Chimney breast question

I live in a late-Victorian terrace. My next door neighbour has recently removed a chimney breast from the front rooms of his house. I was not consulted about this work and was away at the time it was done so did not know it was in progress. He says he has fitted gallows brackets in his loft to support the reamining brickwork and has consulted with the local authority buildings control department about it.

He now wants to remove the chimney breast from his rear rooms, and has happened to mention this to me in passing, which is how I have found out about it. So far I have managed to stall him.

I have several queries here:

a) is he legally obliged to obtain my consent to work of this type (Party Walls Act?) and if so, how is this done?

b) bearing in mind the rear chimney breast in my house was removed some 20 years ago by the previous owners, and my neighbour now wants to remove the chimney brickwork on his side, are there serious structural implications here? For example, will the fitting of gallows brackets in his loft be sufficient? Should we engage a structural engineer? Should I be concerned? I'm thinking that I probably should be.

Info please! Phil London

Reply to
Dave Phillips
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Go and talk to them yourself; they will be very helpful. You might even find they know nothing about it, which will be enlightening and alarming!

Pretty sure he is but IANAL

Haven't a clue what gallows brackets are but I do know that removal of chimney breasts can have serious implications for the adjacent property as well as the existing one. I've heard of plenty of horror stories.

I'd at least be a bit concerned. Go talk to Building Control first, and see what they say - it won't cost you.

David

Reply to
Lobster

I found this on the web:

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" ...a Building Regulations application is required when some but not all of a chimney is removed. "

My house had its rear chimney breast removed by a builder in the 70's. Now the neighbour has applied to have his taken down too. The party wall is

4.5" thick and all four fireplaces go into a common 4 pot chimney stack so the brickwork in the loft is quite creative.

Rusty

Reply to
Rusty

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> " ...a Building Regulations application is required when some but not all

So the environmental services department of your local council would inspect an existing one for free to see if it's safe ... is that the case? I've always wondered about ours. Had a couple of builders in about other stuff and they looked at it and reckoned the structure of the brickwork was adequate to support it in the loft without any additional ironmongery. Don't know how qualified an answer that was though ..

a
Reply to
al

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>>> " ...a Building Regulations application is required when some but not all

Reply to
sploop

Appologies if this doesn't slot into the original thread but my newsreader is acting up.

Can you tell me the arrangement of the 8" x 8" rsj to hold up the remaining chimney - was is metal or wood?

For the original poster: It is possible to corbel-out the chimney so that no support is needed, but it's best to talk to a structural engineer who will probably recommend some additional support, which sounds like what your neighbour has done.

Reply to
nafuk

I heartily endorse this.

BCO's are qualified and competent and if he HASN'T involved them, but says he has, its not your fault if you go to get some reassurance is it?

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

AFAIK it's not enough to support the chimney simply by a bracket - you have to put in a steel beam that rests on other walls. I once (knowingly) bought a house where they had done what the OP described. Building control asked me to correct it. They were very helpful.

I am almost certain he does need to get a party wall agreement before removing a chimney breast.

Robert

Reply to
robertmlaws

The S in RSJ stands for steel.

Reply to
Rob Morley

AFAICS he *should* get a party wall agreement but if he doesn't then the only action that can be taken is for the OP to get an injunction preventing the work being carried out which means a bit of swift legal activity.

The party wall act seems to be an odd bit of legislation in that it says that householders should notify neighbours of any relevant impending work, get their agreement etc. etc. but doesn't say anything about an offence being committed if the householder doesn't do any of those things.

If I wanted to do something like take out a chimney breast and wasn't sure my neighbour would agree to it, I think I'd be tempted to start first thing Saturday and make sure I'd finished by Monday morning (making sure the stack was properly supported of course !). My reading of the party wall act is that there would be no legal repercussions (but IANAL),

Cheers,

John

Reply to
John Anderton

The neighbour's remedy - if they want to play hard - is to apply for an injunction to stop you doing any more work until the paperwork has been sorted, and I would suspect (IANAL) that costs are almost certainly going to be awarded against you. Or, as in a case I was involved in (with a developer who couldn't be bothered with all this party wall nonsense ... but then had to) they tell you that they will apply for an injunction unless you stop work and then appoint someone from a Mayfair surveyors to act as their surveyor (at your cost of course).

Reply to
Tony Bryer

Hence my comment about finishing the work in 48 hrs. There won't be time for all this to kick in and the neighbour won't be able to invoke the Party Wall act once the work is completed,

Cheers,

John

Reply to
John Anderton

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