I live in a mid-terraced property and I’m looking for some advice regarding the fitting of a kitchen extractor fan to my neighbour’s property.
Following a recent kitchen renovation, my neighbour is now using an extractor fan in his kitchen. The exit to this extractor fan has been placed on his side wall which directly faces the front of our property (a boundary wall) This means that the extractor fan, when operational, is directly facing our front door and front window. The air from it is vented directly across our property front and into our airspace less than 30cm from the front of our house.
I’ve read a number of forum posts on this subject and generally the agreement seems to be that my neighbour cannot position or discharge anything over the boundary to my property. This also means that to complete any maintenance to the extractor fan, my neighbour would need to cross over the boundary onto my property to complete the work.
We received no notice that this was going to happen, and we didn't agree to the position of the extractor fan as we were never consulted. My neighbour is currently unwilling to install a recirculation system, or move the extractor fan to a position where it’s venting over his property only.
We thought we might be able to duct the air from the outside upwards and away from our house, but he has since told us that his ducting is already at the maximum capacity within his home for the extractor to work correctly – therefore he is refusing to do that too.
We think we are reasonable people who would like to reach a compromise with our neighbour amicably – but he now will not answer the door to us. We have suggested the ducting, a charcoal filter to lessen the smells, recirculation, or moving the vent to the front of his house – but he always refuses or has an answer that means he is unwilling to compromise.
When the extractor fan is in use, we have to close our front windows and upstairs windows as the smell of the cooking is really strong and happens instantly – the smell infiltrates our whole house – we even know when he has started using the extractor from our back room as the smell is that strong.
We are constantly looking to see if it’s in use so we can close our windows and avoid the cooking smells in our property – but even when we close the windows the smell is coming in through our extractor vent as his has been positioned right next to ours.
I would really appreciate any advice on what our options are in this situation.
Following a recent kitchen renovation, my neighbour is now using an extractor fan in his kitchen. The exit to this extractor fan has been placed on his side wall which directly faces the front of our property (a boundary wall) This means that the extractor fan, when operational, is directly facing our front door and front window. The air from it is vented directly across our property front and into our airspace less than 30cm from the front of our house.
I’ve read a number of forum posts on this subject and generally the agreement seems to be that my neighbour cannot position or discharge anything over the boundary to my property. This also means that to complete any maintenance to the extractor fan, my neighbour would need to cross over the boundary onto my property to complete the work.
We received no notice that this was going to happen, and we didn't agree to the position of the extractor fan as we were never consulted. My neighbour is currently unwilling to install a recirculation system, or move the extractor fan to a position where it’s venting over his property only.
We thought we might be able to duct the air from the outside upwards and away from our house, but he has since told us that his ducting is already at the maximum capacity within his home for the extractor to work correctly – therefore he is refusing to do that too.
We think we are reasonable people who would like to reach a compromise with our neighbour amicably – but he now will not answer the door to us. We have suggested the ducting, a charcoal filter to lessen the smells, recirculation, or moving the vent to the front of his house – but he always refuses or has an answer that means he is unwilling to compromise.
When the extractor fan is in use, we have to close our front windows and upstairs windows as the smell of the cooking is really strong and happens instantly – the smell infiltrates our whole house – we even know when he has started using the extractor from our back room as the smell is that strong.
We are constantly looking to see if it’s in use so we can close our windows and avoid the cooking smells in our property – but even when we close the windows the smell is coming in through our extractor vent as his has been positioned right next to ours.
I would really appreciate any advice on what our options are in this situation.