Argument with neighbour over refurbishments

Red Silurian · 17-06-2022 10:26am #1

So a friend of mine bought a house recently and as you should do he got a survey carried out before signing contracts. One of the things on the list of tings to fix was a chimney stack shared with his neighbour. A full rebuild of it is needed of which he has been quoted in the region of 2.5k-3k to get done

His understanding is that the owner of the house next door would pay 50% and he would pay 50%. However the house next door is a council house and the council want their "framework" contractor to do it for about 8k-10k as the council want extra paperwork and scaffolding and many other things. The council are also sitting on their hands for the last 3 months

What is the right course of action? My suggestion is that he should pay no more than half of what he was quoted from the councils non-framework supplier and let the council pay the rest as they are the ones insisting on the extra costs

Girl Geraldine · 17-06-2022 10:33am

you see The quote from the councils contractor includes things like costs for all safety obligations under the H&S regulations, proper scaffolding, people being trained properly, etc. A quote from a some "chimney doctor" man in a van is naturally going to be cheaper because they won't be including those things as they are all about getting jobs done as cheap as possible and cutting corners, skimping back on safety and so on.

I think you would have to pay 50% of the costs of whoever does the job. And realistically the council are not going to give permission to you to let some man in a van at the chimney unless they can prove that they are competent in skill and H&S matters to take on the job. They are legally obliged to make sure that anyone working on their assets is fully qualified, competent and insured. And at €2-3k, I expect it to be a handyman sort of job. Nothing gets done for €2.5k, fellas would hardly get out of bed for that money.

Ginger83 · 17-06-2022 10:44am

I would at the very least have your own independent surveyor overseeing any work especially if it is a council contractor. You would not believe what goes on with council work and as for nobody getting out of bed for 3k, that's what has us in the mess we're in.

Red Silurian · 17-06-2022 10:45am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119214845#Comment_119214845

I think you will find most contractors get out of bed for a lot less than 3k... My argument would be that if the contractor is not following the legal H&S regulations that would be on the contractor, not on the homeowner

muffler · 17-06-2022 11:05am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119214921#Comment_119214921

But...You need to watch your house insurance. Ultimately the responsibility lies with the homeowner and if they don't see sight of proper building insurance and something goes wrong then the contractor could claim of the house insurance.

Ginger83 · 17-06-2022 11:07am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119214921#Comment_119214921

Our daughter attends a local school and the school has fundraised for different things throughout the year. Recently we have been told that a new concrete path is next on the list. It's about 60 foot long and the quote for the work is 18k. It's absolutely baffling.

Red Silurian · 17-06-2022 11:12am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119215016#Comment_119215016

Not sure if he has house insurance but it's likely a condition of a mortgage these days

Regardless, the builder should be insured

muffler · 17-06-2022 11:22am

So if the council have accepted that the chimney needs repairing then they would normally foot the entire bill. Your friend should offer to contribute the half of his quote and let the council contractor carry on. Get the local councillors involved and let them put the proposal to the council's housing engineer.