Q: My house shares a chimney&both sides need to be fixed to correct water leak the other house is rental & no contact info

A: It seems weird to me that you can't track down the owner of the other property to resolve this. The name of the record owner is a matter of public record both at the Recorder of Deeds and, less accurately, at the State Department of Assessments and Taxation. Then, running a search on the Internet costs between $10 and $25. If you need someone with more experience reading those reports, that will obviously be more expensive, and if you need a private investigator to run what is called a 'skip trace,' that will also be more expensive. But, finding the owner is a manageable problem. Resolving the problem with a lawsuit using in rem jurisdiction against a party you haven't found will be much more expensive, and I can't imagine the judge would make you prove you had tried to find the owner before agreeing to enter a default.

A: Generally speaking you can't shift a bill to someone else unless they approve of it or have a legal obligation to pay it. There are some exceptions to this rule but they usually involve situations where someone knows about a benefit and sits back and knowingly takes the benefit without saying anything.

The tax accounts should show a mailing address for the record owner(s), so your first step might simply be mailing a letter to that address.

While not legal advice, I hope this helps.

A: I’m sure you can track down the owner, but getting the owner to cooperate is another matter. Do you need access to the inside of the neighboring house to fix the chimney, or can it be done solely from your side and the outside of your neighbor’s house? If inside access is not necessary, and the owner can not be located or is not responsive, then if there is an urgent necessity to prevent ongoing water damage you may be justified in using self-help to just fix both sides. You do not state the cost of the full repair. In theory, water penetration due to neglect of reasonable and necessary maintenance is a nuisance, and you can sue the neighbor to obtain a court order that he mitigate the nuisance (make reasonable repairs). If he defies the court order, you can obtain another order to possibly enter his property to make the repairs and obtain a judgment for his share of the cost. That process can get expensive.