Starting the Party Wall notice and agreement process prior to exchange of contract / completion

flang1

Hello,

We have bought a house (offer accepted) and want to do a rear extension and loft conversion before we move in. Completion is expected in June. The works will take between 3 and 4 months according to our builder and we have to leave our current home in October. This means that we must start the works as soon as we complete in June in order to be able to move in by October. We have two young children and cannot live in the house while the works are still ongoing and we cannot afford more than 4 months of rent + mortgage.

So we really must start the work as soon as we complete, which means we need the party wall notice/agreement process in place before exchange of contracts/completion.
How should we go about this given that we are not the current owner of the new house? We have been given completely opposite advises by Party Wall RICs Surveyors : some say it doesn't matter if we own the house to server the Party Wall notice, others have told us we need to serve the Party Wall notice jointly with the current owner so we still benefit from it after the sale is completed, and others have told us that there is no way we can start the Party Wall process before completion.

We are very worried because we cannot afford to wait for completion to start the Party Wall notice/agreement process as it would delay the start of the works by two months which essentially mean we would not be able to carry the works (cannot afford rent + mortgage for that long and cannot stay in our current house for longer either as our lease will have ended). 

Does anyone have any experience with a situation like this and what would be the way to start the Party wall notice/process before exchange/completion?

Thank you very much.

stevenway

Steve the party wall surveyor here - until you have an actual interest of at least 12 months OR are under a contract to purchase (you've exchanged) you are not an owner for party wall purposes and cannot serve a valid notice.  The existing owners could serve one but it would be pointless as their status as non owners when they have sold will invalidate them and you will need to serve again.  So wait until you have exchanged!  Steve

Doozergirl

Party wall aside.  

Two small children, a finite end date and budget.  

How old is this house?  What kind of contingency do you have if this house throws up surprises because most do.  

Just because you lease ends in October, it does not mean you have to move out unless you yourselves give notice.  Only a tenant or the court can end a tenancy.   I would really use that position to your advantage.  Do not give notice, just in case.  

I've been renovating for 20 years and with my family hat on, the situation on the table was the one you're telling me about, I wouldn't put us through that amount of stress (again). 

With my builder hat, you read like a bit of a nightmare client with a deadline like that on two significant projects on a house that you've not lived in.  

You're also expecting completion on a house at a certain time, when it's so hard for any of us to predict how and when a house sale completes because we have no control over the situation. It's all in the hands of so many other parties.  

The PWA is the least of your worries. 

I would seriously consider waiting a while after you've moved in, or only aiming to complete one of those projects at a time.  For so many reasons.  

The primary one is to avert disaster.  You're giving yourself no leeway and throwing all of that responsibility onto a builder.  If you came to me, I'd turn the project down because even if I did the best I could, there's no one able to provide guarantees and I'd foresee some kind of relationship breakdown because of the time pressures (and the financial one which I suspect your builder isn't perhaps as privy too).  

I hope you don't take this as being rude, it's genuine concern.  I haven't just bought the t-shirt that goes with this story, I printed it.  😬  I've been the client, I've been the builder, I've bought and sold a lot of houses (and only learned that literally nothing is guaranteed so you have to chill out about it), I've put far too much pressure on myself and my family when in hindsight I didn't need to, and we've also had pressure piled on us that we had no control over. 

We'll still fly by the seat of our pants.