Neighbours extractor fan vents into our garden

sam1970

Apologies if the wrong forum.
We live into a detached house. Next door neighbour's house is a semi detached which he extended all the way to the boundary (Done before we bought the house). It always looked odd but we did not bother with it. Recently he decided to renovate his house and we have been very good to him by allowing his work men access to our garden to do work on his roof and install various things (CCTV, Boiler flu..etc). We even allowed him to erect scaffolding in our garden for 3 months. Recently the relation has gone wrong as we had few issues with him during his building project so we do not talk any more.

The problem now is that we discovered that he installed his kitchen extractor fan vent on the edge of his roof..literally in our garden. The result is that every time they cook food (and I dont know what the hell they cook as horrible smell) the awful smell swamps our garden and if we have any window open it will go inside the house. Very tempted to rip the vent out or block it. 

Where do I stand legally on this please? Surely he should not have extended his house all the way to the boundary.

fenwick458

where is it, on the wall? or through the roof? is it a single storey extension?

macman

Simples: the extractor cannot overhang the boundary, unless you grant permission. Does it?

starving_artist

I think there are building regs which set a minimum distance from the boundary you can not install an extractor - 500mm ? Edit: it's actually a minimum distance from a door or window.

Bendy_House

Sam, do you have LP on your house insurance?

Regardless, first call up the 'environmental health' or 'nuisance' department of your LA and explain the situation. Also call 'Planning' for ditto. I find it hard to believe this 'conforms'. (whether it's Planning or Build Regs, I don't know - just keep asking to be put through to the other if one says 'Non')

I think this would be considered a statutory nuisance. It's also solvable by the neighbour, either by using a recirculating extractor (not as good) or by venting it upwards through their roof (a bit of cost, but tough).

Meanwhile, no, you cannot/shouldn't touch it.

-taff

He can extend to the boundary because he owns the land. Did you have a party wallagreement? Is there anything overhanging the air space?

If it is on his roof you can't block or rip it off, it is on his property.

sam1970

Thank you guys for your replies. To be honest the vent is on his roof, just on the boundary, and venting upward but the smell is allover our garden and front drive.. It has been noted by our visitors. It does not affect him at all as it is away from his garden. 
As for extending his house all the way to the boundary... He left himself no way of accessing the side of his house apart from asking us to allow him into our garden. He has got few things to worry about from this side including the kitchen vent, boiler flu, cctv cables or roof tile problems and he will never be allowed in again. He will need to get me a court order to be allowed in. 

TELLIT01

The neighbour has a legal right to access adjoining property for the purpose of maintenance.  Attempting to stop them doing so would be pointless as the court would allow the access and you could end up with a legal bill.

sam1970

Are you sure about that? His builders damaged my garden and he refused to put things back to what it was denying it was his men causing it.  Why should I allow him to do that again? 

Bendy_House

sam1970 said:

Are you sure about that? His builders damaged my garden and he refused to put things back to what it was denying it was his men causing it.  Why should I allow him to do that again? 

These are totally different issues, and it won't help you to confuse them.

If a builder damaged your property, they should have sorted it. That's one issue.

Allowing neighbour access to your property so they can build an extension is just decent neighbourliness. Allowing them ditto in order to repair and maintain their property is just ditto and a legal requirement - ie, then can enforce it. Since you know they have this right, it would be churlish to try and stop it, or to put them to extra inconvenience.

Ok, so this extractor doesn't vent directly on to your garden, but it's close enough to cause a nuisance. Keep a record - literally smell and time, and also try and get as many visitors and family as possible to agree on how bad it is. Then call the LA. There must surely be some simplish solutions to this as there would be a boiler flue - an extension pipe to vent it higher, for example.

Bear in mind that the first thing they'll likely ask is "What does the neighb say about this...?"

sam1970

Just to give you an idea about this neighbour... He asked to erect scaffolding in our garden for two weeks to do some work on his property and we stupidly agreed...it took him 3 months and every time I asked him to remove it he was shouting that he will only remove it when work is completed... We were powerless