Replacing coping stones - party wall agreement??

hatt55

I live in a Victorian mid terrace and have a minor leak from the roof around the back chimney stack. I've gone through getting 3 quotes and although there is a range of prices, 2 of the quotes include replacement of coping stones and insertion of a DPC beneath. I should really get on with fixing it but I like to do things by the book and one of the things that keeps putting me off is understanding whether I need a party wall agreement for the work. I've read the relevant information and I still don't understand whether one if required in this case.



The rest of the work includes things like removing and replacing the beam next to the wall, redoing the lead work around the chimney and re-rendering. Those things seem like they might involve minor work to the wall i.e. attaching a beam. But my understanding is that minor work that doesn't impact the structure is allowed. The guidance seems to say that you should get party wall agreement for a DPC, but I think this kind of DPC just sits on top of the wall - it isn't like an injected DPC that goes into the wall.


I absolutely intend to speak the neighbour about it beforehand and was not planning to ask them to contribute to the cost of coping stones even though, presumably, they are going to benefit too. Part of me would prefer to go belt and braces and just serve a party wall notice anyway with the best case being that they're fine with it and all goes ahead as planned. However, we had an issue a few years ago due to a shared water supply pipe - the water company tried to get in contact with them and I think it was just ignored. My worry is that he could ignore a notice that I send to him (not because they have a problem with the work, but just based on previous experience) and then there are all sorts of cost implications when it may not actually be necessary to have issued a notice in the first place.


So, does anyone have experience of what's required for what I would assume is fairly standard roof work on a mid terrace? It strikes me that surely there's a lot of similar roof work going on like this without the associated paperwork (although I acknowledge that that doesn't necessarily make it right!).