Shared guttering law

[niceyellow vrs]

Greetings,

 

I wander if anyone here has any experience on this subject. I live in a semi-detatched house and the gutters front and rear run across the two houses with just one downpipe into the drain which is on my property. I periodically clear the gutters on my side of any build up of moss and leaves etc, but my neighbours are lazy and are quite happy to leave theirs to fill up and then try and tell me that it's a problem with my side when water spills out and runs down their wall. :think:

 

Anyway, about a month ago I gave my gutters a clear and a flush with the hose. I noticed that next door;s were full of moss, grit off the tiles etc so I put a grill slightly to my side of the boundry which still ensures an unrestricted flow of water  but obviously will stop any of their crap flowing across. Not that it really can as they've left it so long that it's mostly one solid lump.

 

Now, today we had some shady looking charcters knock on the door offering to clean our windows and gutters. I took one look at them and politely told them where to go but my neighbour took them up on their offer. Obviously the little grill in the gutter was noticed and ever the salesman, the shady character up the ladder was telling my neighbour that was the cause of her problem, not lack of maintenance. Cheeky ****** then asked me again if I wanted my gutter clearing while he was up there. He soon shut up when I told him that I wouldn't have thought there would be much to clear as I only did it a month ago.

 

Question is, am I on dodgy ground legally by putting the grill in? Like I said, it doesn't restrict water flow but it would restrict debris. Now my neighbour's head has been filled with crap from the shady character, I can see her pestering me about it.

 

Cheers.

[mdon]

I wouldn't worry about it.

[niceyellow vrs]

I'm not particularly worried, my neighbour is a **** at the best of the times My only slight thought is, I know that the gutter leaks on their side and I can't be bothered with the hassle of accusations that my little grill, to prevent me having to constantly clear up their crap, has caused a blockage leading to water damage to their house.

[D@z]

If the grill is on your own side there is nothing she can do about it I would imagine

[Moist Von Lipwig]

Can't see an issue as the grill is a practical solution to prevent any debris from getting to the downpipe and blocking that.  If anything you are preventing a potential issue rather than causing one.

[Guy Incognito]

In Scotland, the law is different but any maintenance falls to both parties with the cost shared.  In your situation that could be really annoying!

 

The grill should not e a legal problem as others have said, it is on your side and is not damaging in any way.  Have you a mate who is a roofer or similar to just get a wee look and write you a letter saying it is a good idea?  Then if her next door starts you can produce it.

[Macdemon]

If it's on YOUR property, then it's NOTHING to do with you neighbours.

[cheezemonkhai]

Lots of properties have a grill cap that sits on the down pipe, designed to stp leaves and debris going down the pipe.

I'd be more worried that the geezer has pushed all the debris down the pipe.

[kilted]

Lots of properties have a grill cap that sits on the down pipe, designed to stp leaves and debris going down the pipe.

I'd be more worried that the geezer has pushed all the debris down the pipe.

This.

 

If you can, watch the guys doing the work as all too often the debris gets flushed down the downpipe and not carried down in bags as it should be.

[vindaloo]

On dodgy ground, ultimately, I'd have thought not. It's certainly possible some idiot could whine and pick an argument about though.

 

Personally, I regard gutters as for rainwater and minor silt (that you'd get anyway washed down off the roof). Anything like moss or plants growing up there is an indication all is not well. Failure to do something about it should be seen as a failure to maintain it. That would be their problem, not yours.

 

On the bright side, if Mr Door-to-Door has now cleaned their gutters, they shouldn't have a problem for a while.

 

J.

[FUBAR]

 

Question is, am I on dodgy ground legally by putting the grill in?

 

 

What grill?   

[niceyellow vrs]

Lots of properties have a grill cap that sits on the down pipe, designed to stp leaves and debris going down the pipe.

I'd be more worried that the geezer has pushed all the debris down the pipe.

 

There's already a mesh ball jobby at the top of the downpipe on my side to stop anything other than water going down the pipe and I wouldn't let them onto my side, so no chance of that.

[The Zee]

If your neighbour doesn't keep his part of the gutter clean there are two points.

 

1) tell them if any of their cr*p flows onto your part of the gutter and damages it you will sue.

2) tell them if any of their cr*p flows onto your part of the gutter you will sue it for trespass.

 

Seriously though it is the property owners responsibility to maintain their property in such a way thay it does not cause damage to a joined property. With the grill you are just protecting your self. It would not stop the flow of water. For anything that backs up against your grill, you could always bag up the offending cr*p and give it back to the owner, saying "I think this is yours".