On 2 Jun 2004 17:48:11 -0700, (Kev Parkin) wrote:

(Apologies if this double posts - tried once and google crashed)!

I have just got back from a long weekend away to find that my
neighbour has installed a cooker hood flue (at eye level) and a boiler
flue (at first floor level) through the external wall of his house
that bounds my property.

Are you saying that these things actually go *over* the boundary -
i.e. the side wall of his house forms the boundary?

As I understand it, and I'm not a lawyer, roofs are allowed to
overhang a property line within reason (especially if original roof) -
whether this extends to flues etc. I'm not sure.

You would need to get professional advice on it.


There is also a 15mm open ended copper pipe and two 110mm dia. holes
also at first floor level.

The hood flue sticks out by about 20mm, the boiler flue by about 300mm
and the 15mm copper pipe by about 50mm, the two 110mm dia. holes are
flush but it looks like they have (grey) soil pipe fittings and are
waiting to have an external stack fitted.

The offending wall is about 1m from the wall of my house and the
boundary fence on that side (from the bottom of the garden to his
house is my responsibility, I don't know if this matters).

The passage is the only access from my back garden to my front garden
and is used regularly, especially by the kids!!

I know that the condensate from condensing boilers is acidic

It is but should be directed to a drain. If the 15mm pipe is for
condensate, then it contravenes the installation requirements of the
boiler by not being connected to a drain and should be in plastic
anyway.

The condensate is only mildly acidic so would not burn your skin or
anything like that. It might be uncomfortable in an eye though.

and that
the flue can produce nuisance plumes of vapour and I guess it is not
good to have these discharging directly onto my property.

Do you know if it is a condensing boiler? In any case, the amount
of pluming depends on the boiler design - some are worse than others.
Newer and better designs do not deliver major amounts, although I
agree that into a 1m space it's not good.

I am also
concerned about the odours from the cooker hood flue.




I'm not a controversial neighbour and probably wouldn't have minded
him doing these jobs if only he'd discussed it with me first.

Does anyone know what the regulations are concerning these issues as I
would like to know where I stand before I confront him.

On the boundary issue, I think you have to get professional advice.
From the operational regulations point of view of the boiler etc. I
don't think that anything has been contravened.

Ultimately you have to decide whether you want to pursue it. There
are two factors.

- you have to live next door to him

- if you enter into any official dispute, this will come up if and
when you sell the property.




TIA,

Kev

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl