Thou shalt fix thy neighbour's roof as thy own...? Swan's End is a semi-detached, and one of three conjoined houses. I live in the house on the south end, my neighbour Jenny and her family live in the middle house, and on her other side the house is owned and occupied by my neighbour Emilia and her parents. And Jenny's front bedroom has developed some leaks.

→[More:]A few weeks ago Jenny told me she has leaks in her front bedroom that she has been told is due to Emilia and I needing to have our houses fixed. She wants the three of us to meet with her workman and discuss it. Emilia and I happened to take the same bus this morning and she and I both discussed the matter and agreed that it seemed odd, to say the least, that Jenny’s leaks should be due to problems with our houses. Emilia’s roof is only three years old, and mine is only two, and neither of us have leaks. Three years ago Emilia’s roofer told her that there was a dip in Jenny’s roof that should be fixed, and Emilia told Jenny, but nothing was done. Then when, more recently, Jenny developed one leak in her bedroom, she called in a workman to fix it, and soon after he fixed it she had two leaks, one on each side. So it seems possible that her workman doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Emilia told me that Jenny said to her, “I’ve done my part and now you’ll have to do yours,” which didn’t sit at all well with Emilia. She says she’ll call someone in to look at her roof, but she really doesn’t think the problem is on her side or that she needs to fix anything. I think I’ll call in someone too and ask the guy to take a look at Jenny’s roof while he is at it. If he has any theories as to why Jenny’s roof would be leaking, I can pass that and his number along to Jenny.

Ah, the fun of living in attached houses. If your neighbour has a problem, you have a problem. I'm hoping this can be resolved without any hair pulling. Jenny and I get along very well, but I know from what I hear through our shared wall that she can be very volatile.