Neighbour oil leak from outdoor boiler

andy125

Neighbour has an outdoor boiler encased in a small block enclosure, with the rear wall of the enclosure being the dividing wall between our back gardens which is about 2 feet from my door.

The wall on my side is seeping patches of oil and when i walk past it i get a strong smell of oil. The flue is full of black smooth all the way to the top, i think the boiler is fairly old even though i haven't seen it myself.

The house is attached to mine (semi d) and neighbours our renting the property, they speak little to no english so i cant get in touch with the landlord.

I'm just wondering what options i have regarding the oil pools in the wall?

beauf

..Contact Local environment Officer Authority...

nuac

Mod
Leaving open for discussion, remembering Forum rule re legal advice

Victor

Agreed - contact council. There is a potential fire risk. Additionally, a letter to the RTB explaining the situation may elicit the landlord's details.

Had a situation years ago where a client's oil tank had been leaking for 6 months and the first they knew was when they were contacted by the council drainage department about water pollution. The problem with such an oil leak is that the oil spreads downwards until it reaches the water table and then spreads out. This spread could include under buildings.

NUTLEY BOY

Is the wall OP's boundary wall or a party wall ? If a boundary wall it looks like damage to OP's property. If a party wall it looks like damage to part of OP's property.

This could be an arguable nuisance if the leakage is impairing OP's use or enjoyment of his property.

I don't think that we ever adopted Rylands -v- Fletcher in Ireland so there is probably no automatic liability for an escape like this even allowing for the relevant R -v- F tests.

hullaballoo

NUTLEY BOY wrote: »

Is the wall OP's boundary wall or a party wall ? If a boundary wall it looks like damage to OP's property. If a party wall it looks like damage to part of OP's property.

This could be an arguable nuisance if the leakage is impairing OP's use or enjoyment of his property.

I don't think that we ever adopted Rylands -v- Fletcher in Ireland so there is probably no automatic liability for an escape like this even allowing for the relevant R -v- F tests.

Paging GM228...

GM228

NUTLEY BOY wrote: »

I don't think that we ever adopted Rylands -v- Fletcher in Ireland so there is probably no automatic liability for an escape like this even allowing for the relevant R -v- F tests.

hullaballoo wrote: »

Paging GM228...

We did in the Brady vs Warren [1900] 2 IR 632 and Noonan vs Hartnett [1950] 84 ILTR 41 cases and reaffirmed I believe more recently in the O'Reilly vs Lavelle [1990] 2 IR 372 case.

nuac

NUTLEY BOY wrote: »

Is the wall OP's boundary wall or a party wall ? If a boundary wall it looks like damage to OP's property. If a party wall it looks like damage to part of OP's property.

This could be an arguable nuisance if the leakage is impairing OP's use or enjoyment of his property.

I don't think that we ever adopted Rylands -v- Fletcher in Ireland so there is probably no automatic liability for an escape like this even allowing for the relevant R -v- F tests.

Yes we did.

News had reached the West Coast long before modern comms, when we just had snail mail, telegrams and the odd wind-up phone.

The exceptions to the eXceptions in R v F was always a likely exam question.

Lmklad

That's a massive clear up, all the contaminated soil will have to be removed even to the foundations. Definitely not cheap, the neighbours insurance may cover it but definitely contact the Council.

Mrs OBumble

andy125 wrote: »

they speak little to no english so i cant get in touch with the landlord.

I don't see how that follows.

Use google translate to work out "Your oil tank is leaking. I need to call your landlord. What is his telephone number please?", and show it to them along with pointing to the leak.

Suspect you'll get his info quickly enough.

andy125

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

I don't see how that follows.

Use google translate to work out "Your oil tank is leaking. I need to call your landlord. What is his telephone number please?", and show it to them along with pointing to the leak.

Suspect you'll get his info quickly enough.

Id have to know what language they are speaking first and they aren't the friendliest to begin with and knowing my luck google translate would be interpreted by them to be something completely different to them to what I meant

NUTLEY BOY

Lmklad wrote: »

That's a massive clear up, all the contaminated soil will have to be removed even to the foundations. Definitely not cheap, the neighbours insurance may cover it but definitely contact the Council.

Presumably, there is no point in trying to remediate if the source is not stopped. Against that the leak must surely stop when the tank is drained and hopefully not refilled before repairs.

Household insurance policies seem to cover escape of oil. Do they cover cleaning up oil coming from the policyholders oil installation only - if they have one - or could the cover be interpreted to include damage to the policyholder's property by an oil leak from a neighbouring source ?

In the latter context I am thinking of an event some years ago. Premises A went on fire. The fire was accidental. Smoke from the fire entered and damaged premises B next door. The insurers of premises B paid for the redecoration of the smoke damaged walls. The argument was that the damage was caused by an insured peril namely fire. The policy did not specify that the origin of the fire had to be within the insured premises.

As far as the "leaking" neighbour's insurers are concerned I would imagine that they might only pay for damage to OP's premises as a public liability claim.

If OP's insurers covered the loss they could pay for it and seek to recover, by subrogation, from the "leaking" neighbour armed with the authorities cited by GM228 !

Tefral

OP just by way of information this happened with my mother and father in law.

The next door neighbors tank leaked, it went into the foundations of the house, the final bill was nearly 200k by the time the EPA were satisfied and it was all levied on the neighbors house insurance.

This could have the potential to be a massive headache

Victor

NUTLEY BOY wrote: »

Presumably, there is no point in trying to remediate if the source is not stopped. Against that the leak must surely stop when the tank is drained and hopefully not refilled before repairs.

Not quite. The oil in the ground will continue spreading as much as it can.