Neighbour threatening legal action - please help!

CatLady87

Extract from the LR title 

CatLady87

LR title

lesalanos

Ok so to me it certainly looks like either a previous owner of yours or your neighbours have put in the stop ends.  A check of neighbouring streets would confirm this and back you up in your discussions with your neighbour.

If you have had a roofer round then it's unlikely that the gutters will still be blocked with leaves etc.  That should be the 1st thing they check.  That's not to say that next doors isn't blocked which then backs yours up.  Does their down pipe go into the ground or is there an opening where you can see if the water is flowing?  It may be blocked which then backs up into yours.  In theory if there are 3 downpipes for 6 rooves then the 1 should clear yours & your neighbours providing the hole end is below the gutter height.  For me you need to work backwards from the bottom of the downspout to the end of your gutter and see if there is a blockage.  I'm thinking that there is something stopping/slowing the flow.  There may be a joint you can separate on the downpipe to check water is flowing. 
Storms may still cause gutters to overflow though and for me it's not worth spending to alleviate this.

Jeepers_Creepers

I think it's almost certain that the original setup was a single continuous gutter covering all 6 houses; that's the only explanation when there are only three, evenly-spaced, downpipes for the whole terrace.

We don't know who separated your and your neighb's gutter, and it's likely you'll never know. It must surely have been done with both parties aware, tho', or else someone acted - quite possibly with 'criminal trespass' - by parting the gutter and adding a stopend to their neighb's end - that just isn't on. But, it's history, and not you are trying to resolve it.

Good chance that your gutter is marginally higher now because originally it would have been level so it would connect, but a 'roofer' has since raised that end of yours so that all 'your' roof water now heads towards the right - the only available downpipe. Make sense?

I would strongly suggest that you now inform all and any parties that the 'solution' is obviously to restore the guttering to its original layout - a continuous length so that all the DPs are now 'shared'. If your neighb is prepared to accept this, then 'all' that needs doing is for your gutter to be aligned correctly with his and for them to be rejoined. This should only cost you a bill, around the £300 you have stated. 

You'd need assurance from your roofer that the gutters can be joined successfully and without leaks. Are the gutter profiles different? If so, how best to sort this? I presume that yours and your RH neighb's gutter are the same, because these are joined ok? 

It's up to you how to handle this. I am simply advising you of what I believe was almost certainly the original setup before someone split the gutter at that boundary for whatever reason. In which case I am also advising you of what I believe is the only viable solution to sorting it - put it back to how it was. 

You are NOT going to add your 'own' downpipe for all sorts of reasons - everyone else is sharing, and yours used to too. In addition, it would be a technical headache when done properly (ie, a 'soakaway' - you obviously wouldn't entertain anything else 'cos you'd be breaking building regs) , and would also cost you a small fortune - I reckon around £1k, even if there's the space for it. That is not on the cards! 

Your neighb's only alternative is to accept the current situation, and know that 'your' water will occasionally spill over the end and come down his wall. That's 'tough', and is only because he doesn't accept the proper solution. 

If need be, put this in writing to him - as I said, 'put him on notice' of the situation, and make it clear that only his refusal to reconnect is causing this issue. You are then covered - he cannot take successful action, because he is the unreasonable party.

I should have asked - do you have Legal Protection on your house insurance? If so, call them up - that's your lifeline :-)

(If you don't, then dearie me.)
 

CatLady87

Hiya,
I booked a gutter cleaning but the roofer my LH neighbour uses has said he will clean the gutters out to be sure (and I’ll probably just give him some money towards this as he’s cleaned mine and RH neighbour’s gutters before without us knowing.

When you say put it back to how it was? Do you just mean to join mine and his gutter back up? Ie ignore the idea of attending to all 6 gutters?

I feel a little more confident in speaking to him now so I’m going to call round tomorrow and ask him who capped the gutters off and why and skirt around the joining them back up issue. I think if a roofer corroborates this idea it will back me up. 

What is the gutter profile? They appear to be the same but I’m not sure. I still have a drip from the joint (appears to be dripping down the back of the gutter) closer to my RH neighbour’s house, if that’s any indication of them being the same / different. This is in the place to the leak my roofer tried to fix with the eave guard. I’m wondering whether I should have a whole new gutter fitted and then join that into LH neighbour’s gutter at the same time? 

I do have legal protection but it doesn’t cover against building work that I can see. I’ll give them a call and see what they say. I know they have a legal helpline in any event. I may call them if LH neighbour doesn’t play ball when we speak next.

CatLady87

I should add, RH neighbour’s downpipe seems to disappear into the ground. 

lesalanos

From your pics the guttering looks fairly new and changing this would be a waste of money.  It appears that there is an issue with the water running away and bigger guttering would just hold more water rather than clearing the root cause.

For me I would be looking at possible blockages in the downpipe to the right.  There may be a joint which you can inspect 
I wouldn't particularly say anything at this point to the left neighbour but that's just my opinion.  With the guttering not connected you will not have done anything to affect his guttering.  The water may well be overflowing from his guttering if it is lower as it may not have the drop for the water to run to the downpipe 

If you wanted to join the guttering back together this should be a fairly quick and cheap enough 

lesalanos

How bad is the existing leak?  Again this could be due to standing water if the downpipe is blocked 

Does this leak need fixing urgently or can it wait a while?

Main thing though... Do not stress about your neighbour and try not to let him bully you 

CatLady87

@lesalanos - my neighbour to the right (apparently, according to left neighbour) had the soakaway blasted out relatively recently. I do need to confirm this with the right neighbour though. I spoke to right neighbour today and he said he’d get up and have a look at the gutter as well as he wasn’t sure about his soakaway and where it was. I’ll chase him later this week. I explained the whole issue to him.

When you say you wouldn’t say anything to the left neighbour, in what respect?

The leak on the wall of left neighbour looks pretty dreadful to be honest, it’s just a great big wet patch, obviously worse when we have a particularly heavy storm.  He isn’t going to let this go and if I sit on it he’s just going to seek a legal remedy. I could do without that as I fully intend to sell as soon as all these issues are resolved and declaring a dispute won’t be good, especially given all the issues with the house and the historic issues left neighbour has had with the previous owner.

He’s definitely bullying me. He’s being subtle about it now because he’s been made to feel bad as I was really upset when he came round the other day. Thankfully my mum was there. The reason why he’s decided to take legal action (or at least threaten it) against me is beyond me. Thankfully he seems to be coming round to the idea that a downpipe on my house wouldn’t be a good idea, despite his trusted Roofer’s suggestion. And he wonders why I didn’t go round and readily accept said solution at the time?! Something is off about him, his actions and words don’t quite marry up. 

Do you agree with Jeepers Creepers that joining the guttering up May be a solution? And also check the downpipe for any existing issues with drainage?

CatLady87

I’m going to call some roofers tomorrow and I’ll get the right neighbour to be party to any inspection and discussion. I might wait to raise the issue of joining the gutters back together until we’re in front of a roofer 

We agreed yesterday that my roofer and his roofer would pay a visit and we would both see if they came up with similar solutions.