Neighbours extension caused cosmetic damage – where do i stand?

shoe_dog

My neighbours kitchen extension work has caused significant cosmetic damage to my property due to poor guttering he had installed. Essentially, the poor guttering he had fitted during the build caused rainwater to flood down my external kitchen wall, staining and discolouring the specialist render i paid about £5k to have done about 5 years ago. 

I've recently had a number of tradespeople round to assess and cost up the repair work and unfortunately the whole wall will need rendering again to remove the staining, you can't simply 'patch up' certain areas. I've had this verified by the manufacturers of the specific render in question.

My neighbour initially apologised and agreed to cover the costs to repair it but i don't think he's anticipating the £3–£4k quotes i've had in from various tradespeople and i anticipate a bumpy ride ahead. I need this fixing as a) it looks awful, and b) it could cause issues when i come to sell my house in the near future as any surveyor will simply mark it down as a potential damp issue (even though it's cosmetic only). It's also off-putting to prospective buyers.

Where do i stand legally? Is my neighbour legally obliged to pay for the repairs needed to bring the wall back to the condition it was in before he damaged it regardless of the cost?

Where should i stand morally? Is it fair for me to make him pay £3–4k to re-render the whole wall when only part of it is affected? You might think 'just paint over it all' but that will completely change the appearance of this particular render i paid for which has a natural 'sparkling' stone / mineral quality, paint would kill the effect and defeat the purpose of me paying for this finish initially. 

And what do i need to do now to ensure this isn't forgotten about or swept under the carpet by my neighbour?

Mistral001

The lightweight blocks in the neighbour's extension are still damp at the junction so clearly there is some drying out to be done.  I would leave it for a while until there are no signs of dampness in the neighbour's wall.  After that if there are still some stains, they might be just on the surface and thus not permanent.

shoe_dog

Mistral001 said:

 I would leave it for a while until there are no signs of dampness in the neighbour's wall.  After that if there are still some stains, they might be just on the surface and thus not permanent.

That photo was taken 12 weeks ago, the staining is still just as bad.

aoleks

right. before you think of fixing that, you might want to find out what the issue is. otherwise, your brand new render will be destroyed during the first rain .

can you not paint over it?

biscan25

He wouldn't be paying for anything. It's what house insurance or his builder's indemnity cover is for, so the cost shouldn't be an issue.
What did your house insurer say about the process?

stuart45

Looks like K rend, which can suffer from stains and algae growth which is probably why loads of K rend specialist cleaning firms have sprung up everywhere.

shoe_dog

biscan25 said:

He wouldn't be paying for anything. It's what house insurance or his builder's indemnity cover is for, so the cost shouldn't be an issue.

What did your house insurer say about the process?

I haven't spoken to my insurer, i assumed it was his liability to cover any damages my property sustained due to his work.
Do i need to speak to my insurer?
I'm not sure what indemnity insurance he has to be honest, he seems to be doing everything on the cheap.

shoe_dog

stuart45 said:

Looks like K rend, which can suffer from stains and algae growth which is probably why loads of K rend specialist cleaning firms have sprung up everywhere.

It is indeed K Rend.

I've not come across specialist cleaning firms, that could definitely be worth looking into. 

I've only spoken with K Rend support and a number of their recommended contractors, all of whom (perhaps not surprisingly) say it needs re-doing.

biscan25

shoe_dog said:

biscan25 said:

He wouldn't be paying for anything. It's what house insurance or his builder's indemnity cover is for, so the cost shouldn't be an issue.

What did your house insurer say about the process?

I haven't spoken to my insurer, i assumed it was his liability to cover any damages my property sustained due to his work.
Do i need to speak to my insurer?
I'm not sure what indemnity insurance he has to be honest, he seems to be doing everything on the cheap.

Oh so it was a DIY job, rather than a builder? It is in theory his responsibility to sort. In practice if he refuses to pay, then its either court or you could claim on your insurance for an easy life.

Bendy_House

Hi SD.

Do you have Legal Protection on your house insurance? If so, call them up and explain the situation.

This is an awkward situation as the damage isn't proportional to the cause. This shouldn't matter, but it will likely leave a bad taste in this guy's mouth.

'All' the guy did was to install his guttering in a poor manner, and this presumably caused water to cascade down your wall? In which case, unless this water penetrated the wall to cause internal damage, there would normally be no longer-term issues once the fault was sorted.

However, because of the particular render you have used, it has 'stained' in this bizarre way. So, we have a situation where a small error has caused expensive, unanticipateable, damage.

That said, your neighb is still liable, and you should be entitled to a full restoration.

If he had used a builder, then the builder would be claiming on their liability insurance. If he DIYed the work, then he better check his household policy carefully. Since it looks as tho' he wasn't exactly 'negligent', I think he should be covered, just as if - say - he dropped a hammer and it went ploughing through your roof.

Please tell us you have LP.

FreeBear

shoe_dog said: he seems to be doing everything on the cheap.

The quality of the block work makes that abundantly clear. Wonder if it is even tied in to the adjoining wall properly...