dispute with neighbour over our builder -help!

David_Aldred

Hi yasj,
I have seen this type of thing before and a few comments as listed may be worth consideration:

CAB may draft you an initial letter but a) they are not surveyors / roofers so are not technically minded that way) and b) as regards getting them to act on your behalf with any real teeth in these type of things forget it.

The Local Authority Building Control Officer will not get involved with disputes between parties other than themselves as far as I am aware.

The Party Wall Act is worth consulting (Local Authority will have a simple guide) but the Act again lacks real teeth other than temporarily holding up works.

You and your neighbour are currently both in the hands of seperate contractors who have each given opinions on works that you and your neighbour cannot really see properly from ground level. You are laypersons in such matters and it may not be readily apparent where the damage came from (i.e debris in gutters / cracked slate / broken pointing caused by your builder to the adjoining property during loft works or longstanding disrepair to adjoining property nothing to do with your works or and probably likely some combination of both).

Hindsight is a great thing but when discussing works you cannot see the roofer / builders should have gone up there with a camera and photographed works prior to the loft conversion commencement to show everyone and even at this stage the areas under discussion shoudl be photogrpahed so both parties can see the evidence. A picture does indeed say a thousand words.

Your neighbour has lost faith in your builder and perhaps you can see why if in their opinion your builder did indeed cause the damage to their property and then attempted to charge the neighbour £500 for the privelidge of putting their own negligence right.

Given you both have to live next to each and the problem does need resolving why not get your neighbour round for a coffee and ask her to chose an independent surveyor from the Yellow Pages which you as a gesture of good will will offer to pay for on the understanding that you both will agree in writing prior to their visit to abide by their recommendations however that surveyor apportions blame and works and to use one roofer / builder to undertake such works that the surveyor themselves will appoint seperate to the other contractors.

You can of course both decide to dig in and go down the route of disrepair causing damage and / or negligence claims from both parties but this is hardly likely to bring you and your neighbour closer together, will end up involving surveyors anyway to act as an expert witness (a roofer's / builder's estimate is not sufficient since they have a conflict of interest for court work) and can get expensive very quickly once lawyers get involved. Hope this helps kindest regards David (surveyor)

yasj

Sorry for this quick one but in the midst of sorting two little horrors with their tea.

The neighbour has lost faith in our builder, but what I have said to her is that the repair they recommended was nothing to do with the broken slates.

the slates are being replaced anyways-it was an unrelated recommendation for the future.

what I have been trying to tell her, which we did indeed do over a cup of coffee is that the repairs that are down to the builder are not costing her anything.

what has been surprising is that she seemed to agree to out intial suggestion when we met, later sent me a text to say that compromise was def the best solution, and thenafter the weekend, presented us with a very personal letter going back on everything??

Plasterer

yasj wrote: »

Sorry for this quick one but in the midst of sorting two little horrors with their tea.

The neighbour has lost faith in our builder, but what I have said to her is that the repair they recommended was nothing to do with the broken slates.

the slates are being replaced anyways-it was an unrelated recommendation for the future.

what I have been trying to tell her, which we did indeed do over a cup of coffee is that the repairs that are down to the builder are not costing her anything.

what has been surprising is that she seemed to agree to out intial suggestion when we met, later sent me a text to say that compromise was def the best solution, and thenafter the weekend, presented us with a very personal letter going back on everything??

:rotfl:

yasj

thats def cheered me up!:rotfl:

yasj

Given you both have to live next to each and the problem does need resolving why not get your neighbour round for a coffee and ask her to chose an independent surveyor from the Yellow Pages which you as a gesture of good will will offer to pay for on the understanding that you both will agree in writing prior to their visit to abide by their recommendations however that surveyor apportions blame and works and to use one roofer / builder to undertake such works that the surveyor themselves will appoint seperate to the other contractors.

You can of course both decide to dig in and go down the route of disrepair causing damage and / or negligence claims from both parties but this is hardly likely to bring you and your neighbour closer together, will end up involving surveyors anyway to act as an expert witness (a roofer's / builder's estimate is not sufficient since they have a conflict of interest for court work) and can get expensive very quickly once lawyers get involved. Hope this helps kindest regards David (surveyor)

Thanks for this advice.

I am assuming you are a surveyor-do you know what sort of cost is involved in getting a surveyor to come and assess the roof ?

misgrace

You do make me laugh plasterer

David_Aldred

Hi yasj,
I see this posting is running under two seperate threads which is a bit confusing for those following it. Costs for an inspection will vary depending upon location, time spent upon the matter etc in addition to whether you both want the surveyor's findings and recommendations in writing or simply oral though I would suggest a report in writing with any dispute matter is the way to go.

I am afraid costs for an oral inspection would be a minimum of £100 plus VAT and a written report I would expect to be a minimum of £200 plus VAT and in all honesty RICS reports of this nature are more likely to be in the £400-700 range.

I expect your initial reaction to such costings is that this is not cost effective compared to the £500 quote from the builder but in view of the way such things can in my experience quickly snowball out of all proportion to the original cost of works such a quick amicable resolution even though it will cost you is the preferred option.

If you think I am joking as regards costs be mindful of legal fees of at least £170 per hour from solicitors and for example a dispute case I am dealing with for original building works costing less than £1500 has already racked up £10,000 in fees from all involved and we haven't even got to court yet. If your neighbour decides to start playing difficult then inital costs that could have saved the day may be a drop in the ocean to what costs can be incurred when neighbours fall out. Kindest regards, David

DVardysShadow

David_Aldred wrote: »

Hi yasj,
I see this posting is running under two seperate threads which is a bit confusing for those following it. Costs for ...

Cross posting annoys me. You spend time composing a reply and then find someone has already made the same reply elswhere.

ysj, if you were decent about this, you would at least ahve told people you were crossposting.

yasj

Cross posting annoys me. You spend time composing a reply and then find someone has already made the same reply elswhere.

ysj, if you were decent about this, you would at least ahve told people you were crossposting.

I am new and did not realize that i was causing such "annoyance".

I was rather distressed this morning when I had no replies on one post and being new to posting on tis forum, thought I would get a better response on another thread.

each reply has been important to me, and please dont accuse me of not being "decent".

Dont be so hard on newbies.

DVardysShadow

yasj wrote: »

Dont be so hard on newbies.

Don't tell me you have never used a forum before.