I really hope somebody can give us some advice on this:
We have recently bought and moved into a mid terraced, Victorian house, and smoke has been coming into our lounge from next door after they have lit a fire. The smoke can only be seen around the wall that their fireplace is on, but the smell of smoke has spread around the house. We only share a wall with this property as our chimney and fire places are all on the party wall with another neighbour.
The neighbour has been really lovely about it, and will get a sweep round, not light another fire etc. But there was mention of the cost needing to be split because it's on a party wall. Having only just moved in, obviously we don't want to cause friction with them, but also we don't want to be paying for work that we have no responsibility for.
I wanted to check if I'm right in thinking that this isn't my responsibility? The closest analogy that I can think of is if we needed to get our chimney lined for a wood burner, then the neighbours would be expected to pay half... I may however be completely misguided in this, and some advice would be greatly received. If the worse came to the worse, should we contact Citizens Advice? The local council building regs? Environmental health? We also have the issue that we live in a smoke controlled area, and it's clear that coal was being burned; if we get the council involved then things will most certainly become strained.
The last thing that we want is to cause neighbourhood disputes, but I also wouldn't want us to die of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Any thoughts?
We have recently bought and moved into a mid terraced, Victorian house, and smoke has been coming into our lounge from next door after they have lit a fire. The smoke can only be seen around the wall that their fireplace is on, but the smell of smoke has spread around the house. We only share a wall with this property as our chimney and fire places are all on the party wall with another neighbour.
The neighbour has been really lovely about it, and will get a sweep round, not light another fire etc. But there was mention of the cost needing to be split because it's on a party wall. Having only just moved in, obviously we don't want to cause friction with them, but also we don't want to be paying for work that we have no responsibility for.
I wanted to check if I'm right in thinking that this isn't my responsibility? The closest analogy that I can think of is if we needed to get our chimney lined for a wood burner, then the neighbours would be expected to pay half... I may however be completely misguided in this, and some advice would be greatly received. If the worse came to the worse, should we contact Citizens Advice? The local council building regs? Environmental health? We also have the issue that we live in a smoke controlled area, and it's clear that coal was being burned; if we get the council involved then things will most certainly become strained.
The last thing that we want is to cause neighbourhood disputes, but I also wouldn't want us to die of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Any thoughts?
