Party Wall Act, Beam coming through loft!

jignog

Hi,
This is my first post here so i thank you all in advance for any advice you can give me. My pensioner mother in law lives in a property owned by a housing association. About a month ago her neighbour mentioned that she was having her loft converted to a bedroom and that my mother in law may need to sign something but was given no further details. The neighbour is a house owner. She stated to my mother in law that planning permission was not needed and it is all routine. The building works is now well under way and the outer frame of the conversion is now built, with ingoing work still happening. The mother in law was not asked any further to sign anything. Anyway, today (21/2/15) we were moving some things into the loft and noticed a steel girder beam protruding about 6 inches into our loft space about half a foot from the loft floor. It looks a right mess as around where the beam protrutes it is packed out with broken brick and all filled in with sloppy cement. There is also a beam at the apex of the loft where they have taken out the original bricks and the beam is sitting on a breeze block and packed out with what looks like small pieces of slate. We now have old mortar that has fallen in all of the boxes storing ornaments and crockery that were inherited from an old family member which were running alongside the wall.
What should she do next? Should she notify the housing association? Speak to the neighbours? I think that she is more upset at the lack of consideration. Im sure the neighbours would not like us making a hole 13 inches wide in the loft wall and pushing a steel beam 6 inches into their property, especially once their building work is complete.
Thanks again for your time.

McKneff

I would definitely be informing the housing association without delay.


I can understand her being upset at the lack of consideration, but please, blame the builders, the householder may have no idea this has happened if the builders have covered it up.

pc1271

What exactly did she sign? Was she giving permission for structural beams to protrude through the party wall?

EssexExile

The way I read it she didn't sign anything. Contact the housing association, I'm sure they'll be interested in someone knocking holes in their building.

jignog

Nothing was actually signed by the mother in law. It was mentioned in passing conversation but no paperwork was ever presented to be signed. That is what surprised her, going into the loft and seeing the end of the beams in all their ugly glory.

I_have_spoken

Should she notify the housing association?

Definitely. As the property owner they may or may not have made a party wall agreement.

Anyway the HA as several options open to them, including seeking an court injunction to halt work and/or make good and recover the costs as a civil debt from neighbour

missile

As your MiL does not own the property she has no right to agree. She should speak with the housing association. They may have agreed without informing your MiL.

macman

The tenant has rights too under the Party Wall Act, the LL cannot agree this work without informing the tenant. And clearly the fitting of an RSJ if done competently should not intrude through the party wall!
I'd contact the LA and query whether building regs approval has been gained for this conversion, as that is most certainly required for such work, even if PP is not.

missile

macman wrote: »

The tenant has rights too under the Party Wall Act, the LL cannot agree this work without informing the tenant. .

Thx, I did not know that.

macman

The PWN must be served on both the owner and the tenants to be valid, unless the tenancy is an STA of less than one year.

jignog

Thanks for all your helpful advise so far.
I took some photos in the loft yesterday and the missus took them around to the neighbour to see. ( I personally would have notified the HA first). The neighbour did genuinly seem shocked and apologetic. The builder himself has now knocked on the door today (totally unapologetic like it was an everyday occurance) and said he could come into our loft and put it right with a saw. He said technically he would not be working on our property by doing this as he was working on the boundary. We said that the Housing Assoc. will be informed but he said he could be in and out to do this simple job without them needing to be notified. Things are all amicable so far. The neighbour asked what housing association are we with so she obviously has not got anything signed by them at this point. Mother in law has not signed anything so how does it stand? Have they broken the law by commencing work with no signatures? So, should we object to him coming in to our loft to put this right and leave it in the hands of the Housing association? He seems pretty desperate to take a look.
I may be wrong and forgive me if i am, but i am picking up a bit of a 'cowboy builder' feel about him.
How would it stand if they re knock out the bricks that the beam entered, and attempt to trim it down to size from their loft space through the hole? Would this be classed as putting it right? Are we contractually obliged do you think to notify the housing? I think the bottom line is this, the mother in law has now been inconvenienced already by this, she wants good relations with the neighbours but she also does not want to alienate herself from the Housing Association.