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?
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?