Shared chimney repair

*fifi*

my daughter has a terrace house, the neighbours house is rented, they noticed masonry fell in chimney. Their landlady has gone ahead with getting a builder and put up scaffolding, he has done some work on her side. Now has produced a quote to rebuild chimney for £5500. So my daughter got quotes with the landlady’s knowledge, to remove it to half the height and this will cost £800 to £1500.
 But the landlady says she is now seeking legal advice, she feels it will devalue the terrace house.
Does anyone have any good advice on this?

hopperdennis

Did the landlord not reach out to you before proceeding, and did you not reach out to them when you noticed scaffolding and builders at your shared chimney?

hopperdennis

Fortunately for you, unless the neighbour reached out to you before doing the work, or had a quote saying it was urgent or essential (I think they need to have more than one quote?) then the law is on your side! Don’t quote me on that though please

Jeepers_Creepers

Hi fifi.

Could you post a photo, please, and folk on here will judge on the possible challenge to terrace's aesthetics :-)

(I take it the actual chimneys are unused?)

twopenny

*fifi* said:

 they noticed masonry fell in chimney.

A lot depends on the condition of the chimney, what fell (did they show your daughter evidence of this) and why, where it came from.

Which of these people giving quotes has looked inside the chimney properly and what do they say cause the debris? You need to know it's from the joint part and not their part where the chimney is divided between the properties.

I had new neighbours who had to have work done to our shared chimneys stack, not because it was unsafe but because they had a mortgage and solar panels and they had to renew and repoint to satisfy that.

I wonder if there is some alternative reason that the owner of the property wants this done and sees a chance to share the cost? Worth looking into because it sounds a lot like that to me.

I would expect someone genuinely concerned to have broached the matter at the start if it was that urgent. They can't put scaffolding on your daughters roof without her permission. But people do, happened to me when I woke at 7.30am to someone walking over my roof and it's a lot of time and effort to dispute it. Make sure she takes photos of this and the name and number of scaffolder and builder in case there is any damage to her property. Both if professional will be insured.

As to reducing the size of the stack, how would that help the structure of the chimney? It will stop any open fires drawing properly.

If the damage is just at the top so reducing eleminates the damage wouldn't it be easier to repair?

*fifi*

No open fires at either property they are  blocked up.
the neighbours want to take it down to where it is damaged and totally rebuild. Where we thought it could be partially taken down where it is damaged and left at that height,  this is what 2 builders have said to us.

*fifi*

hopperdennis said:

Did the landlord not reach out to you before proceeding, and did you not reach out to them when you noticed scaffolding and builders at your shared chimney?

Yes, this is what we tried to do, after she got her builder to put up scaffolding. He quoted after scaffolding was put up my daughter did say to both owner and builder that she needs the cheapest, but safe option done. 

Jeepers_Creepers

In essence, your LL 'owns' the house and can decide - within reason - how it's to be repaired. 

It is probably not unreasonable for her to believe that its value could be compromised to some degree if the stack is reduced to the extent it no longer looks 'right'. I'm guessing that this terrace must be traditional in some way and have some intrinsic aesthetic value other than just being a 'relatively ok-looking house'? 

I suspect that for your daughter to be able to counter-reason that a reduced stack height makes more sense, she'd need to show that it's either been done before in the 'hood, or else that there's some sort of consensus that it'll look just fine like this and shouldn't have any effect on resale value.

For this she should look around at neighbouring properties and hopefully find one that's been 'docked' in this way to no real detriment. Or else contact local estate agents - the supposed professionals - and ask their opinion on change in value. It could be that a 'full stack' (ooh-err, missus) is desirable as it means the chimney could be reinstated in the future - lots of folk love their real fires. Or they might just shrug and say it makes no difference in desirability.

In any event, what do your daughter's builders reckon the full rebuild cost would be? £5.5k seems high.

Jeepers_Creepers

Any chance of a photo? Lots of housie experience on this forum, and I suspect you'll get a consensus...

*fifi*

Jeepers_Creepers said:

In essence, your LL 'owns' the house and can decide - within reason - how it's to be repaired. 

It is probably not unreasonable for her to believe that its value could be compromised to some degree if the stack is reduced to the extent it no longer looks 'right'. I'm guessing that this terrace must be traditional in some way and have some intrinsic aesthetic value other than just being a 'relatively ok-looking house'? 

I suspect that for your daughter to be able to counter-reason that a reduced stack height makes more sense, she'd need to show that it's either been done before in the 'hood, or else that there's some sort of consensus that it'll look just fine like this and shouldn't have any effect on resale value.

For this she should look around at neighbouring properties and hopefully find one that's been 'docked' in this way to no real detriment. Or else contact local estate agents - the supposed professionals - and ask their opinion on change in value. It could be that a 'full stack' (ooh-err, missus) is desirable as it means the chimney could be reinstated in the future - lots of folk love their real fires. Or they might just shrug and say it makes no difference in desirability.

In any event, what do your daughter's builders reckon the full rebuild cost would be? £5.5k seems high.

Yes,  2 houses opposite has completely removed their chimney.
The LL said she has been advised it will effect the value, but does not say who by.
i think it’s a good idea to maybe ask estate agents, although we can not imagine it will effect the value. Also I believe that real fires are not allowed as it’s in a city centre 

Jeepers_Creepers

Do you have Legal Protection in your house insurance? They might possibly be able to advise, tho' it seems an unusual type of case.