Gable Wall on End of Terrace - built against. Any advice?

EdgeCase

A relative of mine lives in very early 20th century terrace house which has a gable end that isn't accessible. The side of their house forms the boundary wall of a adjacent house's small garden.

The owners (and likely previous owners) of that house have built over the garden and a bathroom appears to have been built directly on her gable wall.

The problem is that on several occasions water has soaked through the brick and into her living room, damaging plaster, wall paper and electrical fittings and resulting in the whole corner of the room having to be re plastered.

When this happened the other homeowner (who lets the home) said that they had retiled and sealed the bathroom. However it has happened again.

Not only that but there's clearly a pumped electric shower installed onto the bricks as you can hear it like as if it's in the living room when it's running.

I'm becoming concerned that this structure could damage my relatives house as it's impinging on the external wall, which is old brick and she no longer has any ability to inspect or maintain the outer surfaces of her home. For example she may need to repoint the bricks and we no longer can even see what's going on. Even if we were given access to the other house, the brickwork is now completely inaccessible.

The structure was built without any discussion and because of a high wall around the garden and no windows on the side, it isn't possible to view it.

In fact, the first time she's been able to see what exactly was built has been on Google maps!

Some of these structures could be decades old storage sheds that were built way back (without any permission or discussion) that have now been converted to bathroom use in further extensions.

What can be done?

Any discussion seems to result in a statement that it's a a party wall, which I don't believe is the case as it's the end wall of another building.

There's no real communication between her and the building owner other than a phone call maybe once in 5 or 6 years when something goes wrong.

Any ideas?

I'm concerned that because no action was taken over the years, there may be serious difficulty in achieving anything.

AFAIK, there were fairly strict rules around what could be modified on those walls in the original deeds and documents.

Would the passage of time without being aware of the structure and having not challenged it have undermined her ability to do so now?

Also if this causes structural damage to the house by water logging the brickwork, can she request the other structure be removed to gain access or is she going to have to repair it from the inside of the house out, which would be massively complicated and disruptive as it’a also behind a fireplace.

The attitude that she’s getting is that she’s going to have to pursue it legally and she’s really not up making appearances in court and all of that at this stage of her life.

All that keeps happening when she approaches the owners is they offer to pay for the plaster damage and they carry out repairs. However, it’s only patching things up until it leaks again, and again, and again.

The noise of the shower is bad enough that it would disrupt a conversation!

Calahonda52

Time for the Abrams M1

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2009/act/27/enacted/en/print#part8-chap3

for working on party walls: get a court order, no consent required

A hand drawn sketch would help as its hard to follow

EdgeCase

Their argument about 'party walls' has been that they own half the wall. I don't think that's the case at all.

The exterior gable end wall of the house forms the wall at the end of their garden. It's fully part of the structure of the house, rather than a boundary wall. They have attached structures directly to the house itself.

The original developer made the error of building a house with an inaccessible side wall, that's in someone else's garden.
It means to maintain the exterior of the house, you have to gain access to the other party's garden.

She has had issues like the tenants next door trying to lay down access restrictions when she had roof leaks and wouldn't allow scaffolding to be erected in their garden as it was disturbing them. Basically, to repoint brick work on the side of the house, the only way it could be done was with scaffolding in their garden.

It's been highly problematic over the decades, including things like people mounding earth against the wall to create flower beds and causing major dampness problems. This bathroom addition is just the latest in many previous owners' confusion about what the wall is.

The joys of 19th century construction ideas.

Unfortunately, due to her age and health she's very unlikely to want to go to court / go that route at all. So, I suspect it will be a patching up job again.

seamus

^^
Really that's a question to be resolved before you can go any further. If the gable end of the house has been built ON the boundary between that property and the other, then it's a party wall regardless of any other facts. A structural wall of a house can be (and frequently is) a boundary/party wall.

If it's been built inside the boundary, then it's wholly and completely part of your relative's property and nobody else is permitted to attach anything to it or build up against it.