Chimney Breast Removal – Worth It? Neighbour Concerns

[LexiMia]

Hello everyone,

I’m hoping to get some advice from those with experience in this area. We’ve recently moved into a 1930s house that needs a full renovation—rewire, re-plumb, new windows, boiler, the works.

We’ve had structural drawings and calculations done as we’re planning to remove the wall between the kitchen and dining room. Ultimately, the kitchen will be moved into the current dining room. To make the most of the space, we also want to remove the chimney breasts up to loft level—they take up a lot of room and limit the layout options.

We’ve found a builder who’s experienced with this kind of work, and we’re currently in the process of serving a Party Wall Notice. However, our neighbours have expressed strong concerns and will likely reject it.

Before we move forward, has anyone here done this sort of work? Was it worth it in the end? Did it cause any issues with your neighbours, even if done properly and with all the correct structural support?

Would really appreciate any advice, experiences, or lessons learned!

We did years ago. Didn’t tell the neighbours and did not get a party wall agreement, don’t think at the time I knew they were a thing.

Not sure what happens if the neighbour rejects the party wall agreement, surely they can’t prevent correctly engineered work to be carried out in your own home??? I know they can make things awkward and expensive by insisting on their own surveyor or similar.

You would need a structural engineer to check if it is safe to remove it.
Your neighbour can only reject the party wall agreement if they have proper reasons to do so. Not having proper structural drawings is one of the reasons why they could say no.
The best thing is to have a party wall surveyor interacting with your neighbour.
unfortunately unreasonable neighbours massively delay the process but in the end you can do anything you want inside your home.

I don’t think your neighbours can veto the work being done.

we had this done when we did our kitchen about 10 years ago but we only had it removed from the ground floor and supported the upper part with RSGs. You’ll need a structural engineer to do calculations about how to support any remaining parts of the stack. I think we had to submit these to building control who signed off the work once it was done.

That was separate to the party wall agreement which is about ensuring the integrity of the party wall (I think. I’m not super clear what it’s supposed to achieve). We had some issues with our next door neighbour who wasn’t very cooperative but we got there in the end. Also had problems with the first firm of surveyors we instructed who we had to sack as they were useless, but sacking a surveyor under the Act is not that straightforward! The Party Wall Act is a terrible piece of legislation in my view, which seems to give adjoining neighbours an inflated view of their rights.

My advice would me to go round and talk to your neighbours (with a bottle of wine or similar if appropriate). Be friendly, open, transparent and share your plans. See if they will just do an agreement without instructing a surveyor. All a survey will do is record the condition of the party wall before the work commences, and again afterwards. But you could do that yourselves by taking photos - or asking a trusted third party to take photos. A survey, whether done professionally or not, does protect both parties as you don’t want to be potentially blamed/sued for a crack in their wall that could have been there for years.

They are within their rights on a surveyor and you would have to foot the bill so do factor it into your budget.

Structurally it's a big job as the chimney stack is then left un supported as well as the one connected next door. The use of beams helps but it can structurally affect the house and thinks why a party wall agreement is needed and they have a right to consult a structural engineer themselves and reject the work

If the chimneys are on a party wall then they are not in the middle of your house so surely they won’t take up that much space. I might see if your architect can draw a plan that retains the chimney or at least some of it because that will make life much easier.