Share chimney renovation costs with neighbors?

Questioner

We live in a 1930s house, a row of three and we live in the middle house and there are two chimneys on the roof. Our house is connected to the right chimney in terms of flues, so we have a shared chimney with the right-hand neighbours. The left chimney and therefore also the flues are fully connected to the house of the left-hand neighbours. On that side, no flue enters our house. The neighbors on the left want to have the chimney renovated, restored and are of the opinion that this chimney is partly ours. We think differently about this, because we cannot use the chimney/flues in any way, even if we wanted to. The neighbors on the left are of the opinion that the chimney is half ours and that we should therefore contribute to the maintenance costs. Can you explain how this works?

Lawyer

First of all, you need to check whether the chimney is on the property line of the houses. If the chimney is on the property line, it is shared and partly your property and you are partly liable for its replacement/restoration. It is possible that part of this chimney was also used for your house during construction, but that these channels were closed off after renovations. However, that does not alter the fact that the chimney is also part of your house. If the chimney is completely on your neighbours' property and there are no channels connected to your house, you would not have to pay for the costs of replacement/restoration.