Neighbour's building against my house wall?

AlisonTM

I live in a mid terrace where the front walls are staggered, meaning mine is 3' further out than my neighbours. There is therefore this area of my house wall & roof  protruding alongside their front door. They have informed me they want to build a porch to end flush with my front house wall.
My worry with this is that as it will be built against my house wall it will prevent access to this side wall for any repair or maintenance work. e.g. pointing, repairing the rendering etc. They consider as it's a terrace, the building wall is jointly owned, but I am sure I am the legal owner & responsible for maintaining this section of property wall. Can they legally build the porch against my property? 

stator

Do they intend on using the wall for load bearing support? eg putting a roof on it?

You can't stop them building self supporting walls against your wall, but if they want to use the wall as a support for something else, you really should come to an agreement.

Do the deeds mention this wall at all?

DevilDamo

What is the actual legal status of that wall as in who does it belong to? A neighbour cannot build a structure that is attached to your wall without first seeking your permission. From a Planning point of view, they would need to serve notice on you, unless the porch is being built via PD. You may also have rights under the Party Wall Act.

Petriix

They would definitely need a party wall agreement and, if it does belong to you, you could potentially make them pay for part of the original cost of building the wall. However, it's not clear cut if the wall is obviously an extension of the main party wall between the houses.

In any case the main issue is that you don't want the wall to be damaged. Rather than being defensive about it I would just get them to sign an agreement that they will take responsibility for repairing any damage caused by their building work. Other than that, I don't see why you would mind.

TELLIT01

Petriix said:

In any case the main issue is that you don't want the wall to be damaged. Rather than being defensive about it I would just get them to sign an agreement that they will take responsibility for repairing any damage caused by their building work. Other than that, I don't see why you would mind.

My main concern would be damp with them potentially bridging the DPC, or simply from poor construction.

Doozergirl

TELLIT01 said:

Petriix said:

In any case the main issue is that you don't want the wall to be damaged. Rather than being defensive about it I would just get them to sign an agreement that they will take responsibility for repairing any damage caused by their building work. Other than that, I don't see why you would mind.

My main concern would be damp with them potentially bridging the DPC, or simply from poor construction.

That's what party wall agreements are for. 

If you live in a terrace then it is highly likely that it is a party wall or structure and not solely yours.  

unforeseen

 They consider as it's a terrace, the building wall is jointly owned

I understand their reasoning. The internal portion is going to be joint so it seems strange that the last 3ft aren't. Logic says 'jointery' is for the whole length. The same would apply at the rear for the equivalent stagger. 

AlisonTM

Thanks for comments. So if it's a party wall all of it is jointly owned? So I should be asking for 50% of re-pointing & maintaining rendering costs? That is my concern - with a porch there scaffolding would be required to reach the guttering, paint tge rendering etc. increasing difficulty & costs. The current rendering & guttering is a continuation of what's on the front of my house. 

AlisonTM

NB, they are flush at the rear, so no contention there  

Newuser1987

It depends where the boundary line sits as to whether this is a party wall issue. The below diagram helps explain the two possible scenarios. If the first diagram then they have rights under the party wall act to make use of that wall. If the second diagram then you can categorically so no to them using that wall and they have no rights under the party wall act. 

The problem you have is you may need a boundary surveyor to establish where the boundary lies. 
https://thasurveyors.com/wpimages/wpcd36c95a_06.png

unforeseen

 So I should be asking for 50% of re-pointing & maintaining rendering 

Nope. You should be discussing maintenance work. If you unilaterally decide to get some work done then you pay.