The practice of feeding foul water into rainfall run off is no longer the current way and this is standard on many builds. Even if they have the old cast iron soil pipe it won't cost much to replace that, they are usually in pretty poor shape anyway.
Did the property have an outhouse / flat roof single story / single skin building at the rear with a Belfast sink by any chance? I only ask because they always used a shared drain and shared waste pipes at the back, very common style of construction throughout the uk.

kh904

We still need to install our ground floor bath & basin water waste & toilet waste pipes, which will be connected to the new sewer drain near (already installed) the new extension.
So my theory is that the neighbours bath water waste pipe can also use this new hopper? which feeds into the new drain.
The question is can we just get away with extending the neighbours pipe (which will be visible aboveground) along their side of boundary fence and into our hopper?

I doubt that they had a belfast sink (we never did originally).

Snuggles

I don't have knowledge of the technicalities or the legal position, but if I was having work done for my own benefit, I would feel morally obliged to pay for moving the neighbours waste water pipe - why should they incur costs because your parents decided they wanted an extension?

kh904

Snuggles wrote: »

I don't have knowledge of the technicalities or the legal position, but if I was having work done for my own benefit, I would feel morally obliged to pay for moving the neighbours waste water pipe - why should they incur costs because your parents decided they wanted an extension?

Whilst I can see where you are coming from, morally and legally are 2 different things.
Morally, the neighbours pipe should never have discharged into the hopper that's wholely in our boundry in the first place (even the building inspector overseeing our extension said this).
Legally the neighbour may now have 'easement rights' due to the time passed.

So yes we will likely reroute the neighbours pipe at our cost, but the question is what is sufficient legally/building control-wise to fufill our duty to move their pipe?
As in my above post, I was thinking extending their waste pipe along the neighbours fence (on their side of the boundary & above ground) and then it enters over our boundary discharging into our hopper.

EDIT:

As I understand, looking into the building control online, open-air hoppers are no longer permitted for foul waste water (unless repairing and exist one). So I guess the neighbour's pipe will run down the side of the fence at a gradient so at some point has to go below ground level and then a right-angle into our hopper? So a small amount of digging is probably required I believe.