On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 22:53:47 +0100, "Brian G"
wrote:

nospam wrote:
Two questions.
If a chimney is damaged on a semi detached house, what's the protocol
for paying for repair ?

If it's a 'shared' stack, then both owners 'chip in' for the cost of the
repair and you pay the builder upon satisfactory completion of the work -
NEVER pay before the work is done to your satisfaction. If the builder
insists on payment before hand, tell him to politely go away and find
another, bona-fide one.

You will have difficulty finding a bona fide builder who will do the
work without a scaffold these days (H&S looms it head) and the builder
is not going to front the scaffold cost which might be about £500


Obviously if one owner refuses for whatever reason, then there will be
problems as it is unlikely that the damage will be confined to one side
(although I have seen this on very rare occasions).

also what sort of cost can be expected, looks like the top brick
(maybe two layers) on one side has come loose

You won't find out what it will cost until someone climbs on the roof to see
the actual damage.

The reason: the damage that you can see from the floor is the most obvious
(a bit like the iceberg syndrome really) and it is quite possible that the
whole thing will have to be demolished and rebuilt (worse case scenario) due
to weak joints, crumbling brickwork etc.



Brian G