neighbour altered drainpipe to our house. Is it allowed????

Debt_Free_Chick

MrsMondragon wrote: »

Just spoke to my solicitor. He did had a look at the title deeds and confirmed they had no right to do what they have. Also they have no right to having the flue where it is located. He directed me to the council legal department as well as Building Regulations, who obviously have not given him planning permission.

That's odd. The Council might take action against any planning/building regs breach. But they can not and will not get involved in anything covered by the deeds.

Just curious ... did the solicitor explain why they "had no right to do what they have"?

MrsMondragon

He said that paragraph 3 on the last page of the deed covered the fact that the pipe was an obstruction and also the fact that they have made the porch bigger without the approval of building regs.

HugoSP

The planning enforcement people at the LA may be interested about the gas flu if it is a hazard to you. Its tendancy to emit hot gases without warning IMO would be a hazard that could get their boiler disconnected by the gas board, on pain of a fine if it were to be reconnected without the fault being rectified.

As for the rainwater discharge, I know a landlord who was being sued by his tenant because the toilet cistern overflowed and he alledged to have slipped up and injured himself. The tenant had no money but took up a "no win, no fee" contract, and made the LLs life a living hell.

If your neighbour is reading this thread he would do well not to leave himself over exposed......

The slightest problem and you could make things very difficult for him very quickly.

veryskint_3

anoneemouse wrote: »

Whatever the rights or wrongs of this (and I would personally suspect your neighbour is allowed to do what they please with guttering on their own house) - I would advise you strongly to sort out your own solution on your own house - and forget about involving the neighbour in any shape or form. You are saying that both the Council and a solicitor dont want to know about this - therefore it is seriously not worth you trying to pursue this. If you did manage somehow to pursue this - then it will be one of those costly legal battles for both neighbours involving only a very small point that one reads about from time to time in the papers - and wonders why they bothered, as they both lost loads of money and went through all sorts of hassle.

I strongly advise forgetting about going back to your neighbour - it will make for a much cheaper and easier life - and I VERY MUCH doubt whether you could possibly "win" in a court of any description.

I would also advocate "putting yourself in your neighbours shoes". From where your neighbour is at - there she is sitting in her own little house minding her own business when the next door neighbour decides to put a large extension on their house - blocking out some of her light and generally making her house feel a lot more claustrophobic. Wouldnt you be hopping mad yourself if someone did that to you? - the vast majority of people would be. I would refuse myself to let anyone onto my land to do anything that was going to make my house a worse place to live in. So - looked at from that point of view - you can understand why she is upset. Perhaps showing her a little compassion and understanding might go a long way - as your posts so far indicate to me that you are determined to have your own way regardless of anyone else's rights or feelings. Whew...... thinks, thank goodness I dont have you as a neighbour... I'll just go off and count my blessings.

What an obnoxious person you are. the reason we have had an extension (not that its any of yous business) is that my husbands ex wife died and his 2 chidren came to live with us, therefore we have 4 children so if accepting 2 more children and bringing them up as my own and having the house made bigger to accomodate them is not me being a compassionate person i dont know what is. And fyi our neighbour said she didnt mind about the extension at first and also most of our street doesnt talk to her as she is so nasty and vindictive. So before commenting get to know all the facts. Also with the botched up job we now have a leak on the guttering attaached on our house and our deeds state we can go onto neighbours land for repairs on our property.Thankyou

real1314

"you are determined to have your own way regardless of anyone else's rights or feelings"

erm, given that the OP has the right to drain rainwater through the downpipe on the neighbours property (this is so common it's obvious - think of blocks of 20 terraceds), and that the OP has the right to enter the neighbours land for maintenance, who is denying who's rights? Who is determined to have their own way regardless of rights or feelings?

The OP has erected a legally approved extension, taking all necessary steps. The neighbour has breached their own requirements in the deeds and has attempted to stomp all over the OPs rights.

I think you're looking at things from a completely warped perspective.

And I think the plods were just taking a common sense approach that should be applauded. :T

MrsMondragon

HugoSP wrote: »

The planning enforcement people at the LA may be interested about the gas flu if it is a hazard to you. Its tendancy to emit hot gases without warning IMO would be a hazard that could get their boiler disconnected by the gas board, on pain of a fine if it were to be reconnected without the fault being rectified.

As for the rainwater discharge, I know a landlord who was being sued by his tenant because the toilet cistern overflowed and he alledged to have slipped up and injured himself. The tenant had no money but took up a "no win, no fee" contract, and made the LLs life a living hell.

If your neighbour is reading this thread he would do well not to leave himself over exposed......

The slightest problem and you could make things very difficult for him very quickly.

The flue is from a gas heater. There are no fumes that I can smell, just the flue protrudes into the shared tunnel. I have to dodge it thats all, more an inconvenience rather than a danger. My solicitor did say that there was a chance there could be ice on the pavement due to his drainpipe. Im sure he wont be reading this as he does not seem very literate, but I suppose I can make his life difficult.

Poppycat

My old house had a shared tunnel for rear of the house we just had access to the tunnel. They had a flue in there but we didnt mind

veryskint_3

veryskint wrote: »

Hi all. We recently had an extension built on our house to accomodate 2 extra kids. We had it all passed by the council and it is now finished. Our neighbour joined on opposed it all the way, but it has been passed as it does not affect anyones light. Our guttering used to run along the back of our house at into our neighbours drainpipe, so when the building work was done the builder put our guttering back onto the neighbours so it flowed down her drainpipe as before.Whilst i was out yesterday our neighbour got someone to higher her guttering so not in line with ours and put a stopper on her end of the guttering and a stopper on ours, so in effect we have a piece of guttering on our house now with a stopper on each end (if you get my drift) therefore is no use or ornament, therefore is she allowed to do this as there is nowhere our rainwater can flow as the original flow was down her drainpipe as we do not have one at the back of our house.Can someone please help!!!

Hi just a quick post to say thankyou for all everyones help last year and an update. We have given in and are spending £500 putting new guttering in (which we dont really have) the police were a complete waste of time, as were solicitors who charged the earth for 2 letters and emails. Ive come to the conclusion that im not lowering myself to her standards and that she must be mentally ill. She is now trying to intimidate my kids (sad old b***h) the only consolation is she wont be here forever.

t_r

Well you are a better person than me. I can only aplaud you, if it was me after every rain I would knock off the end piece (unseen of cours). There are some horible people out there so sorry one of them is your neighbour.

dori2o

Speaking of drainpipes.

I have often wondered about the situation with my drain pipe.

I live in a mid terraced and the drain pipe at the front of the house carries the water from mine and my neighbours to the right(End terrace). However, the water comes down the drain and is expelled onto the pavement.

It has been like this since I moved in 5 and a half years ago. It was not brought up on the survey when first buying, or on the survey when we remortgaged.

AFAIK there is no grid/drain at the front of my property but every other property but mine has grass/flags in the front yard, I have a 5 inch concrete screed so in effect my front yard sits 5 inches higher than everyone elses, so it could be possible that the drain has been covered.

I am worried about the possibility of the discharged water freezing on the pavement and causing injury.

Would I be liable for this?

Is there any way i can find out if there is a drain at the front of my property?

Any help/advice appreciated.