Party wall act - front garden wall?

TheCyclingProgrammer

I'm in the process of getting some quotes to demolish the deteriorating brick wall at the front of our house and having a new one built in its place. The new wall will be almost identical to the existing one, with end piers and one intermediate pier.

The left end pier (as you face the house) is entirely on my side of the boundary with our neighbours. The right pier is entirely on my property, with a driveway to the right of it, and then a standalone pier on the other side of the driveway (again fully on our property), next to our neighbours on the other side (we're attached to the neighbours on the left as you face the house but separated from those on the right by a driveway that goes down the side of our house).

As well as demolishing the old wall and rebuilding, the standalone pier will also be demolished and re-built.

Whilst the wall is on the front boundary, I guess technically the left end pier and standalone pier abut our neighbours' boundaries and I'm unsure if this falls under the party wall act and if so, if its strictly necessary to serve a notice if all that is needed is an informal chat.

We are on friendly terms with our neighbours on the left and am sure we'll just need to politely inform them of our plans. Our other neighbour is a church hall and I've never spoken to anyone there but do intend to speak to them. Neither end pier adjoins any kind of structural part of their buildings - one is next to our neighbours hedge and the other is next to the church's own driveway.

I hope I've explained that properly - what's the best approach here? A polite chat and if they're happy just go ahead?

cyclonebri1

TheCyclingProgrammer wrote: »

Whilst the wall is on the front boundary, I guess technically the left end pier and standalone pier abut our neighbours' boundaries and I'm unsure if this falls under the party wall act and if so, if its strictly necessary to serve a notice if all that is needed is an informal chat.


I hope I've explained that properly - what's the best approach here? A polite chat and if they're happy just go ahead?

There's no reason for anything other than the chat if you are on good terms with the next doors, why run the chance of added expense from ambulance chasing so called solicitors.


If you are replacing footings then they will probably need to extend "under" the boundary so just make sure they are ok with that.


I did a 30 yard section of stone walling between my own and my neighbours on that basis.
Last year we did a similar job to yours at the front, my neighbour to the other side hadn't heard of the PWA and simply said "just don't knock mi wall down" along with "can you do mine as well?"

TheCyclingProgrammer

Thanks for the reply. Existing footings are being re-used so shouldn't be an issue there. Will have a chat with both neighbours and go from there.