party wall agreements

theGrinch

hello, a friend of mine has planning permission for a loft conversion and extension to start this weekend.

today his neighbour has asked for a party wall agreement.

where does my friend stand?

alanobrien

Party wall agreement ? Sounds like complete tosh to me. There is government legislation to cover this.

The party wall act was put in place to protect the basic rights of people living in adjoining houses.

Essentially as long as the neighbour has been given the statatuary notice of work and the work is inspected and completed to the satisfaction of the local council
then the neighbour should have no problem other than the noise that will occur as the work progresses.

Its unlikely that planning permission will be required unless dormers are being installed so the build just has to meet the required regs.

In other words the neighbour has little to complain about.

Boohbah

http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_buildreg/documents/page/odpm_breg_600574-04.hcsp

theGrinch

surely he has already obtained planning permission, surely he would have the neighbours consent already? I assume the council wrote to the neighbours

psy

I'm don't personally know what the current legislation is regarding party wall agreement, but I'm in the middle of an extension and loft conversion.

When I applied for planning permission, the council contacted my neighbours to notify them I was proposing to carry out work, then it it down to the neighbours to contact the council to find out the exact details of the plans, and then they have the right to object if they feel there are reasons to object.

Regarding the party wall agreement, I was told by my builder and my surveyor that I would have to get written permission from my neighbours if my property joins onto them or is within a metre of the property.

I prepared a standard letter for my neighbours to sign and then showed them the plans.

Apparently it is within the neighbours' rights to appoint a surveyor to check the potential impact on their house caused by your building work and you'll have to pick up the bill.

I understand that if your work needs a party wall agreement and you don't get it, then all the work carried out will need to be put back to the original structure.

robowen

hello, a friend of mine has planning permission for a loft conversion and extension to start this weekend.

today his neighbour has asked for a party wall agreement.

where does my friend stand?

Hard to say as the details are sketchy.
Are we talking about a loft conversion with ground/second floor extension, or just an extension in the loft ??
Does it attach to nexdoor property or next door boundary line ??

presumably, if planning permission has been given, then next door has been informed by the council of your plans, and has had reasonable time to lodge a complaint.

Tell them to go to the council planning dept for their party wall agreement !!

[Deleted User]

See the following link for comprehensive details on the Party Wall Act.

http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_buildreg/documents/page/odpm_breg_600574.hcsp

You cannot just start work if it affects your neighbour. You need to serve the appropriate Notice if your work comes under this Act. If your neighbour ignores the Notice or refuses to consent to the work you are officially 'in dispute'

Both of you will require a surveyor to arbitrate.

Planning permission is nothing to do with it and is a seperate issue.

I know all this as I have just researched, and taken further advice, for my work on my extension which begins this week. Whilst my work is compltely within my boundary - there was a question of whether the footings would be within the 6m rule.

The above link provides compehenseive information in plain English. It also provides sample letters.

If you start work without serving the appropriate Notice and you were obliged to sere it, your neighbour can get the work stopped until the matter is resolved.

The main thing is to communicate first with your neighbour if the Party Wall Act applies - and if it does - you MUST get their agreement in writing for the work to go ahead.

collon

Think you've got problems. My neighbour, without consultation, sent in the builders last Thursday (21st June) at 7:30am. They tore down our grden fence, dug a trench nearly three feet wide and 4 feet deep along what was our garden an filled it with concrete. They dug alongside the garage and exposed the foundations, digging well below the depth of them, and have today (24th June) built a very attractive (not) concrete block wall 6 feet high.
We tried to stop them, call the Police out, called solicitors called the CAB and the Birmingham Council Building Control. Nobody was willing to enforce the Party Wall Act. Tried to get an injuction but couldn't do it in time, by 11:00am on Thursday the concrete was in.
Has anyone had a similar experience? Does anyone know how to create a petition to get teeth put into the Party Wall Act. We are consulting our MP and getting the media involved but don't hold out much hope.

It would seem that currently, if you do not follow due process, you don't need to worry about your neighbours objections. Just do it - they can't stop you. The Part Wall Act is a Joke.

marybishop

Collon - you're right the PW Act doesn't have teeth and Im glad to hear you're trying to bring it to people's attention. Often the threat of an injunction stops people in their tracks but obviously in your case this didn't work and what can you do when people are prepared to flout all the rules. Do you have a solicitor involved so that if any further damage occurs you can invoke an injunction? Obviously this all starts to get very costly and time consuming as well as stressful.

The usual procedure is for the person doing the work to appoint a PW Surveyor to serve the relevant notices on the adjoining owner. They then have the right to either agree to the works or to appoint their own PW surveyor with the costs borne for both surveyors by the building owner (person doing the work). Sometimes a joint surveyor can be appointed if both sides agree to this. The other place to get info is from the RICS website www.rics.org.

What is your neighbour building? Suggest you keep a photographic record of what goes on, maybe even video it if poss. Keep in mind they are not allowed to just come on to your land as they please, they need your permission. There is no right of access if they are putting up a new building.

marybishop

alanobrien wrote: »

Essentially as long as the neighbour has been given the statatuary notice of work and the work is inspected and completed to the satisfaction of the local council
then the neighbour should have no problem other than the noise that will occur as the work progresses.

Its unlikely that planning permission will be required unless dormers are being installed so the build just has to meet the required regs.

In other words the neighbour has little to complain about.

The PW Act is there as a safeguard in case things go wrong eg building work causes damage to the neighbouring property. The crucial part is the schedule of condition/photographs taken before the work starts as a benchmark of the condition the neighbouring property is in. Therefore if there are already cracks in the walls and the neighbour tries to claim they were caused by the work next door they wont have a leg to stand on, the flip side being if cracks appear whilst work is going on then they have the right to ask for the damage to be put right at the adjoining owner's expense.
It's basically there to stop lengthy and costly disputes from starting.

marybishop

Collon - just been thinking - we've got a client who's neighbour had started building work next door without serving any notices, in fact the extension was nearly complete but he was then going to do a loft conversion as well. A couple of letters from OH who does a lot of PW work explaining that they needed to comply with the PW Act and if they didn't then an injunction to cease work would be the next step did the trick. Might be worth phoning the RICS call centre on 0870 333 1600 and ask for names/numbers of PW surveyors in your area and get some advice (some give 30 mins free advice over the phone).