Open loft

[Dundas]

I live in a row of 12 terrace houses ( no 11) all lofts are open and rats run freely through them. As I rent the property is the landlord responsible for closing my loft with deviding walls.

[JK0]

Were there walls there when you rented it?

[Interlaken]

Today houses would not be built like that but current building regs cannot be enforced on the owners for properties though it sounds like this job does need doing mainly to form a fire break.

[mariner]

I am guessing that is how they were built.

What is the age of the terrace?

[davett]

Sounds like a burglar's delight!

[ash72]

If there is a fire in one, it will spread easily to all, I would inform the landlord, and note that his current insurance may be invalid if anything ever happened.

[jpkeates]

Broadly speaking, the landlord is responsible for keeping vermin out of the property.
I don't see how they can do that without a wall in the loft.

However, the landlord might find it cheaper to change tenants than do some messy building work (which would have to comply with today's building regs.)

[davett]

I'd fear for my partner's safety and my possessions if any member of 11 other households could drop down out of the loft access at any moment!

[nukecad]

The strangest one I've ever seen was in Stoke-on-Trent. (30+ years ago).

A 10 foot deep void (think Cellar) running the full length/width of a row of terraced houses.

It was brick lined with a vee'd floor and a channel down the centre, complete with running stream that came out of one arched opening, ran the full length, and disppeared into another arch.
(Presumably the next row of terraced had the same under it, and so on).

The house purchasers knew nothing about it until they took some floorboards up intending to run some C/H pipes.

Amazing what Victorian builders did. Nowadays house builders would just run the stream through a concrete pipe.

[KeepTheFaith]

My end terrace loft had a dividing wall separating from the house next door but it had some big gaps at the sides so rats used to scuttle around in my attic too. The council EHO said the gaps meant there wasn't fire separation between the 2 buildings and accordingly it came under the Housing Health and Safety Ratings System as a cat 2 hazard and LL was ordered to fill in the gaps. Not had any rats up there since and don't need to worry if the house next door catches fire that mine will go up too, just need to worry about the flat downstairs catching fire as problems with fire separation between the 2 flats, but that's another story! Victorian terrace problems are never ending...