Shared chimney repair

*fifi*

Jeepers_Creepers said:

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

I will ask my daughter 
she has a friend who is a solicitor, who deals with other type of law, but is going to make some enquires , hopefully 
i also suggested citizen advice 

Jeepers_Creepers

I have to say that I suspect strongly that the LL is entitled to insist on a full repair if that's what's needed, but I'm hoping that if they are genuinely just concerned of a possible loss of value to the building, they can be persuaded that this won't be the case and would therefore be more reasonable about a compromise of some sort.

Meanwhile, however, I would get alternative quotes for the full rebuild to see if the £5.5k quote is excessive. 

I'd still love to see a photo... If the stack is unused, why does it need a full rebuild anyway? Can it not be repointed if made of exposed brick, or re-rendered if smooth? Or relined if it's internal masonry wot's crumbling (where did the falling piece of masonry come from?)

twopenny

That's what has me curious Jeepers.

The shared bit would only be mortar falling and it would normally stop at the shelf where the chimney kinks near the bottom

The individual part of the chimney wouldn't require the stack replacing.

*fifi*

Hi, sorry not added to this before, but there has been a lot of correspondence with LL. she so far, has agreed to a compromise, is willing for my daughter to pay £2000 which includes half the cost of scaffolding which is £500 each and she will pay the rest to rebuild chimney. But she is now looking at other builders as the £5500 quoted by her builder did not include VAT or the scaffolding!.
Unfortunately cannot take a photo as her builder has said no one is allowed on scaffolding as insurance will not cover. Think he was probably not happy with other builders going up to take a look!
thanks for your interest and information 

Jeepers_Creepers

Thanks for the update, fifi.

Your LL now sounds like a reasonable person, which is obviously good news. 

We don't need a close-up photo - one from the street will be fine, and this would actually show the stack's visual impact better too (ie whether a 'full' stack really is an important feature). I certainly wouldn't recommend you climb the scaff! If you have a decent camera on your phone, it should also be possible to zoom in to see the condition of the stack; it would have to be in very poor structural order for it to require rebuilding, but of course it's quite possible that this is the best course of action.

In any event, it looks as tho' your daughter's bill should not be more than £2k, and I hope she finds that ok?

I hope she gets more quotes! Please keep us updated :-) 

Wanderingpomm

The issue will be if In future people want to use the fires. If the chimney is half height will it work properly?