Empty house next door

A question about : Empty house next door

I live in a semi detached property, the house joined onto ours is emprty (the old woman died and lawyer is currently trying to find a next of kin i believe). Both properties are privately owned, I own mine and she owned hers.

It has been empty for a number of months now and since we are heading into winter i am getting a bit concerned regarding this.

I have home buliding and contents insurance,but i doubt very much next door is insured.

As it's empty if a pipe was to freeze and burst next door and damaged my property i am guessing i would need to claim my insurance if next door isnt insured?

How do i stand legally with regards to getting the water turned off at the mains next door incase of a problem?

What rights do i have as a joined on neighbour?

Any advice is most welcome,and appreciated.

Best answers:

• Dont assume that next door isnt insured....empty properties can be insured and is probably being delt with by the solicitor...as is the turning off of water and the draining of heating systems etc...
  The solicitor is potentially the executor of the neighbours estate and as such will take steps to insure that the empty property is "looked after"....I appreciate this may not appear the case to you as you will just see it as empty,but the solicitor will have a duty to uphold the situation until the next of kin or beneficiaries are found.
• Thanks for the reply.
  I have contacted the solicitor and am waiting on a reply.
  Are they duty bound to drain the heating system?
• Sometimes that is a condition of the insurance company in the event of the property being empty....it certainly was with the insurer I used when I had an empty property the year before last....
• Its going to be a cheap house, as there will be a lot of work to modernise it Do you have the money to buy it?
• Its a tricky situation and one thats difficult to make an assumpion on...however having some experience with an elderly relation/dementia/the care system and control of money which eventually passes to exectutors etc...I can probably at least tell you what may have happenened.
  Whilst the lady lived in the house and was undiagmosed with dementia,it was most certainly her decision on whether she had home insurance or not...
  Some homeowners wronly assume they dont need it but it would have been her choice.
  Possibly once she transferred into care her finances would have either been still controlled by herself dependant on her progression through the illness,early stages you can still retain a lot of financial control,later stages not so much and its possible that someone was appointed ta act on her behalf...that can be a friend,relation,court of protection etc...but at that point,where she's not living in the house its very possible that if no insurance was in place,in order to protect the asset some would have been suggested.
  This would certainly have been the case once the lady died and the executor of the will and assets took over,as it is their duty to "protect" the property until beneficiaries can be established.
• *UPDATE*
  I have now spoken to the solicitor, who has informed me the house will be made safe for the winter by a local plumber, she also informed me it will be going on the market at some point in the near future.
  Thanks for the replies.