To ask our neighbour to pay full fix costs of her leaky chimney?

[grumblinalong]

We have had patches of water appear on the internal landing wall of our house after heavy rain last m

If you're sure it's from her house, claim on her ins

sorry. Couldn't resist.

I possibly need to get out more

Claim on her household insurance.

Oops sorry, iPod virgin here. So wet patches appeared after heavy rain. Checked wasn't missing tiles.we got a roofer round who said basically next doors chimney is leaking down into our internal wall. Have spoken to the neighbour who has offered to pay half towards fixing the chimney but I'm not sure if we should be paying costs towards fixing her property. She says the chimney is not causing any water damage to her property so she shouldn't have to pay at all. Aibu to be miffed about having to pay towards fixing her chimney? It's a terraced house btw. I really don't have the spare cash but really don't know if I'm being unreasonable?

claim on her insurance.

She wants you to pay half towards fixing her house, so it stops damaging your house? Hahahaha! Tell her to sort it, pronto.

Also, bill her for the damage done.

If it's a party wall, dividing your houses, it would probably be a shared cost.

Hec - she has refused to give us her insurance details. The roofer who came to look at it point blank refused to deal with her and was emphatic that he won't touch it, wouldn't give a reason but she's a bit of the village hard nut our neighbour so think he wants to give her a wide berth!

How does one 'claim on her insurance' out of interest?

Do you not claim off your own insurance and they claim it back, or is that what you mean?

Another - but it's not a shared chimney. We have our own on the other side of the roof. Also it could be causing water damage to her internal wall but she won't move the wardrobe on her landing to look because in her words 'she can't be arsed'. Our wall is actually starting to crack too alongside the weird patches...

You need to get in touch with your own building insurance. They may well take action to recover it from her insurers.

You'll have to find out exactly whose property it is and where the party wall ends before you do anything.

How do I find out about the party wall? 100 per cent sure it's her chimney and not our's as she currently has smoke c

I give up with this thing! Touch screens do not do it foe me.

Contact your insurance company about the damage and say what the roofer has said about her chimney causing it. They will want to get her to repair the chimney to stop it causing any more damage and will probably write to her for the details of her insurer to get her to do the work. Certainly they will come across this sort of situation a lot and will be able to advise.

Agree with ghoul - talk to your insurers about how to proceed.
Good luck!

Loving your premature posting.

I was going to say exactly what ghoul said - go through your own insurer and they can sort it all out.

My mother had a problem with her house, caused, in part, by her neighbours and the insurance conpany sorted it out with little stress to her.

I'm in a terraced house, my neighbours chimney/roof was leaking and caused huge damage inside their house but we had no damp or leakage on our side.
We still had to pay half the repair cost as the area affected was on the shared wall.
Most insurers won't pay out unless the damage is due to extreme bad weather, if it's general wear and tear, they won't pay out.

I think TeddyR is right that insurance won't be very likely to help. We called our insurer for advice on repairing our badly leaking roof this very morning as is and were told they generally don't pay out for roof repairs. I guess you need to find out for sure whether it should be a shared cost due to party wall or all down to her and then proceed accordingly.

Ah, on PC now (was feeding DD so thought ipod MN was they way to go, obviously not) so no more wonky posting. Just spoke to insurers and yep teddy & trisk you're right. As it is a 'gradually operating cause' ie not a freak weather event we're not covered . Apparently its a maintenance issue. Who knew.

Looks like we're going to be shelling out grr. Terrible timing because we're moving out next week and becoming reluctant landlords so we'll have to sort it before our tenants move in. Due to the position of the wet patches we're going to have to strip the whole hallway, staircase and landing of the disgusting foamy wallpaper, dig out the wet plaster, replaster the walls and redecorate just because our neighbour couldn't be arsed to cover her chimney properly. I'm .

Her wall will be her chimney breast then and the leakage is on the wall bvetween the flue and your house.have I got that right?
I am not sure that it is a party wall it might be entirely yours.

there is also no point in replastering and redecorating until the leaky chimney is fixed.

Yup, the flue is between her wall/breast and our landing wall. Sheesh, so we may have to pay for chimney fixing too. I have no idea how to work out a party wall issue, will it be on the deeds or something?

Even though it is wear and tear I think you can still claim on contents insurance for the interior damage such as redecorating etc, I am sure we have done in the past.

If it is the flashings that have failed, then you are jointly responsible for the work.

If it is a defect within the chimney itself, either internal e.g. blockage, damaged brickwork or external e.g. failed pointing, crumbling brickwork, failed flaunching then it is her responsibility although there could be some debate about the structure being an integral feature of the party wall in which case the costs are split.

These cases can be a minefield especially when one party is obstreperous.