Extension wall not straight

BB.

We are having a 2 meter single storey extension build from blocks to our Victorian semi detached house. The walls are up and the roof is on and we just realised that the external wall built from single block (not cavity, to marry up with the existing 1 m extension shared with the neighbour) is not straight. It deviates 6 cm off course, towards my neighbour’s garden. We have party wall agreement with them to build on the boundary. 

Please can you advise what is the best solution here? We are not keen to have our wall demolished and rebuild but don’t want problems with the neighbour further down the line once builders have left...
We only just noticed it and meeting the builder about it tomorrow. We presume that the existing 1 m wall was not straight and builders had to follow its course. Does it make sense? 

Please advise as this is a real worry for us. Don’t want to inconvenience the neighbour and annoyed with the builders that they didn’t tell us about it.
Thank you! 

FaceHead

Discuss with neighbour.  

Show them the issue proactively, and have an open discussion about what can be done. You've basically robbed (accidentally) 0.06 square metres of garden off them. Knocking it down and rebuilding is disproportionate to such a small encroachment, as the value of that bit of land will be much less. Hopefully you can agree that a case of wine will be sufficient to smooth it over. 

 

Grenage

Have your neighbours noticed?

stuart45

When you say the wall is not straight, do you mean it's been built out of square in relation to the boundary line , and only part of it goes over into next door?

BB.

Thanks All.

BB.

stuart45 said:

When you say the wall is not straight, do you mean it's been built out of square in relation to the boundary line , and only part of it goes over into next door?

Yes. To follow the course of the existing 1 m extension. The whole wall sits on the boundary but because of this, it sits slightly more on their land than ours. We are not gaining anything because we have to have a partition wall on the inside to hold insulation boards and square the space off. 

Thanks 

Rosa_Damascena

Grenage said:

Have your neighbours noticed?

This is not the answer. I have recently found that my plot has been robbed of a bit of space and there is FA I can to about it. The issue for me is logistic, its proving a problem to rearrange my kitchen units around someone's historic selfishness.

Grenage

Well the wall is built, so it really is the answer if nobody is kicking up a fuss.

rach_k

6cm is tiny!  What did the builder say?  Have the neighbours said anything?

I live in a Victorian house and I swear there is not a single right angle in the place so it could be that you're squaring up to something but the builders used something else.  If I want our house to look 'right', I have to look at the right walls!

If your neighbour hasn't noticed or been bothered enough to ask you about it, I'd just talk to them honestly and offer them something if they seem to mind in any way.  Do you think they might ever want to use the wall themselves?  If it's a party wall and they build off it in future, they're supposed to pay you half the cost of building the wall, but you could say you won't ask for money.  Or ask them if there's anything they'd like adding to the wall on their side - hanging basket brackets, washing line hooks, something like that, then send your builder round to do it for free.  I'd be happy with either option, as a neighbour.