party wall notice!!! this cant be happening

chickoo

Hi, this is my first post to this forum and I hope I will get some direction to move forward in the problem we have.

Our house (and other houses) back to the council leisure centre which the council wants to knock down and build a new one. The whole street and other streets opposed the planning permission but since the council itself was the applicant we cound't do anything. (we opposed as we have a back garden with uniterrupted sunlight and now we will be completely blocked by the new leisure centre).

so much for democratic council decisions.

We have moved on from there as we 'cannot' stop it being built theway it is going to be.

The wall dividing leisure centre (current) and us (and the rest of the houses) is nice and with the character (our house dates back to 1905). The wall has the look of oldish and nice bricks.

This wall is roughly 10-12 ft away from the leisure centre and the new build will come to around 5-6 ft. But we have been served with the party wall notice informing us that:

- this wall will be knocked down and rebuilt again (on the grounds of work being done and the wall being not new)
- if we don't agree then the developers will pay for the surveyor to be appointed but we have to inform with the name of surveyor in 14 days or we loose

BUT we love our wall...its not at all falling down. I am happy to put pics of this here to prove this claim. Also we DON't want a new build wall which will reduce the character of the house and the value.

Please help, there must be something we can do. After all this we feel like we don't have a voice and council (as an applicant) can walk over us.

andrew-b

Contact a relevant local chartered surveyor with knowledge in this field and let the developers know your appointed surveyor so they foot the bill as agreed.
List of contacts available at the RICS website click here
..presumably "party walls" or "boundaries" in the type list.

Also worth consulting the Garden Law website [url=htttp://www.gardenlaw.co.uk]here[/url]

Hope that helps

andrew-b

Just found this on RICS website:
http://www.rics.org/site/scripts/documents_info.aspx?documentID=105&pageNumber=4
which has a guide to download.

Note that there's a helpline to get free 30 mins of advice (look up on saynoto0870.com)

chickoo

Thanks for your help. am on the phone as we speak with a RICS guy.

Here is what I am really concerned about:-

- there is nothing wrong with the wall (and we plan to meet with the neighbours too as they have also received the same notice) so can we stop this from being knocked down? Is there a precedence to this happening before?

- What about the trees? we and other neighbours have tons of plants and trees literally touching the wall (some are really nice trees and are older than 10 years some even older than 20 yrs)? How can they touch the wall as these trees will have a big impact? Is this something that we can challange too?

- We will have our property examined for sure before the work begins (there is gonna be big swimming pool in the area next to the wall), this could and I am sure it would will have major impact on the house structure for not only our house but other houses around. Is this something we can challange? (I know this is not esssentially party wall related but somehow it is as they will dig up a lot right next to our wall)

Dave101t

dont forget the age old right to reasonable enjoyment of your property. substantial close redevelopment can be thwarted on this alone in some cases.

chickoo

yes Dave, we did object on as much as 25 different applicable grounds but as the council is the applicant themselves (and the property developers are doing the leisure centre for free as long as the council lets them build a block of flats which the developers can sell to make money) rejected each and every objection (we went together with the neighbours to object the planning permission). Our house will loose so much money because the garden will be totally blocked by a building but we can't do a thing. We cant even sell the house as the buyer will know about this planning permission. And we can't even live normally here as now they want to knock down the wall too and rebuild a ugly new wall.

We were so happy when we bought the house 3 yrs back.

keystone

Vested interests comes to mind!

Contact your MP and raise a complaint via him/her. Get him/her to contact the Planning Ombudsman on your behalf (you cannot do it direct - it must be via your MP).

See Here - Clicky

Cheers

chickoo

that's totally wicked.

but this is clearly unacceptable (i am definately going to write to my MP hoping he does follows up to Ombudsma).

Does anyone know or have contacted local press office / newspaper for this? Media sure has the reach if not power to oppose this?

keith969

Do more than write to your MP - find out when/where his/her local surgery days are and visit them in person. Take along photos etc.

How many of your neighbours will be affected? Strength in numbers always helps.

chickoo

yes just found out that the surgery is on mondays so defo going there.

Lots of neighbours are affected but we are affected the most as right now we don't have anything in front of our gardens (others have the old building blocking them).

3 yrs back when we bought it that was the reason we bought it as it has a garden with nothing in front of it.

So strength is not gonna be that big but this is just bullying...I will be taking pictures and the objection documents to the surgery. What else can I do to support my case?

Imp

I hate to be under dramatic, but I am struggling to see a big deal here.

Every neighbour must appoint a Party Wall Surveyor to protect their own interest. This will be paid for by the council, so no big deal.

You should send a letter raising a dispute, bring up all the items you are concerned about.

Your surveyor will protect your interest. If that wall belongs to you, then get it surveyed by your surveyor and make sure that it is reinstated, like for like, not by some ugly wall.

If there are trees on your land which might be damaged, then get them surveyed by your surveyor, estimating the size of the root system. If they are going to be damaged, then make sure they are replaced following construction, like for like.

If there are some pretty plants on your side of the wall which might be damaged during construction, then get them surveyed by your surveyor and ensure that they are replaced following construction, like for like.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/133214.pdf