Neighbour deliberatley sabotaging party wall with Water ingress

paye

Hi, 

My brother is currently having issues with his neighbour whereby his neighbour is deliberately soaking his side of the property garage wall with running water which is causing severe damp issues to my brother side of the property. The adjoining garage wall which is shared is part of my brother living space in his home but the continuous damp due to running water has caused the paint to peel off, plaster to come away and the wall wet to the touch. We believe the neighbour has setup a hose pipe which he turns on periodically to wet the walls in spite because his neighbour wants to build an extension but cannot build it unless the party wall to the garage is rebuilt. Because my brother refused the works, he has decided to damage the wall on purpose on the hope that it gets so bad the only option would be to rebuild the party wall to the garage so that his neighbour gets his extension.

 

My brother today actually managed to get video footage through the neighbour garage, and you can clearly see water running down the walls of his neighbour garage.

He has gone through the insurance company who basically said it is not their problem and the police think it is a civil matter. When we ask to be let in to see inside of the neighbour garage to work out the root cause of the problem, he  point blankly refused  saying we need to serve him a notice. Obviously if he was not hiding anything I am sure he would of invited us in. The room has got so bad the damp has spread into the kitchen which has caused all the units to got rotten and carpet & flooring  to go mouldy. This has been going on for a couple months now and it's got to a stage where his kids are suffering. 

Any advice would be welcme

missile

Shocking, see a solicitor asap

Soot2006

Why did your brother stand in the way of the neighbour's extension plans?

Doozergirl

Has your brother thought about allowing the new party wall to be built? 

If it needs rebuilding then that would suggest that it isn't ideal as an external wall.  

If the wall was water tight then that shouldn't be happening.  What condition is the roof in? 

Jeepers_Creepers

If the neighb is genuinely doing this, then it is a police matter - it's criminal damage.

Does your bro' have Legal Protection on his house insurance? They should be able to advise on the legal aspect.

"...his neighbour wants to build an extension but cannot build it unless the party wall to the garage is rebuilt." Can you explain this firther? Why would this wall need to be 'rebuilt'? Why can't a separate - as in a normal cavity - wall be built next to it? Yes, it would still be a Party Wall Act matter since the roofs would almost certainly be joining, and the founds would need taking care of, but I don't understand why this existing wall would need taking down?

As Doozer asks, why is your bro against this in the first place? He doesn't want it to be an attached house where it's currently link-detached?

Now that it's come tho this - assuming the neighb is carrying out these acts - it'll be doubly-hard for your bro and them to arrive at a compromise.

What roof does that room have, and how does it join with the neighb's garage roof? Are they both 'flat'? Or is your bro's roof pitched? If the latter, he should be able to look in the roof space and check that there are no leaks coming through from his roof that could cause this damage. In which case, it would then be pretty obvious that it's being caused by the neighbouring property, either through lack of maintenance, or by sabotage.

In that event - sab or poor maintenance - then the neighb is liable for this damage, but your bro would have to officially 'put them on notice' of what's happening, and demand that they resolve it or he'll launch a claim. Again, you LP should advise on this.

As far as I know, there does not exist a law against trespass in this country, so your bro (with you...?) could come in to your neighb's garden without permission, and record what's going on. This would be especially true if what they suspected was criminal damage - which I'm pretty sure it would be. You make the police act in this case, and then you sue the neighb for the repairs.

It's a shame it's come to this, but I suspect your bro is not going to be happy to compromise or go to mediation with the neighb's behaviour. He needs to think hard about what outcome he wants and should expect; Stick to his guns, in which case he needs to take ACTION to stop it, or else be ready to go to mediation with the neighb.

Either he gets this evidence himself, or he has to insist the police do check it out.

What a hellish mess. And I'm not just talking about the wall.

(It might help to soften the blow - should your bro agree to a compromise and allow the extension; he can insist on his own surveyor for the PWA, and know that his neighb will have an extra couple of £k to fork out to pay for it...)

paye

Hi all,

Thanks for the all the post, I will try and cover them all here.

My bro is not against the neighbour extension plans but to maximise the space of his plans to build a double storey side extension the neighbour  wants  to increase the height of the existing party wall to the garage but that means the existing wall needs to be rebuilt as current foundations and wall is not structurally suitable. Have a look at the photo, hopefully it be much clearer (right handside is my brother house).

When my brother moved in to his house the previous owner converted the garage into a room, this wall runs the entire depth of the house which also goes through the kitchen. Imagine knocking part of your own house down for a neighbour extension. If this guy were my neighbour I would have knocked him out by now. 

He also left the  water running today with the floor now also getting damp.

He phoned up Thames Water today who came out to see if there was a problem with their pipes, but it was all fine. The engineer did say it seems like a deliberate act from next door and put this in his report. The police are coming out on Monday to investigate as it could be classed as criminal damage.

Now what is the best way forward in terms of suing him for all the damage and misery he has caused, through the insurance company or privately through the solicitors? He hasn't got any legal cover either. 

Rosa_Damascena

missile said:

Shocking, see a solicitor asap

There's one guaranteed outcome here, and that is expense. How can you prove this is a malicious and deliberate act?

paye

Rosa_Damascena said:

missile said:

Shocking, see a solicitor asap

There's one guaranteed outcome here, and that is expense. How can you prove this is a malicious and deliberate act?

My bro managed to get footage from his neighbour garage yesterday with his phone through a gap in the garage door, the video footage clearly  shows water running down the wall.  He also confronted his neighbour  yesterday and recorded the confrontation when the neighbour was told about the evidence he now has. He did not say a word and just stayes quite. You can also here some kind of pump going when the water was running down the wall.Currently I've calcultated the damage in the house to be around £25-30k as the kitchen space is runied aswell as the space inside his garage conversion. He got two under 2 living in the house aswell. I can't belive how useless the police are in situations like this. 

Jeepers_Creepers

Two separate issues. IS that a party wall? Does it straddle the boundary or is it fully on your bro's side?

And what sort of system does this guy have running so that water is constantly being fired at the wall?! Why doesn't this water come out from under his garage door? Has he set up some sort of recirculating pump and trough to collect the water after it's come down the wall?!

(And will the neighb have cleared all this away by Monday before the police come out now your bro has told him what he 'knows'...?)

I'd suggest try and obtain enough evidence for the police to act is the first step. Once that's been gathered, it should be a matter of having the repairs carried out under your own insurance, and they will then sue the neighbour for the cost. Even if you don't have LegProt (tsk tsk...), your insurance co should still be able to advise on how to proceed with a claim, and what they'll then do about it.

First, tho', you need evidence.

You should also - if you have not yet done so - write a full, chronological account of all the events that have led up to this moment. Every conversation had with the neighb - the main points of what was said by both parties. A note of when the damp began. A note of every time you heard water. Anything and everything. You ideally need to show that  the neighb knew they were doing wrong - that they were informed of the damp coming through. (I know that sounds weird, but just in case they claim "I was only cleaning my walls..." or summat silly.)

Jeepers_Creepers

Defence of necessity

In some cases, a trespasser may be able to use the defence of necessity. Where there is a threat of harm to either persons or property that is only avoidable through intruding on another’s property then the doctrine of necessity may apply. Again, this is something that a landowner should take advice on from a specialist property lawyer.

I don't know if this applies in your case, but it sounds as tho' it might. By that I don't necessary mean breaking down his garage door (unless you are 100% certain of what you will find and are recording it) but to at least go on to his driveway and stick an endoscope camera through the gap in the door - along with a flashlight!

Jeepers_Creepers

https://www.yourmoney.com/insurance/help-neighbours-damaged-property-rights/

Access to prevent serious damage to property

If you live in England or Wales and you need to enter a property causing a leak and the resident isn’t home, you should call the police as they can gain entry under the ‘Police and Criminal Evidence Act’ on the grounds of ‘preventing serious damage to property’.

In Scotland, council guidance recommends the police should be called if a householder can’t contact their neighbour. You shouldn’t attempt to enter another person’s property, even if you feel compelled to do so because water is leaking into your home.

I would suggest that, in this case, gaining access is not to stop the leak, but to prove a criminal act.