Boiler Flue Neighbour Dispute Discovered During House Purchase – Red Flag?
We are currently in the process of buying a detached property in England and it has come to light during conveyancing that there was a neighbour dispute around 6 years ago relating to a boiler flue that had been installed.
The flue is attached to the neighbour’s boundary wall at the end of their house and appears to face directly onto/access over our side path and garden area. From the correspondence we’ve seen, concerns were raised that fumes/gases were blowing directly down the path and into the garden, and there were also questions raised about whether the installation complied with regulations.
What concerns us is that the dispute appears to have escalated to architects/building consultants at the time, so it doesn’t sound like it was just a minor falling out between neighbours.
The seller is now simply saying there was a “verbal agreement” and that the matter was resolved, but there doesn’t appear to be any written confirmation resolution.
Apparently Gas Safe were contacted at the time, but from what we understand they said they would need access/permission from the neighbouring property to inspect whether the installation was compliant, and we do not believe that access was ever provided.
As far as we can tell, the flue is still there in the same position. There were concerns over it appeared to be installed incorrectly and the smell of fumes coming out.
Would this put you off buying the property? Has anyone dealt with similar flue/boundary disputes before?