Shared Chimneys and Shared Chimney Stacks
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If you’re thinking of taking down or repairing a shared chimney, you will have several important matters to think about, including legal ones. This page examines in more detail the circumstances surrounding shared chimney stacks, the Party Wall Act, and what you need to know if you are planning to demolish or make repairs to your chimney.
What are Chimney Stacks?
A chimney stack is a vertical flue (more often than not, this is a brick or otherwise masonry structure) with the very essential job of taking the smoke (toxic gases) up into the atmosphere where they can’t harm the people inside the building.
Rights and Responsibilities of Neighbours
If two houses share a chimney stack, then both homeowners are responsible for its upkeep. The Party Wall Act of 1996 protects structures like chimney stacks that are shared by two or more homeowners.
Tell Your Neighbour
Before making any alterations to a chimney stack (or other shared structure), homeowners must inform their neighbours, and they are encouraged to have a conversation about the proposed work. Failing to notify your neighbour could subject you to legal action and fines.
Hire a Surveyor
Removing or repairing a shared chimney stack in a party wall requires a careful and legal approach. First and foremost, if you’re planning to undertake work on a chimney that you’re sharing with a neighbour, you must notify them before doing anything else. The chimney stack, after all, is shared property, and your neighbour has a vested interest in anything you might want to do to it. According to the Party Wall Act, you have to provide written notice to your neighbour, outlining in reasonable detail the work you plan to do.
Integrity of the Structure
When you need to tell a surveyor and builder what to do regarding a shared chimney stack that might need to be removed or repaired, you can have confidence that our Canterbury party wall surveyors will carry out this task accurately. They assess the situation with the appropriate detailed eye to determine the safety and soundness of the stack, the issues arising with it, and the best way to address those problems without compromising the safety of the people living near the stack or the safety of the stack itself.
Damp and Debris
When a common chimney stack is taken down, two problems that often arise are dampness and falling debris. Both are surprisingly easy to fix, provided the parties involved are willing to work together to find a solution.
If your chimney is shared, treatment for dampness should first start inside stack by sealing any exposed masonry and creating a barrier to stop any falling debris.
The Impact of Loft Conversions on the Roof
When you are contemplating a loft conversion, or any other kind of structural change to your home, it is important to think about how it might affect your neighbours—especially if the work you are doing will have any kind of impact on a shared chimney stack. This usually required reinforcement, such as by inserting steel beams to accommodate the alterations.
The Party Wall Award
If you work with an architect, he or she may well design the changes in such a way that they don’t require any agreement with your neighbours. If you remodel your home without impacting your shared chimney stack, that is usually preferred.
If you follow the precautions, your project is bound to succeed. Thanks to modern options like stainless steel flue systems, you can have a fire in your home and still remove your chimney without having being a total disaster.
How do I serve a Party Wall Notice?
To serve a notice under the Party Wall Act, which concerns building work on a shared wall, there must be at least a 2-month waiting period before the actual building can begin. The notice must be directed to the proper legal owner and/or leaseholders of the property.
If these necessary details are not included in the notice, then it has not been served properly, and the notice period does not start. The notice can be served without planning permission and up to a year in advance of when the work is scheduled to start.
Once the adjoining owner receives the Party Wall Notice, they have 14 days to reply to it. They can either accept the notice (and allow the building owner to get on with the work) or dispute it (in which case they shouldn’t get on with the work until the dispute is resolved).
If neither party hears in 14 days, the building owner’s surveyor serves the adjoining owner with a further notice to help move things along. If they still don’t accept or dispute, we start assuming the adjacent owner disputes the notice and proceed to appoint surveyor on their side.
Have a Question?
Questions
Yes, unless you get written consent from your neighbour.
Yes, but you will still need a party wall award. Since we’re doing work on a wall that doesn’t belong exclusively to us, a reasonable award under the Party Wall Act is sensible, particularly the fire risks associated with this work.
A frequently selected alternative is to install a stainless steel flue system. This provides a straightforward way to vent the fireplaces that still exist in the homes of some clients.
There are several, notably: that the stack may be damaged and fall, causing structural damage; that the work may be done in such a way that damp enters the walls; that the debris may land in the neighbour’s fireplace; and that the work may not comply with the relevant sections of the Party Wall Act, thus giving rise to a lawsuit.
Many people choose to install a stainless steel flue system, as it is an economical option to venting a fireplace when you no longer have an actual chimney—yet still want the fireplace to work.
Authority figures recommend that you have the chimney stack inspected and/or cleaned at least once a year by a certified chimney sweep. This is done not only to ensure that the chimney stack is in good working order but also to identify any possible issues that could become big problems if not taken care of in a timely manner.
Making the correct decision on whether to remove or repair a shared chimney stack is extremely important, and there are a number of points you need to consider and be aware of. The key issue you need to investigate first is the physical condition of the chimney. Additionally, you’ll need to think about how to manage the Act in relation to the chimney with your Canterbury party wall surveyor.
To put it simply: don’t do it; not serving the notice can result in your project being slowed to a crawl or even halted.
The first step is to understand what a notice actually is. A Party Wall Notice is a way of formally informing your neighbours that you intend to do work that might affect them or a shared structure.
To ensure that a Notice is valid and to reduce the risk of any challenges or delays, it is advisable to have experienced individuals draft and serve the Notices. An award can not be made valid retroactively.
Even if it can be shown that work on a party wall already took place, there is an option to serve a late notice, but this may lead to further disputes and costs
If you plan to improve your home in a way that affects a party wall, the first step is to tell your neighbours what you will be doing. This is done by serving a notice on them with the help of a party wall surveyor.
If your neighbours don’t agree with your plans, you need to have a Party Wall agreement drawn up. This is a document that clearly states the rights and responsibilities of both you and your neighbours in relation to the wall you share.
Once you serve notice on your neighbours about doing work that affects a party wall, they will have the opportunity to consider your notice and express their concerns, if they have any.
The aim of the Party Wall Notice is to ensure that cooperation and good neighbourliness are encouraged when it comes to work being carried out on shared structures.
