Neighbour's chimney right outside my bedroom - is this even allowed?

[Leftabadreview]

My neighbour is an enthusiastic DIY-er to say the least. Last year they fitted a wood burner in their kitchen, which I am sure is lovely for them. Not for me though... I like to leave my window open. Their chimney is all of 2 or 3 metres outside my window, and is actually lower down than my window so we get lots of lovely stinky woodsmoke in the house most of the year. They obviously feel the cold seeing as it's about 16 degrees C outside today.

I can't believe this is allowed. Is it even legal to have a chimney blowing smoke so close to a window? I've attached a pic so you can see just how close it is. We are in the middle of a city too.

Contact your local building control office and ask. Each council will have their own set of guidelines about proximity.

Ok will do. There's not a set limit in UK law then?

Is the chimney original or has he built that as well? If it's original, it's difficult to argue that he's not allowed to use it for what it was designed for? Not nice for you so I'm curious about what would happen here.

If you’re in a city it’s quite possible that he should be using smokeless fuel. You might want to check that out.

You look quite high up. Was his house there before your property?

I'm feeling your pain OP. Our neighbours installed a new aga in their kitchen extension and the flue pipe now expels horrible fumes. As they built the extension 10cm from the I fence separating their house from ours its adjacent to our lounge window all fills our whole driveway with fumes.

MrsMolly that's horrible. They sound very inconsiderate
Our house is a Victorian terrace, and the chimneys are as old as the house as far as I know, but haven't been used in a long time. We've been here a long time, neighbours a couple of years. Unfortunately I don't think there is a ban on wood burners here but will double check.
Our houses are on three floors, hence the bedroom being so high up... perfect for looking down onto that bloody chimney!

Sorry MrsCholly not Molly.

Wood burning stoves should be installed by an acredited fitter .

I am not sure if he fitted it himself, but I don't think whoever did it did it properly. I have smelt fumes from it in our bathroom before, and that's with windows shut so my guess is the lining isn't sealed properly. The chimney goes up between our shared wall.

woodburners should produce almost no smoke if correctly installed and used with clean dry wood. So at least one of those things is not happening.

It looks like it was an old gas flue from a gas fire originally so would of been legal but you can't change the use of it and it doesn't look very professional.
I would ring council they will send someone round to look at.

There are building regs required for woodburning stoves. We certainly had to adhere to them.

We had to reline chimney

I think"nuisance" is the legal term for smoke, if you look up the rules for bonfires online you can pretty much find out the rules for smoke. Basically if the smoke is blowing over the boundary and causing an issue for neighbours eg going in the windows then it's a nuisance and they aren't allowed to do it.

Our woodburning chimney had to go above roof level.
Check the rules, I think it may be illegal

Since my neighbour fitted their log burner I have had chest infection after chest infection. I was in hospital last year with pneumonia that took a total of 5 month and 9 courses of antibiotics to get over. I am a non smoker and was fine until they got one I wish they was a total ban

Distance is everything. If it is within 2300 mm of your building then the flue has to be at least 600 mm above your building. (See page 31 below) Report it to building control as he is should have building control approval.

<a class="break-all" href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20150728220803/www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDF_ADJ_2010.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20150728220803/www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDF_ADJ_2010.pdf

@BlueEyedBengal OMG!!! Have you spoken to them about it?? And had the council out to check their installation (as per specialsubject's point above)?

Yes spoke to them he is a councillor apparently perfectly legal. Live on the side of a mountain with a river running through the centre and with the way the wind blows in the valley the fumes blow back and right at the back of my house. Really j want a total ban

Getting colder now so they will be lighting it up again soon I think, I will be playing hell if any more chest infections happen I can ensure you

Bengal that is terrible! I wish they were banned from built up areas.

MyCat thanks for that. It looks like the chimney needs to be at leat 600mm above any neighbouring buildings within 2300mm. I will need to measure the distance somehow and check.

MyCat oops. I seem to have repeated exactly what you posted, like a twit.
It's so good it's worth repeating