WC extractor fan venting onto neighbour's property

maurice28

We are in the process of having an extension built on the back of our terraced house. The wall of our extension has replaced part of the previous party wall between us and our neighbours. We have a small downstairs WC that used to have a back window - that back window now backs into the extension and so has been removed and bricked up. As part of this, the building inspector required the installation of a mechanical extractor fan to replace the lost ventilation.

The builder is coming to install this extractor and has proposed it comes out of the WC, through the extension and the vent is then placed on the exterior wall of the extension, so it faces out, and so would vent into, the neighbours garden at a height of about 7 feet or so.

I just wanted to check, is this normally acceptable? It isn't a boiler exhaust or a kitchen extractor fan, so hopefully smells and water vapour etc won't be an issue. I didn't know what, if any, rules there were around bathroom extractor fans specifically?

Neighbours are currently away so can't immediately check with them/get their permission, so thought I'd ask in the meantime!

ComicGeek

Absolutely not, you can't vent through a party wall/boundary.

You need to find a different route to either the rear of your extension to vent into your garden, or to the front of the property. 

Doozergirl

ComicGeek said:

Absolutely not, you can't vent through a party wall/boundary.

You need to find a different route to either the rear of your extension to vent into your garden, or to the front of the property. 

...or through the roof.  

Belenus

Doozergirl said:

ComicGeek said:

Absolutely not, you can't vent through a party wall/boundary.

You need to find a different route to either the rear of your extension to vent into your garden, or to the front of the property. 

...or through the roof.  

Which is where the neighbours would go if something was vented into their garden.  

markin

But is it a party wall or entirely on your land?

 But they would hear the fan and farting! And sound travels both ways.

maurice28

Thanks all! I couldn't find anything about WC specific extractor fans, most things online seemed to be about cooking hoods and the associated smells, or boiler exhausts, so that's helpful.

The vent would technically be on our land by the way, to answer that question! 

SaverRate

A family member lives in a new build where the neighbours kitchen extractor fan vents into their garden as the grille is in the wall of the neighbours house. 
The smells can be very interesting and apparently the neighbours can hear everything happening in the garden. There is also the issue of maintenance when the grille needs replacing they have to access the family members garden 

ComicGeek

maurice28 said:

Thanks all! I couldn't find anything about WC specific extractor fans, most things online seemed to be about cooking hoods and the associated smells, or boiler exhausts, so that's helpful.

The vent would technically be on our land by the way, to answer that question! 

So what is the distance between the external face of your wall and the boundary line?

theoretica

maurice28 said:

We are in the process of having an extension built on the back of our terraced house. The wall of our extension has replaced part of the previous party wall between us and our neighbours.

So you are asking about a vent going through the party wall?  What makes it a party wall is that your neighbours could also use it to build their own extension - in which case the vent would go into their house which is obviously not reasonable.

Mistral001

Remember the building regulations are not manuals of building design.  Good building design goes beyond what the law requires.  So if you think that venting a toilet into your neighbour's property is not good building design, then do not do it.  The vent can be put on an interior wall of the toilet and piped through to another external wall.

RobM99

Well, something here really could hit the fan!