Neighbours boiler safety becasue of my new build.

Status
Not open for further replies.
Sponsored Links
And can anyone explain how the boiler is now "dangerous"?
The flue no longer meets the regulations*, regulations which were made in order to ensure safety. It may well still be "safe", but someone would have to do a detailed assessment to justify why it's still safe while not meeting basic safety regulations (ie, it might be that the specific situation still allows adequate removal of combustion products to avoid risks of CO buildup).

* And actually didn't when it was installed. Before the porch was built, the breach of the regs was such that there wasn't an immediate danger as (presumably) the other clearances were met - that only changed when the porch was built, a situation addressed by the regs on proximity of the flue to a boundary.


EDIT:
An analogy. Someone has a deep pond (or other such dangerous situation) in their garden, and for safety fences it off - but only on 3 sides as the 4th side is made up by a neighbours shed. The neighbour removes the shed, and suddenly your unfenced pit is open for people/animals to fall in. Had you fenced it on all 4 sides, then what the neighbour did (ie remove the shed) wouldn't have caused a problem to appear.
You could moan and bitch about the neighbour altering things in their garden, or you could just accept that the now dangerous situation needs addressing. The fact that it would probably have been cheaper to fence all round in the first place is neither here nor there - we are were we are, and the problem needs addressing.
 
Sponsored Links
Very well, Except we have some details of the existing situation, (and there are no farm animals involved. IT IS outside the regs, and always was. - but as a RGI, I still think describing the flue as dangerous is a little far fetched.
 
Sory about the delay, Iv managed to read through most of the replies etc.

Iv actually found some information about this aswell

I would like to say that

1) I didnt know about gas exaust, boundary lines etc or anything about boilers in general. The builder didnt say anything to me about this, next door didnt say anything to me about this, the architect didnt say anything about this.

2) I was more concerned about the exaust gases damaging my brick work/guttering/felt roof etc

3) The neighbour, he handed me a copy of the warning from his service engineer

4) It never really dawned on me that prior to the build the neighbours boiler was exausting onto my side of the boundary and infront of my old window

5) I actually knew the old neighbours before they moved out and they had been in the house years.

I have also downloaded some pictures of before and after build so you can see what it looks like



Thanks
 
I don't think that my neighbour and I were ignorant at all, we didnt know this was going to happen.

Also someone asked about the council coming to check on the site ... No they didn't come to see where it was going to be built. All I did was draw them a diagram of my boundaries and where it was to be positioned.

Also the neighbours boiler is still on and running!!????
 
Also

Id like to apologize for the delay as I checked through my emails today and I only just found the responce in my in box (pages and pages later)

Sorry.
 
Their boiler has always been discharging over your property!

Thats akin to tresspassing on your property.

The recommended distance to discharge is at least 2500 mm from your boundary. Not about 250 mm !

But they are still using the boiler ( even though its probably recirculating products of combustion and creating excessive carbon monoxide! ).

My view does not change at all, its still their problem and up to them to find a solution!

Tony
 
The recommended distance to discharge is at least 2500 mm from your boundary. Not about 250 mm !

It isn't condensing(?), in which case it is 600mm.

But I agree the boiler should not have been fitted in the first place.

Councils do not do site visits as a matter of course.

Builders dhould be aware that regs apply to them as well, You would not expect them to know the rules verbatim, but they should be sufficiently aware that they should seek avice.

IMO
 
tbh i think building that porch was the safest thing you could have done for YOUR family, from your pics it looks like the fumes were going straight into your room if you had that fanlight window open, my views haven't changed either it was an illegal flue to start with & it still is, OP do you know how the neighbours engineer classed it as AR or ID i'm guessing AR if they are still using it, obv i can't see it first hand but i think i would have prob ID it, both for the neighbours safety & yours as fumes are bound to be getting into your porch from that distance, i hope you have a CO alarm in there & if not i'd get one pretty quick
 
A picture tells a thousand words! indeed.
Looking at your picture, I can't see much of an issue, regarding the operation of his boiler, the flue terminal still has plenty of space to breath and discharge and disperse fumes, and is not far from the front wall of your porch, (I am not disputing the safe minimum distances the flue pipe and terminal should be from the recommendations set by B.S. and gas safe practice) but that is as far as the safety is concerned, here I am talking about his boiler shutting down being blamed on your porch!

Nor is it too far from the roof line, his boiler is still working as you said, so where is the issue now with his boiler? like I said I can't see any issues that your extension/porch has caused to his boiler.

So this can be down to a few things :-

1. His boiler may have stopped, (if it at all did stop) due to another reason, and his gas engineer could not pin point the exact cause so he blames it on your porch being erected too near his flue or his flue being too near your porch.

2. Or your neighbour may have got concerned after you erected your porch too near his flue, despite you told him of your intentions, but after its erection, he realised how close it was to his flue, he calls a Gas safe engineer for his advise, and he is then told that your porch should not have been build too near his flue terminal,

or perhaps he may have told him correctly that his flue does not comply with latest safety requirements and should be moved, as it was installed in a wrong place to start with.

3. So may be the cheeky neighbor asks the engineer to state that his porch is too near his flue terminal and that it stopped his boiler from working, so he suggests that his flue should be moved to a safer location.

4. Your neighbour then hands you this report, in anticipation that you would take the responsibility for the cost of moving his flue to a safe location!

5. So now the bottom line issue is who really is responsible for this, and who should be forking the cost of moving his flue?

So in short the answer is him, he should, unfortunately he blames you because your porch erection cause this problem which was not there before, but you within your right erected that porch on your land, his flue should never have been placed there in the first place, so now the it is him who bears the responsibility to move his flue and the terminal at his cost.

6. You should now be able to enforce this on him through your building control to move his flue as it could be detrimental to the health and safety of your household as well as your building.

I can assure you his boiler simply did not stop because of your porch has been erected too near his terminal, it is not too near from operational point of view, but too close from safety point of view. His flue would have to be almost touching your wall before it becomes an issue to the correct operation of your boiler or it stops working as it cannot breath oxygen in!
 
Actually a flue so close to a wall like that does cause a considerable recirculation of POC.

Unlikely to have much effect on an old boiler like yours but would significantly affect a modern pre mix boiler.

Tony
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Sponsored Links
Back
Top