When things break down or need replacing in your home, it can sometimes result in a costly procedure that takes several weeks to properly fix. But one woman has claimed she was recently asked to fork out a whopping £1,000 to remove her chimney because of a problem in her neighbour's house, rather than her own.
The mum-of-one explained she inherited the home from her mum and currently lives alone with her four-year-old daughter, and said that the chimney in question is actually shared by both herself and her next-door neighbour.
Her neighbour recently told her that the wallpaper in one of her bedrooms is "coming away from the wall", and has been told that the cause of the problem is the black mortar used to build the houses, and more specifically, their shared chimney.
Now, the neighbour is demanding they have their chimney completely removed and has said the mum must pay half of the cost as it is also partly her chimney - meaning she'll have to cough up £1,000 to save her neighbour's wallpaper.
In a post on Mumsnet, the woman said: "I have always gotten on with my neighbour (NDN). There was an issue when I was installing a fence but that's another post. Anyway, I was outside last weekend mowing the garden. NDN came out and told me she had some bad news. Apparently, the wallpaper in one of her bedrooms is coming away from the wall.
"A 'friend' of her son has told her that the chimney (which we share) needs to come down completely and it's going to cost about £2k and in her words exactly, 'you're going to have to pay half'.
"I told her that I would look into it. She asked if I had a gas fire, to which I replied yes. She has an electric one. So I said that the chimney is needed basically for the gas fire. She said it has to come down as it's all 'that black mortar'. Well of course it is, considering that's what the house was built with."
The mum's neighbour even told her she could spend more cash to have a flue installed to accommodate her gas fire, but the woman put her foot down and insisted she would rather repair the chimney than tear it down.
And after looking into chimneys herself online, the mum has discovered that removing a chimney may cause damp - which she definitely doesn't want to deal with.
She added: "I do not want my chimney taken down. But where do I go from here? I am worried about the damp issue. I don't have £1,000 to spend on that when I am not experiencing issues - although I would be happy to pay half on a repair.
"Am I even needing to do that? For all I know the issue could be with her roof. The chimney is not falling apart. It seems pretty stable."
Commenters on the post urged the mum not to agree to take the chimney down until the situation has been assessed by someone other than her neighbour's son's friend.
One person said: "You need someone who isn't related to your neighbour and knows what they're talking about to carry out an inspection of the chimney. She cannot remove the chimney without your agreement as it is shared, don't let her bully you, get someone to give you support in discussions if possible
While another added: "I had that and a bit of damp ceiling. There was a small gutter thing at the base, of the chimney and the rainwater was running the wrong way, I got it repaired. I would look into getting a roofer to check into repairing it."
And a third wrote: "Definitely contact a builder/roofer. If it's a shared chimney they can't do anything without your agreement, but equally, you can't ignore the problem. It's very unlikely that it will require the chimney to come down."
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