My mum rang up a little perplexed the other day, to say that a neighbour has suffered due to the disrepair of the chimney on the roof!

 

Anyway the yuppy neighbour has come round to have whinge at my old dear (80 years old), to say that water is leaking in from the chimney forming a a patch of damp on her bedroom wall!

 

It turns out that when the initial property developer turned the neighbour's house into flats he knocked out the original chimney which was joined to ours on the boundry, and rendered where it joined onto our chimney. This render is coming away and it doen't look like he put any flashing where the chimneys were joined!

 

It doen't look to me that water is entering our chimney and entering the neighbours flat, although she says she has employed roofers to look at it and they verify this is the case.

 

Is their any independant body we can employ to give us both an impartial view?

My mum rang up a little perplexed the other day, to say that a neighbour has suffered due to the disrepair of the chimney on the roof!

 

Anyway the yuppy neighbour has come round to have whinge at my old dear (80 years old), to say that water is leaking in from the chimney forming a a patch of damp on her bedroom wall!

 

It turns out that when the initial property developer turned the neighbour's house into flats he knocked out the original chimney which was joined to ours on the boundry, and rendered where it joined onto our chimney. This render is coming away and it doen't look like he put any flashing where the chimneys were joined!

 

It doen't look to me that water is entering our chimney and entering the neighbours flat, although she says she has employed roofers to look at it and they verify this is the case.

 

Is their any independant body we can employ to give us both an impartial view?

yep buts its going to cost,better get an estimate via your half and see iff the roofer comes up with the same story,anychance of a few pics from the ground i might be able to advise better than words and get a better piture,

ps: i run my own roofing company of 28 years so i know a little :D

How old are the flats? Did your mum buy from the property developer and how many years ago? What kind of survey was taken out at the time of moving in? Was any mortgage needed?

 

Taking a law view on things if worst comes to worse.

My mum lives in a house(bought 30years ago) next door to the house converted to flats, and the flats were converted about 15 years ago.

 

The girl who moved into the flat got a survey before buying, and he said that their side of the chimney needed repointing again, the seller alledgedly got this sorted!

Unfortunately, my initial idea of negligence on the part of developer has been thwarted due to no direct contract between your mum and the developer and negligence claim has to be within 15yrs. Survey is also irrelevant as it was made to a previous tenant and had no effect in your mum buying the house. Sorry to have wasted your time :(

 

Never trust a third partys price(Your nextdoor neighbour) though, get at least 3 quotes on the works/stance, roofing can be quite costly because of the height of work.

 

An impartial view by a surveyor/inspector wont get it fixed so in my opinion it might be better to cut out the middle man and just get the repairs done.

.....the initial property developer turned the neighbour's house into flats he knocked out the original chimney which was joined to ours on the boundry, and rendered where it joined onto our chimney. This render is coming away and it doen't look like he put any flashing where the chimneys were joined!

So how is this your Mum's fault?

 

She's only responsible if her roof/chimney is leaking and I 'spose she can only prove that one way or the other by getting a roofer to check it.

 

Tell the neighbours that they will have to foot the bill if it proves your mum's side is all ok! ;)

Sorry if I have confused the issue but the survey was done by the girl purchasing the flat.

 

I have got to admit that I will struggle to see how it is my old dears fault, the rendering/flashing is coming away on the neighbours side, and was only removed due to the developer removing the chimney!