Pipe in my loft from Neighbour's side

safferus

We moved into a new house in November.

It has a loft conversion and we today were investigating for extra storage space up there.

At the party wall discovered a white flexible pipe coming from the Neighbors side into ours. It looks like a pipe from an extractor fan or something similar.

We had a full survey done 1 week before we exchanged which included photos of this area and it was NOT there.

The Neighbour in question has had a lot of building work done and between exchange and completion the then owner of our house signed off on the party wall, There was no mention of this at all.

of course I plan to go and have a chat with them, is it possible the then owners gave permission as they were moving out and didn't care? I have no idea what this is it could be spewing hot air causing condensation or leaks or whatever.

My first instinct was to rip it off and seal it up as I do not want it there.

Does any one know of any law or anything that would prevent me from doing this?

shaun_from_Africa

safferus wrote: »

My first instinct was to rip it off and seal it up as I do not want it there.

Does any one know of any law or anything that would prevent me from doing this?

This would probably cover it:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1971/48/section/1

Destroying or damaging property.
(1) A person who without lawful excuse destroys or damages any property belonging to another intending to destroy or damage any such property or being reckless as to whether any such property would be destroyed or damaged shall be guilty of an offence.

Even though your neighbour may not have permission for the pipe, I would have thought that you would have to give them a chance to remove it before doing so yourself and possibly damaging it or causing a further problem in their property.

Head_The_Ball

Can you post a picture of the pipe.

It could be for an air supply to a boiler rather than an exhaust from a fan.

In any case you should ask the neighbour to remove it rather than doing that yourself.

moneyistooshorttomention

Going by the fact that neighbours arent allowed to have their plants overhanging in the garden (and people are allowed to trim them back if they do so) and people own the "airspace" above their home to a certain height - then I would think there is every chance that the neighbour isnt allowed to do this and OP is within their rights to remove it/

In their position - I would knock on their door and say words to effect of "You probably don't realise what your workman has done. I thought I'd better tell you. I know I'd feel embarrassed if one of my workmen had done the same. Here - come and have a look at what they did".

I'd take it from there then as to how to proceed. Hopefully, they really won't have realised what their workman did/will come and have a look/will apologise profusely and instantly offer to put it right.

If OP gets the impression that they do actually know all about it and they did it deliberately and are hoping to get away with it - then a rather different approach will be necessary. For instance - checking what the equivalent law says and giving them a letter officially requesting matters be put right.

I'd be wary of just cutting and removing it myself - in case that created a safety hazard. Hence - why I would start by giving them the "benefit of the doubt" that they may not know what their workman has done.

DorsetLad

It probably isn't a boiler inlet/exhaust pipe. New boilers have to be of the condensing type, which have a rigid pipework that must send the exhaust externally. My guess is that it is a vent from a bathroom/shower extractor fan. If so, I would definitely suggest that this should be removed (after friendly discussions with your neighbour) and re-sited by your neighbour. It will carry warm humid air that could lead to condensation in your loft and the possibility of rotting of roof timber (unless your loft is very well ventilated).

Ant555

If nothing else then it sounds like breaking the barrier between you and them might be a breach of fire regulations for the building work?

Although I can't offer any more advice beyond what has already been suggested, please do post back as i'm intrigued as to what pipe neighbours/builders thought was OK to vent into next doors loft!