Shared Chimney - Re-pointing or Rebuild - Cost Liability?

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Hopefully someone has been in this situation and will be able to give me some advice of the following:

A few months ago we had a roofer in replacing and making good our ridge tiles. Whilst he was carrying out the work he noticed smoke coming around the side of the shared chimney stack. He traced the problem to the mortar joints a few courses down from the top on our neighbour's side near where their digital aerial had been installed.

He checked the rest of the chimney and was confident re-pointing a few courses on their side would solve the problem. I had no reason to doubt him as the chimney looks in great condition so I spoke to my neighbour and explained the situation. They didn't want the re-pointing work carried out so we left it as that.

My neighbour came round this morning and explained he had been having problems with his new wood burner which was fitted recently. Apparently, a service engineer identified the problem as being the smoke escaping through the mortar joints on the chimney stack on his side. Although he didn't come straight out with it, my neighbour hinted he would like a full 'shared cost' chimney re-build.

Where do I stand on this considering I had previously been advised the chimney is in very good condition and re-pointing would suffice? Am I legally obliged to pay for half of the cost whatever my neighbour wants to do even though this issue could have been resolved months ago when my roofer first noticed the problem?
 
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Hi, One point that my help is that when fitting wood burning stoves it is usual to line the existing flue through out is length, if this had been done the issue of smoke through joints in brick work could not occur. Lining the flue would be a cheaper option than rebuilding and not your responsibility. Good Luck
 
it takes years not months for pointing to deteriourate a few months will make no difference
get a third opinion /quote

i wonder if the builder doing the ridge tiles was after some beer money by "buttering up" the pointing :rolleyes:
 
I am totally ignorant about chimneys, but read this with interest. Surely if a chimney is shared how can a flue liner be put in without blocking the other persons side?? :eek:
JonB
 
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Surely if a chimney is shared how can a flue liner be put in without blocking the other persons side??
A shared chimney doesn't mean sharing the same outlet, eg: 2 single chimney built together
 
Thanks Masona, So that means any Semi would be classed as a shared chimney :rolleyes:
JonB
 
If the chimneys are built back to back on the party wall of a semi the stack at the top will be shared. Each fire will have it's own flue. Each pot at the top will be a flue. There are some systems in multi storey flats that have shared flues.
 

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