Yard gates blew in last night - party wall cracked too

stilernin

Am beginning to wonder why I did't buy a nice little new build bungalow!!

Horrendous winds last night and found that yard gates (two wooden garage type doors) have broken and blown in. The weak point was where the yale lock was and the vertical piece of wood snapped there. This upright is almost 100% off too 'cos the bolt into the ground stayed put!!

To complicate matters, the party wall (10'+ high) is cracked near the gates. No doubt due to the buddlea that was growing out of the top of it. Now cut off, but the roots have travelled along the mortar approx 3 courses from the top.

This was someway down my 'to do' list as they were 'very poor' and I wanted wider gates any way, but the job has risen to the top now:mad:

Can someone tell me how I should go about dealing with the party wall? I understood that I have to have an 'agreement' before I do anything? If this is the case, next complication is that neighbour is a LL who is selling and appears to have accepted an offer.

Oh well, back to dreaming about a little bungalow!!:rotfl: :rotfl:

HugoSP

Work on what you consider to be the party wall may come under the Party Wall Act.

Cannot remember the link but the RICS website will be able to advise. IIRC there are Party Wall and Line of Junction works.

The act stipulates duties and rights on the building owner (you) and the adjoining owner (your neighbour).

However your situation does not appear to be complicated as all you want to do is to repair your garden wall - am I right?

If so, the easiest thing to do IMO is to contact the owner (LL who is selling) and advise him of the situation and clear it with him. If he's in the middle of a sale I doubt he would want to cause a fuss, so he may be happy to just let you get on with it.

stilernin

HugoSP wrote: »

Work on what you consider to be the party wall may come under the Party Wall Act.

Cannot remember the link but the RICS website will be able to advise. IIRC there are Party Wall and Line of Junction works.

The act stipulates duties and rights on the building owner (you) and the adjoining owner (your neighbour).

However your situation does not appear to be complicated as all you want to do is to repair your garden wall - am I right?

If so, the easiest thing to do IMO is to contact the owner (LL who is selling) and advise him of the situation and clear it with him. If he's in the middle of a sale I doubt he would want to cause a fuss, so he may be happy to just let you get on with it.

Yes. this is an outside yard wall, victorian terrace.

Crack was already there, gates were poor and the whole job needed to be done sometime in the future. Now the gates need to be replaced (too far gone to be repaired) I'm sure that a builder will say the wall must be repaired at the same time.

I bought last Dec and do remember asking the solicitor who owned which wall. He said that they tended to be jointly owned. Do you think that this was an off the cuff reply and that I should I check this out now?

HugoSP

stilernin wrote: »

I bought last Dec and do remember asking the solicitor who owned which wall. He said that they tended to be jointly owned. Do you think that this was an off the cuff reply and that I should I check this out now?

There is no definite rule as to who owns it. It all depends who's land it is on and who built it.

For example, if your neighbour did not want a fence/garden wall, and he's perfectly entitled not to have one, and you wanted one, then the only action you could take is to build one on your side of the boundary line.

Therefore no one can say for sure, without further info who owns the wall, and therefore who is responsible for its repair.

There are 3 possible options:

1) It is jointly owned. In which case one of you can't work on it without the consent of the other, and maintenance costs would normally be split.
2) It belongs to him, and he is responsible for maintaining it in a safe condition, or removing it - it's his choice.
3) It belongs to you. As above but you have the responsibility and the decisions to make.

One possible indicator from the ground is to see who's property it is actually attached to, then check the boundary position on the deeds.