Subject: Flues cross my boundary - whar are the regs
From: (Kev Parkin)
Date: 03/06/04 01:48 GMT Daylight Time
Message-id:

(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.

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 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. 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.

I'd forget regulations. If the items protrude onto your land then they
constitute a trespass and that's all you need to concern yourself with. By all
means try and discuss it in a civil manner first but if the items aren't
removed then court action will be needed. Provided you are certain that the
house wall is the boundary (this may well need to be tested in court) then you
have a sure fire win and the neighbour should realise that.


Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines (www.pumaracing.co.uk)
Next time someone insults you remember it takes 12 muscles to smile politely
and try to pass it off but only 4 to reach out your arm and slap the ****.