I posted about this about a year ago.

My neighbours had a new roof put on their house. Without reference to us, they raised the roof line and concreted the last section of tiles over ours (where they join). We had not agreed to this, they hadn’t even asked and to make matters worse, it is a really crappy job and looks terrible.

I spoke to the neighbour and asked him, politely, to explain why he had taken it upon himself to do this (because it fitted in with what he wanted to do to keep his house warm was his reply)without even asking (‘I didn’t see the point’). I pointed out that he had no right to do it and I expected him to remove the last row of tiles/concrete and, as there is no way of dropping the roof line now, to replace with concrete with lead flashing. He agreed this was a reasonable compromise said he would get the contractor back to fix it.

We have had several discussions about this over the last year and he simply prevaricates, claiming he can’t get the original builder back and nothing has happened.

I have been very patient but am beginning to grow tired of the charade we seem to be going through.

The question is….is there anything I can do (legally) to enforce the remedial action?

hes hoping it goes away .

legal eagles – can he simply return the property left on his roof by next door say in some polythene bags

Give him a date by which if he hasn’t made good, you’ll get someone in to remove all the stuff on your roof.

Thought of that but it will leave me with a hole in the roof and zero chance of getting him to do the remedial work.

If it were that simple, I’d be up the ladder chucking his tiles about with abandon.

What you’re looking at is a breach of the party wall act. Don’t remove it – it might damage your’s as much. Give hime a date that you want it sorted by and let him know that if this isn’t done, you’ll instruct a solicitor to make it happen.

Be warned though, solicitors bills may well be more than the cost of the works, and I strongly suspect you’re never getting those back.

There may well be some comeback on the roofers – they had a duty to check this as well, although if they checked with your neighbor, that would be enough.

I’d be inclined to phone your buildings insurance company and ask for their advice.

Did they not need planning approval to raise the roof line?

You would think so as they’ve changed the front aspect

If you’ve got legal cover on your home insurance this’d be a good time to start using it

Did they not need planning approval to raise the roof line?

I checked that and the council said no!

Buildings insurance…..good thought, there may be legal cover of some sort included in the policy. The thing is though, I still have to live next door to them so I don’t want to sour relations completely.

It isn’t as if they don’t have the money either, they are constantly doing new projects on their house….they have just started one today.

Maybe I ought to re-roof my house out and concrete my tiles to theirs!

Get someone in the quote for having the job done properly.

If it’s loads, present it to him with an ultimatum for x weeks.

If it’s not a lot, just get it done – and then ignore him.

I thought that you weren’t allowed to raise a roofline. It stopped us converting a loft a few years ago.

Have a word with Building Control at the council.

[edit]Just seen your latest post[/edit]

It appears I do have Legal exes on my home policy. Will pursue that for now.

How was their new roof constructed/raised?
Is the concrete just holding tiles over yours?
Or have they removed tiles from your ‘side’?
Or is the concrete providing a weather seal?
Where did the membrane underneath end?

Essentially a nice lead flashing is good but other things can be more important.

Wot Cinnamon girl said.

A decent building surveyor should be able to give you information about the party wall act. They will probably let you know if it’s a goer or not over the phone, for nothing. The ones I have worked with used to do that when people called inquiring about neighborly spats.

This is if you insurance doesn’t come up with something first.

I still have to live next door to them so I don’t want to sour relations completely.

Sounds like he already doesn’t give a tuppenny shite about what you think, I reckon that ship has sailed.

How was their new roof constructed/raised?
Is the concrete just holding tiles over yours?
Or have they removed tiles from your ‘side’?
Or is the concrete providing a weather seal?
Where did the membrane underneath end?

Both properties are quite old…probably early Victorian or a smidge earlier. They have pantiles which replaced earlier thatch – this must have been done a long, long time ago.

The neighbours stripped their roof off, battened over the existing structure and raised the roof line by 4 inches or so. New pantiles were used so they look quite different…though that isn’t the end of the world. Tey will mellow in the next hundred years or so :o)

Their tiles have been concreted over mine, probably covering 2/3 of the tile.

It isn’t a weather seal, bits of it started falling out on day one and there is a large void (that they know about) where some of it has dropped away. Other parts are cracking significantly.

No idea where the membrane ends. I have to assume there is some overlap.

The thing is, if I have to work on my roof, I will have to disturb their tiles, and my tiles may even break. They are very old, triple roll, pantiles. You can’t replace them, I tried several years ago when I was trying to replace a couple of broken ones.

The lead flashing idea was agreed because it would allow either of us to undertake running repairs without anything else being damaged.

ATEOTD, they had no right to go ahead and do what they did. They obv thought they could do it and get away with it.

Freehold or leasehold Property. If leasehold let their landlord know of a significant change, that will be a nice bill for them!

I’d see if their is a “community mediation service” for this sort of thing

If you involve a lawyer it could rapidly get pricey

Any pictures of the offending tiles / concrete?