Neighbours existing extension overhangs into my property

corleone8400

Hi all,

I am looking for a bit of advice, hope you can help. I purchased a property and moved in this week.

The property needs modernisation and I am happy with our purchase, however the only thing that I am concerned about which I did not previously notice during our initial viewing is that the next door neighbours kitchen extension overhangs into our boundary by at least 6 inches and is quite noticeable when you see the boundary of the exterior leading onto the roof. This would mean that if we were to extend our kitchen we would now lose 6 inches of space.

Admittedly, I totally missed this during our viewing but I paid for a full building survey prior to our purchase and nothing was mentioned in my report to make me aware of this. My solicitors report states that I am responsible for the left side boundary where the neighbour’s extension overhangs.

From the looks of things the extension has been there at least 6 years and before the current neighbours moved in.

I am yet to speak to my conveyancer but is this something that my surveyor should have spotted and made me aware of, if so where do I stand?

Thanks for any advice.

Doozergirl

It sounds like a party wall. 6 inches is exactly half of a cavity wall. If you ever build an extension then you would build straight off the party wall (I presume the rest of the house is already attached?).

It would actually save you 6 inches of space in the future on a extension as you share one 12 inch wall instead of you each building your own 12 inch wall.

We are building an extension in London in just this way, where it is agreed it will be a party wall.

mishkanorman

My first port of call would be the neighbours, they may well know better than others what happened.

Really it should have been argued with while it was being built, dont focus too much on what inches you have lost more how much expense do you want to go to getting them 'back' ?

societys_child

Not sure of the legal position, but the last time I bought, I seem to remember that the paperwork from my solicitor stated that I must check the boundaries corresponded with the "enclosed plan" and report any discrepancies.

xylophone

You bought "as is" - your neighbours bought "as is".

A bit late to be raising objections?

Auntie-Dolly

How have you identified where the boundary is?

DumbMuscle

Is it just the roof/guttering that overhangs, or does the wall encroach onto the boundary? If the latter, then Doozergirl is correct. Either way, it probably just means a bit of negotiation with the neighbours when you extend, and plans that take into account that their kitchen is adjacent (e.g. having the roofs abut each other, and providing adequate drainage, and sharing a party wall)

corleone8400

That’s correct it is a mid terrace so we share a garden fence which I am responsible for and then the garden fence stops where their extension wall has been built. So basically, as soon as I open my kitchen door their extension wall is to my left and then the garden fence starts from where their extension finishes. Then when we look up at the property from the garden I can see 6 inches of difference between the exterior wall rendering which splits our two properties leading up to the roof in comparison to the extension wall.


Does that mean I shouldn't worry about it and if I were to do an extension in the future just use the joining wall to build of ? Or raise this with my surveyor for not making me aware of it in their survey?

Ozzuk

I've never known a surveyor to be overly concerned with a boundary, unless there was an obvious issue. I think this one is down to you, and easy to miss in the excitement of viewing a house.

Talk to your neighbours if you are indeed actually considering an extension, you could likely use their wall, but you may need to dig more foundations, need a party wall agreement etc.

Doozergirl

corleone8400 wrote: »

That’s correct it is a mid terrace so we share a garden fence which I am responsible for and then the garden fence stops where their extension wall has been built. So basically, as soon as I open my kitchen door their extension wall is to my left and then the garden fence starts from where their extension finishes. Then when we look up at the property from the garden I can see 6 inches of difference between the exterior wall rendering which splits our two properties leading up to the roof in comparison to the extension wall.


Does that mean I shouldn't worry about it and if I were to do an extension in the future just use the joining wall to build of ? Or raise this with my surveyor for not making me aware of it in their survey?

If you think about it, where the rendering changes is the boundary, but you have a wall that divides the two houses and that is shared and inevitably encroaches into your side of that boundary - and theirs. This new wall does too.

The party wall act applies when you decide to build. You serve notice and your neighbour either decides to agree or they ask for a surveyor to agree the award. In all fairness, you would still have to do this if they hadn't built anything, so you're in no worse position.

To my mind, it has been done properly, probably with a PWA in place to enable you both to benefit from one wall. It's the sort of thing that only a party wall surveyor would think about. Everyone else tries to avoid the party wall act.

Perhaps your vendor knows - if they have been there a long time?

corleone8400

Very useful info, thank you all for the advice.