Party Wall Act 1996

luke123456

well they have essentially given me 3 options;

1) Accept and they start the works on the 19th
2) Dispute and use their surveyor
3) Dispute and arrange my own

I think I will do as you say and go for option 3 which is safest. I have had so much done to my house and spent so much, if they employed builders who did a crap job then its my issue later on. I think I will explain this to them nicely..

Shal I just call the RICS for local surveyors? or can anyone recommend someone in London who is good?
Thanks so much!!

luke123456

Just spoke to a couple of firms one was being very pushy and took my address but I didn't say I wanted him to act for me.

Another has advised me to fill in the 3rd option and put their firm details and they will write to my neighbour asking for clarification on works and to do a survey before the work begins...

I think I will do that. They have advised me that the neighbour pays of fit all... How much does this roughly cost the neighbour? They are very well off anyway I just feel bad... ;/ But I need to look out for myself right...

DRP

I thought the PW notice had to be delivered a month in advance , rather than a week? (notice received 11/5, proposed start 19/5). If OP disputes, does that mean the neighbour will have to wait til the 10th June to start work?

Please keep us updated - we may soon be delivering notices to our neighbours, so we're interested in how this pans out!

Clive_Woody

luke123456 wrote: »

Just spoke to a couple of firms one was being very pushy and took my address but I didn't say I wanted him to act for me.

Another has advised me to fill in the 3rd option and put their firm details and they will write to my neighbour asking for clarification on works and to do a survey before the work begins...

I think I will do that. They have advised me that the neighbour pays of fit all... How much does this roughly cost the neighbour? They are very well off anyway I just feel bad... ;/ But I need to look out for myself right...

I think you need to ask the firms you spoke to how much they will charge your neighbour for their services. I suspect that there is a very good reason that they do not come right out and tell you this. Ask them to send you a copy of their price list so that you cans share this with your neighbour so that he knows how much extra he needs to cover these costs (a better way of doing it than him suddenly getting random invoices from a company he had no say in choosing and he has no idea of total costs).

Clive_Woody

Here's a thread from a few years ago about VB and their costs.....which no doubt have gone up considerably since then.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2883974

2013yearofthehouse

luke123456 wrote: »

well they have essentially given me 3 options;

1) Accept and they start the works on the 19th
2) Dispute and use their surveyor
3) Dispute and arrange my own

I think I will do as you say and go for option 3 which is safest. I have had so much done to my house and spent so much, if they employed builders who did a crap job then its my issue later on. I think I will explain this to them nicely..

Shal I just call the RICS for local surveyors? or can anyone recommend someone in London who is good?
Thanks so much!!

Use the website I linked to in my last post:
http://www.ricsfirms.com/search/results

luke123456 wrote: »

Just spoke to a couple of firms one was being very pushy and took my address but I didn't say I wanted him to act for me.

Another has advised me to fill in the 3rd option and put their firm details and they will write to my neighbour asking for clarification on works and to do a survey before the work begins...

I think I will do that. They have advised me that the neighbour pays of fit all... How much does this roughly cost the neighbour? They are very well off anyway I just feel bad... ;/ But I need to look out for myself right...

When a friend of mine did it, the surveyor she contacted rang her neighbours and discussed prices with them before anybody agreed to anything, just so it was clear. Her neighbours actually ended up deciding to let the surveyor my friend found act as joint agreed surveyor for both of them as this was cheaper (a flat fee of £900 to draw up the award which included several design changes that had to be requested from the architectural designer, do several site visits and provide a condition report with extensive photographs). Only then when this was decided did my friend dissent - signed the notice and included the joint surveyors name and address. The surveyor sent my friend a letter template for her to sign that then appointed him as her surveyor. Everyone knew upfront then what they were getting into and there were no nasty surprises.

2013yearofthehouse

DRP wrote: »

I thought the PW notice had to be delivered a month in advance , rather than a week? (notice received 11/5, proposed start 19/5). If OP disputes, does that mean the neighbour will have to wait til the 10th June to start work?

Please keep us updated - we may soon be delivering notices to our neighbours, so we're interested in how this pans out!

If you look at the templates near the end of this booklet:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/207310/Party_Wall_etc._Act_1996_-_Explanatory_Booklet.pdf

It basically says that you tell then the date you intend to start on (either 1 or 2 months from the date of the notice depending on which type of work it is) or you say you'd like to start sooner with their written agreement (and give a date).

Then when your neighbours reply, even if they agree to the works, they can still either agree to the earlier date or not.


When my friend dissented, the contacting of the surveyor to the drawing up of the award took about 2 weeks. After that they just informally and verbally agreed that the neighbours could start whenever they wanted.

luke123456

So neighbours have started work, and started scaffolding and demolished rear extension without a party wall agreement being done. They gave us the party structure notice but didn't give us 14 days to return it before starting the works.

I have now told them which surveyor we intend on using, and they couldn't be bothered to give me the correct time or advising me that works will be starting so I won't be caring about how much it will cost them now.

My surveyor has contacted them and asked for their surveyor details and my surveyor has advised them to stop work until an agreement and survey of our house is done. But he can't force them, apparently I need to pay court fees and solicitors to serve an injunction to stop the works!!!! How discouraging!

Basically Im just so worried about my house and the constant drilling and work is shaking the pictures on my wall!!

teneighty

To be fair the erection of scaffolding and demolition of the extension probably do not fall under the Party Wall Act so would not be part of an award.


Only those elements of work under the Act will apply, work on the party wall such as cutting in new steel beam supports, excavations for new foundations and work associated with them etc.


If the neighbour is not cooperating with your surveyor he should do his schedule of condition urgently so that you have proof of any damage caused.