Building Work - Party Wall Act Advice Needed

DRP

esmerelda98 wrote: »

I read somewhere on t'internet that one (important) court case took the view that if you don't serve a party wall notice and the neighbour later alleges damage to their property, it is down to you to prove that your building works didn't cause the damage. Normally it would be the other way around. Something like that anyway. So the Party Wall Act is not entirely redundant once your building works have started.

i've heard that too.

in the OP's case, no damage apparently caused - therefore the important part of the 'not retrospective' thing is that once the build is complete (or even started?) no surveyor can be appointed at Op's (open-ended) cost...

srm1

I think the court case referred to is Roadrunner Properties Ltd v John Dean.

Hopefully no damage is involved otherwise this is where things can become very costly.

shebangsthedrums

No damage was caused and we have pics of the building work with the gap, and then her patio all looking fine. I've declined the invitation to pay for anything the surveyor asked for, and let them know we have already made attempts to put something in the gap and don't agree to starting a dispute (turns out a dispute CAN be started if both parties formally agree to it).
However, since we last went round to try to put some pebbles in the gap, neighbour has removed some patio slabs and I have a sinking feeling she will be trying to say this is our fault even though we were all stood on them a few weeks back and they were fine.
We've already offered for a landscape gardener to give a quote on a fence so will ask him to quote to relay these slabs too (the rest of her patio is just slabs on soil so it shouldn't be a big job).
I'm thinking offering over and above what's necessary would either appease her a bit, or go in our favour if she decided to get solicitors involved.

cddc

I had a neighbours party wall surveyor take me to small claims court to try and claim fees when no award had been made.

Once the judge had stopped laughing he threw the claim out.