Ownership of pipework attached to party wall boundary

[brainsiq]

Hi,

I own and live in a terraced house, where the vent pipe for the soil stack is fixed to the exterior wall directly on the boundary line of the party wall with our neighbours. It runs vertically up the wall and between the small gap between the eaves of the two houses. It's been this way ever since we purchased the property and there was no mention of this in any paperwork or within our homebuyer's survey.

The neighbours are now building an extension (no problem), and coincidentally the pipe needed some repairs at the same time. They permitted us to use their scaffolding to have someone fix it and in the end their builder/plumber carried out the work on our request.

At the same time as repairing the pipe, they have decided to use "our" pipe to vent a new soil pipe on their side, so have added a connection to their soil stack. This had not been mentioned at any stage, and when questioned we have been told that as the pipe is directly on the boundary that it cannot be considered our property and therefore they are entitled to use it without asking for permission.

Could anyone please clarify whether the party wall act allows this? Obviously it would have been considerate to at the very least inform us of their plans, but wondering where we stand legally.

[Ukmicky]

It being directly on the boundary has absolutely no effect on ownership.

If it’s your pipe serving your house only and it’s sitting partly over the neighbours property and it’s been like that since the houses were built and it’s not mentioned as a express easement in anyone register of title ( this is the normal scenario ) you have an implied easement allowing it to be there .

Are the other houses the same.?

if it’s an addition and has been there 20 years + you have prescriptive right .

The party-wall Act does not override your common law ownership rights rights and can not be used to allow someone to connect to your soil stack .

Have they served you with a party wall notice .

[brainsiq]

Thanks for your response.

There's quite a mix of houses on the street. I can't see another example of our pipe positioning in the neighbouring houses - the houses are terraced and gardens small so no clear view. I suspect that this was added when our property was divided into flats, more than 30 years ago but I have no means of proving it as all the freeholders of the house have only owned it for the last 5-10 years.

They served a party wall notice a few years ago but obviously this expired. They started the extension again without even mentioning to us, and only shared information when requested that their new plans avoided all the originally planned party wall work (supported by a frame rather than beams embedded into the wall).

Am I correct in thinking that if we do not address this then the 20 year rule for easements would apply to their rights over use of the pipe?

We want to avoid a big drama and injunctions over a ventilation pipe and maintain good relations but are not sure of the implications for us and at the very least inform them that they are in the wrong here.

Also worth noting is that they have covered the costs of the repairs, although we definitively did not ask them to do this and weren't aware that would happen, so I don't think that affects our rights.

[brainsiq]

I assume the 20 year period effectively gave them this long to object to the position of the pipe along the boundary wall, and during that period they could have asked for it to be relocated?

[Ukmicky]

Forget about easement after 20 years . They have informed you they have connected to it and you need to object to its installation now if you want a court at anytime to treat any attempt by you to get it removed seriously . You can allow someone to build something at great cost and then wait until they have finished building before you object.

An objection in writing or by email so you have evidence will preserve your rights to act in the future. You don’t have to take them to court afterwards. In the end it’s your decision because even a email will probably harm relations but sometimes something needs to be done .. if you allow their connection however and they gain rights it will mean you will have to consider them if you do any work to it in the future