Party Wall Act 1996 is worthless!

srm1

Guys - 2 years on & an observation made in 2009 is that a party wall agreement is worthless & only a way to rip money from honest neighbours - my 2009 observations remain!

My neighbour [builder] agreed to a PW agreement in 2009 to totally ignore & not pay for it.
2 years on, still the same £8000 worth of damage caused.
An unpaid PW surveyor who has gone to ground despite the damage.
A 2 year battle with my neighbours insurers for repair - which may or may not happen this year - in year 3.
A neighbour that will not comunicate & not pay for any services.

The Party wall agreement looks so reassuring on paper but in reality, despite going though the correct surveyors complaints handling proceedure & the same with RICS. It is very much a gentlemens club to protect & look after the interests of its fee earning members. Every member is teflon coated.
The PW act is only in place to rip the honest / easy money - just ignore it - it has no teeth so the surveyor just moves on to another victim for easy money.

If anyone has the misfortune to have neighbours building work taking place - ensure you are covered by accidental damage insurance i.e your neighbours work.
Also ensure you have a legal protection insurance in place - certainly for the duration of the building work.
This will be money well spent.

I still can not believe the gross misreprentation of the PW act - maybe trading standards should become involved for mis-selling an expensive worthless service?

ATB.
Steve.

markdavey

Any act that does not make provision for some sort of recompense for not following it is going to be flawed from the outset. I agree, simply a money making scam for RICS members

panchenlama

yep, piece of sh*t legislation that should be retired. No idea why it's needed, if someone knackers your house with thier building work you can sue them or claim under your own insurance. The right to commence the building in the first place is covered by planning.

Surveyors are the only people benefiting from this and what they say has no comeback if it's wrong...

teneighty

I read your post with interest and I'm sorry to hear about the problems you have had. However, I felt the need to express a more balanced opinion to help other people avoid such pitfalls.

One of the main purposes of the Act is to protect neighbours from the potential unpleasant consequences of building work and help building owners undertake work without undue obstruction from neighbours. This is achieved by giving the neighbour the opportunity to appoint an independent surveyor to work on their behalf at NO COST TO THEMSELVES. If you chose to waive that protection you can hardly blame the Act because you got duped by your neighbour. Sadly there are unscrupulous neighbours, cowboy builders and indeed cowboy surveyors who are ready to exploit the unwary. The legislation is in place to try and limit their ability to do that and on the whole it works very well. I have never come across a situation where a party wall award was not enforceable, even when the builder has gone bust half way through the job.

It is impossible to offer specific advice with the limited information available but provided a competent and diligent surveyor/s is/are appointed, both the building owner and neighbour should be fully protected. The appointment of the surveyor should be just as important as appointing an architect or a solicitor. Ask for fee quotes, ask for references, check their background and experience etc.

Contrary to popular belief there is no requirement for a party wall surveyor to be a member of the RICS. However, in my experience few other professional have the training and professional regulatory controls to fully protect their clients. Having said that I have worked alongside some architects and structural engineers who make excellent party wall surveyors.

Finally, in the spirit of this forum, it is also possible as a building owner to comply with the requirements of the Act at very little expence. The single most important bit of advice I can give is discuss the proposals with your neighbours at the earliest opportunity and get them on your side. Its amazing what a bottle of wine and a bunch of flowers can achieve. You can still go through the procedures yourself, the standard notices and forms are available free online. Just make sure you have all the necessary notices and most importantly detailed condition survey/photos in place before work starts. It never ceases to amaze me how people can not see a large crack thats been on their bedroom wall for years but suddenly notice it when the neighbours start doing some building work. No matter how friendly you are with your neighbours, I would always have the backup of a party wall award/agreement just in case things turn nasty.

But if in doubt get sound professional advice.

iamcornholio

You could have enforced your PW agreement in the court, and would have been successful and recouped all costs

srm1

Several aspects of this may be incorrect - certainly the the award IS a worthless piece of S**t - I couldn't agree more.
What if you do not have accidental damage insurance? - You are not covered.
What if you do not have a morgage provider - you are further uncovered.

You are pretty much stuffed & reliant in the hope your neighbour has insurance.
Your only course of action is against the building owner - but what if he ignores all communications?
The builder's insurance is invalid as this is now the responsibility of the building owner - fact.
Regarding the right of commencing planned work.....rubbish.
If the work is under a LDC - the council not even contact the neighbouring property owner.
Simply tell the council / PW surveyor / neighbour you are building a small pimple & then build a mountain.
Once up - huge problems. HUGE!
All of this is quite unbelievable but true - making me want to publish some pics & documents of this most unbelievable experience.
It is currently 2 years & 2 months since this has happened - I'm only slightly closer to having 5 rooms & a staircase repaired.
Not to mention the sickening disfigurement to my property that will never ever go away.

I have looked into legal costs - c £300 per hour for 4 hours - so 1200 quid just to read through the paperwork - sadly too rich for my finances.

I'll put up a picture if I'm allowed to - obviously no address or anything else.

Cheers,

S.

srm1

iamcornholio wrote: »

You could have enforced your PW agreement in the court, and would have been successful and recouped all costs

Thanks - sadly only if the Party Wall Surveyor had have been paid for his services.
He was quite good initially with a superbly worded letter of direction & request for my neighbours payment & details of wayward building plans to complete a supplimentary award.
This was just ignored, no payment & no plans ever existed.

In a perfect world things are straight forwards.

Neither the Surveyors CHP associate or after that RICS CHP have suggested this was possible??

panchenlama

read the other posts on this forum re 3rd party wall act and see if there is just one positive comment...I suspect there isn't.

what the hell sort of legislation allows for someone else to appoint someone at your cost without you having any say in the matter? madness and a licence for the surveyors to up thier prices and encourage those doing the work to ignore due process....

still, good i say, means any knobhead neighbours who think they can call the shots end up with the wrong end of the sh*tty stick!

iamcornholio

It seems that your gripe is with the Surveyor or the non-payment of his fees by the nieighbour, and not with the Act itself

An Award is legal document which can be enforced, and if the process is done properly then is a valuable asset to have.

You should have directed your complaints to the relevant causes, and as soon as your neighbour reneged on the PW agreement you should have got an injunction there and then and saved 2 years of stress, damage and wasted money

srm1

iamcornholio wrote: »

It seems that your gripe is with the Surveyor or the non-payment of his fees by the nieighbour, and not with the Act itself

An Award is legal document which can be enforced, and if the process is done properly then is a valuable asset to have.

You should have directed your complaints to the relevant causes, and as soon as your neighbour reneged on the PW agreement you should have got an injunction there and then and saved 2 years of stress, damage and wasted money

I believe an Award has no true compensation for non compliance?
It can be ignored without penalty?
It is drawn for law abiding citizens in mind only?
An injunction would prevent further work but would be useless in the event of the work being quickly completed.
Pretty much - its up now what can you do about it.

Surely RICS would have suggested any possible method of enforcement if it were at all possible?
Surely my solictors would have used the party wall document if was of any use or substance?

iamcornholio

srm1 wrote: »

I believe an Award has no true compensation for non compliance?
It can be ignored without penalty?

You enforce the Award if you are party to it.

It's exactly the same as anything else in life, it's up to you to enforce your rights, not sit about expecting others to do it.

Presumably you were briefed at the start of all this, you had opportunity to make enquiries and ask questions. So when things start going awry, to should be thinking about enforcing your rights.

When you saw that builder building without compliance with the Award, you could have got an injunction within a week - and he would be paying all the costs, and he could then not move an inch without breaking the injunction which is more serious than breaching the Award itself

Likewise for the damage caused. You could have (still can) put a claim in to the civil court and got/get your compensation

I'll be blunt here ... its up to you to have sorted this out sooner and got more professional advice sooner, and not waited this long to have a moan on a forum.

You have got the Award in place which you could have enforced. Even with no Award you could have enforced the PW Act. There are still remedies available to you.

The PW Act is not at fault here (although it does have its faults), it's your failure to use it properly which has led to this situation