Party Wall Act - Extortionate fees and ruins relations with neighbours

AskAsk

mug2007 said:

Yes we paid 2k per surveyor.  In fact the appointed surveyor charged slightly more 2300 v 2100 for our surveyor.  Guess that is because we got a few quotes before choosing our surveyor so they needed to be competitive, where as the appointed surveyor is required to charge a reasonable fee.  Pretty sure they did far less work than our surveyor as our surveyor sent out the notices and carried out the record of condition.

our surveyor wrote a whole book on the condition of the property.  they took photos of all the walls and ceilings.  they also came out during the work to check on the progress and that the work had been done as agreed and then again when the work had been completed.  so they did a significant amount of work.

mug2007

I was happy paying for the record of condition, the surveyor visited before the works started and will visit after the building works have completed.  Seemed a little bit pricey as it cost us nearly £1000 but they did go to both neighbours properties.  Sadly it didn’t include the neighbours roof where the scaffold went, so the only area with any real likelihood of damage was not photographed. 

mug2007

In our case, the adjoining owner appointed surveyor just checked the record of condition that our surveyor produced.  Not sure of the value of that, but I paid for that also.

SuzieSue

I doubt it makes any difference whether you serve notice or not.  As soon as the my neighbour's plans became public, I got several letters from surveyors advising me of my rights.  I'm not going to appoint my own surveyor as our houses are detached and the extension is a few feet away from our boundary.

mug2007

Good decision.  I am glad you are not persuaded by surveyors trying to get your neighbours money.  It is more important to keep a good relationship with your neighbour and not waste their money.  I am sure they will be grateful, be more considerate and keep you posted as a result.  

SuzieSue

mug2007 said:

Good decision.  I am glad you are not persuaded by surveyors trying to get your neighbours money.  It is more important to keep a good relationship with your neighbour and not waste their money.  I am sure they will be grateful, be more considerate and keep you posted as a result.  

Yes, if I didn't like and trust them then I would have appointed a surveyor.  They have been very friendly and considerate since they moved in.

mug2007

Yes I think when both neighbours dissented and appointed their own surveyor it was upsetting as it felt like they didn't trust us.  We no longer trusted them, they had broken a prior agreement.  One neighbour convinced the other to change their minds and sent an email 30 minutes apart informing us.  I was in floods of tears.  I was glad to move out our house a couple of weeks later for the building work to start.  It took 11 weeks from appointing our surveyor for the agreement to come through, the build started later and the neighbours now have to endure a longer build as a result as we are now hitting the bad weather.  The neighbour who convinced the other one has since apologised but it is hard to forgive the way they went about things and I have a £3000 hole in my bank account.  We are a detached house so I am not sure they even noticed the day or two that the work was done relating to the party wall agreement.

TELLIT01

mug2007 said:

Yes I think when both neighbours dissented and appointed their own surveyor it was upsetting as it felt like they didn't trust us.  We no longer trusted them, they had broken the a prior agreement.

I wouldn't see it as not trusting you, rather not wanting to trust a third party who was being paid by you.  In their minds somebody paid by you is more likely to take your side in the event of any issues.

mug2007

Yes I think they said that as well.  They get a surveyor acting for them, the adjoining owner.  Paid for by me.

mug2007

Thank you all for your contributions. I hope some people about to embark on the party wall act find it useful.  On a positive note, we have been overall pretty cost efficient, moving out ourselves without a removal company, using every square inch of our self store space, moving into the parents during the works rather than renting somewhere, doing some demolition ourselves and finishing wc/ensuites ourselves.  Good luck to everyone, hoping you have a better party wall experience than us!