My neighbour's chimneys have been condemned

worriedowner

As part of agreeing a party wall award for my loft extension that involves raising the chimney stacks shared with my neighbour I arranged a sweep and survey of their working chimneys. This was because they kept expressing concerns that their chimneys would not work properly after I had raised the chimney stacks. They said that they used the chimneys for open fires on a regular basis and I had proceeded in good faith both that they did so and that the chimneys must therefore be in usable condition.

However, the chimney sweep immediately condemned the chimneys as being severely unsafe - they all leak and the internal brickwork is in terrible condition. They cannot be used without being repaired with a liner. Apparently this is really common in old houses but until this week I had no idea about this as I don't use a chimney myself.

My question is whether I have any recourse to my neighbours over this. I have incurred not only the costs of the chimney surveys but also significantly increased party wall surveyor costs while they try and reflect my neighbour's concerns over my works having an impact on their chimney operation, which it now transpires are entirely spurious given that the chimneys are actually unusable in their current state.

Also, is there anything else I can invoke here? If my neighbours had actually used their fires as much as they said they did then I and my family were at significant risk through poisonous gases including carbon monoxide escaping their chimneys and passing through the shared chimney breasts so I am counting myself lucky that this has come up since if I had not instigated my work then I would have remained unaware of the risks.

I_have_spoken

You can likely forget about your loft extension for a while. Your neighbour can request a party wall surveyor to represent their interests, at your expense, and 12 months can pass.

In the short term, what do your deeds say about repairs to shared parts of the property such as the chimneys? I doubt the opinion of chimney-sweep will count for much, re. 'condemning', it'll need to be pressure tested.

If CO gas from fires is coming into your house, notify Environmental Health at the Council who can serve a notice on the neighbour but that can only escalate bad feeling

FreeBear

I_have_spoken wrote: »

If CO gas from fires is coming into your house...

Get a Carbon Monoxide alarm fitted in each room that the chimney goes through. It could save a life if the flue is as bad as the sweep claims.

worriedowner

You can likely forget about your loft extension for a while. Your neighbour can request a party wall surveyor to represent their interests, at your expense, and 12 months can pass.

They already have a party wall surveyor and discussions are at a late stage with my surveyor to agree the party wall award imminently The chimney survey was arranged late in the day to protect my interest against my neighbour claiming that what was actually pre-existing damage was caused by my work and I was shocked to discover the state of his chimney flues.

Just to clarify, my neighbour is in an adjacent terraced house, not another flat in my house, so there is nothing in the deeds about shared costs. He is responsible for his chimney flues - end of.

Re the meaning of "condemned" I understand that the sweep firm has the power to issue a notice to cease use immediately, in the same way way as an authorised gas fitter, and this is what has been done here. I will of course have CO monitors after the refurbishment, in fact I think that they are required.

stator

Really I don't see that you have any recourse.
Whether their chimneys are safe or not isn't really your concern, as long as your building works don't cause them to become unsafe.
It may be that the chimneys aren't up to modern building standards and a chimney sweep might not be willing to work on them, but that doesn't mean they aren't being used. And so you will have to ensure they remain usable.

Aylesbury_Duck

worriedowner wrote: »

As part of agreeing a party wall award for my loft extension that involves raising the chimney stacks shared with my neighbour I arranged a sweep and survey of their working chimneys. This was because they kept expressing concerns that their chimneys would not work properly after I had raised the chimney stacks. They said that they used the chimneys for open fires on a regular basis and I had proceeded in good faith both that they did so and that the chimneys must therefore be in usable condition.

However, the chimney sweep immediately condemned the chimneys as being severely unsafe - they all leak and the internal brickwork is in terrible condition. They cannot be used without being repaired with a liner. Apparently this is really common in old houses but until this week I had no idea about this as I don't use a chimney myself.

My question is whether I have any recourse to my neighbours over this. i don't think you do.

I have incurred not only the costs of the chimney surveys but also significantly increased party wall surveyor costs while they try and reflect my neighbour's concerns over my works having an impact on their chimney operation, which it now transpires are entirely spurious given that the chimneys are actually unusable in their current state. But that was your choice and carried out at your expense. You can't expect them to pay for a survey you arranged to meet your requirements, just because the result wasn't necessarily the one you expected.

Also, is there anything else I can invoke here? If my neighbours had actually used their fires as much as they said they did then I and my family were at significant risk through poisonous gases including carbon monoxide escaping their chimneys and passing through the shared chimney breasts so I am counting myself lucky that this has come up since if I had not instigated my work then I would have remained unaware of the risks.

Not sure what you mean by "invoking" something? What did you have in mind?

Now that you and your neighbour know of the danger, they should not use the fires and chimneys until the necessary work has been done to make them safe to use. You can't do anything about what has gone before because nothing happened as a result of the chimneys being unsafe to use. They either didn't transmit unsafe levels of harmless gas into your house when they were used, or, as you probably suspect, they weren't used at all, so you haven't been put at risk.