My neighbour's are going to build a 4.8 metre extension under the new laws!!

angie12345

They dug out the footings yesterday and I woke up this morning to my fence and concrete posts and part of my patio collapsed. My first conversation with them was about how they thought this was due to the wind!!! Unbelievable. Moral of this story....not everyone is nice and will give you consideration so be ready and know your rights!

Just_Want_to_Live_Life

I was on the other side from this a few years ago. I built an extension and 5m x 4 m conservatory on the back off the house. Before I started designs and planning I went to see each neighbours that border us. The people on 2 of the 3 borders were happy but on the final side were not. His gripe was that if I built the extension and erected a fence he would not be able to get to his conservatory window to clean it, initially I said he would be allowed access to clean it before him later became abusive and threatening, the issue was caused as they had built their conservatory on the boundary line to the mm, their footings had all run down onto our side and we had to be careful when building that these were tidied and removed enough to put our footings in without disturbing the conservatory. I took into account everything said but the neighbour was not appeased. I had planned for footings etc and left 18inches between boundary line and wall, this is also necessary for me to be able to inspect the building and guttering. We are link detached so were party to the third party wall agreement. The neighbours became threatening and aggressive towards workmen and myself, in the end the police became involved and at times provided a presence for the workmen to proceed when access was needed to the boundary to put up new fencing that the neighbour had refused. The fence had to be put up with far edge on the boundary line but the neighbours had to allow the fence to be erected and the workmen access to their land to erect it, but only within a specified small area of the boundary. Any damage that would have been caused (none was) would have been my liability to rectify, which is why the planning stage was so crucial and finding professional trades men important. I was in my opinion, the polices and my other neighbours opinion reasonable throughout. In the end the neighbour got arrested for being abusive towards my family, the police and workmen. A harassment order was then issued against him. In your instance it seems that the neighbour has decided not to do what I did and discuss plans, however, equally be aware of your actions too as no matter how angry you are about it, your personal views will not matter in a court of law if they have followed procedure no matter how morally wrong or unfair you feel it is. Any damage to your property that is due to a direct result of your neighbours building work is their liability to correct unless the law has changed in the past 2 or 3 years. Good luck and I hope a resolution is found.

Gwhiz

DaveTheMus wrote: »

If the roots of the trees and plants have made their way onto your neighbors property then they are within their rights to destroy them to enable the build...

Unless they have TPOs on them

Just_Want_to_Live_Life

Gwhiz wrote: »

Unless they have TPOs on them

or if it will affect the stability or kill the tree/plant

aelitaman

angie12345 wrote: »

They dug out the footings yesterday and I woke up this morning to my fence and concrete posts and part of my patio collapsed. My first conversation with them was about how they thought this was due to the wind!!! Unbelievable. Moral of this story....not everyone is nice and will give you consideration so be ready and know your rights!

Have you investigated the party wall act? It will not stop the work but if the foundations they are putting in are within a certain distance to your foundations then the party wall act will be in force.

If it is it means that they have to employ a consultant to mediate and communicate between you and your neighbour to settle the disputes.

Also if my memory serves me right if the party wall act is in force and they have ignored it then you can get the work stopped until they have complied. Unfortunately if they ignore the act and finish the work then it is no longer applicable.

Worth a quick investigation.

Gwhiz

aelitaman wrote: »

Have you investigated the party wall act? It will not stop the work but if the foundations they are putting in are within a certain distance to your foundations then the party wall act will be in force.

If it is it means that they have to employ a consultant to mediate and communicate between you and your neighbour to settle the disputes.

Also if my memory serves me right if the party wall act is in force and they have ignored it then you can get the work stopped until they have complied. Unfortunately if they ignore the act and finish the work then it is no longer applicable.

Worth a quick investigation.

Absolutely agree. In this case, as it's so close, the PWA must apply.

VictorMeldew

Speaking from experience - get the party wall act in place as soon as possible, before the building goes up. Once the building is up, it is much, much more difficult to do anything about it. If they are building on the boundary line, their gutters will overhang your land which is a trespass - the Party Wall Act addresses things like this. Have a look at gardenlaw.co.uk, it's a really helpful resource but once again - get the Party Wall Act in place ASAP.

Davesnave

The Party Wall Act has been mentioned to the OP on numerous occasions but she has not responded to this, or to any other helpful advice.

She tells others to know their rights, but what does this mean, when it appears that she will not assert her own in the correct way?

Just_Want_to_Live_Life

VictorMeldew wrote: »

Speaking from experience - get the party wall act in place as soon as possible, before the building goes up. Once the building is up, it is much, much more difficult to do anything about it. If they are building on the boundary line, their gutters will overhang your land which is a trespass - the Party Wall Act addresses things like this. Have a look at gardenlaw.co.uk, it's a really helpful resource but once again - get the Party Wall Act in place ASAP.

This depends on the type of house, we live in a link detached house, so each neighbours guttering hangs over the next persons land and building. When we built the extension, any new guttering could be erected hanging over the neighbours land as long as it was inline with our original guttering. As it happens I made adjustments and made our building smaller to allow access for maintenance to the building and guttering. So all over hanging guttering is not necessarily not allowed as in linked detached there is a statement/clause within the deeds. In most cases though (if the house is none link detached) you can't overhang guttering or windowsills which is another issue if building on the boundary line.

ognum

OP you must invoke the Party Wall Act if you don't you are foolish and quite honestly do not deserve to moan on here about your issues.

The PWA is designed to protect you from these issues and you neighbour must comply.

When we built an extension on the rest of a property my neighbours had had problems with a previous neighbour. We paid for and used the PWA successfully, allowed our neighbour access to their extension for remedial work and it worked well.

Please, please use the Party Wall Act!!!!!!