Neighbours extending existing basement, terrace house, no party wall agreement

nkkingston

So we have a little late-Victorian terrace house sandwiched between two student houses (and, honestly, the various students have always been decent neighbours!). One side was recently bought by a new landlord, who's doing some work on it, so there's no one currently living there. A couple of weeks ago a builder came round to let us know they were going to be working in the basement for a few weeks and it would be pretty noisy. This is the first we knew that there was going to be any significant work going on, and the main reason he came around is the neighbours on the other side (also homeowners - the whole street basically alternates between owner-occupied and tenants) let them know we have a baby.

All of the houses along the street have basements in various states of repair which take up roughly half the footprint of the house. Apparently the landlord wants to convert theirs into a bedroom for another tenant, and from what the builder said it sounds like they're digging out under the other half of the house to extend it as well. There's been roughly five skiploads of soil, bricks, concrete (and a lot of internal fittings from other parts of the house) removed so far, so unless the existing basement was chock-full of rubble I'm pretty certain we understood him correctly.

I understand basement work doesn't require planning permission, and in most circumstances basement extensions don't either. We haven't had a party wall agreement from them. We haven't heard from the new landlord at all (not even when the fire alarm went off for 14 hours overnight) and have no contact details for them. I have no idea how deep our foundations go, but I would assume that the basement extension requires underpinning and therefore party wall regs would apply even if they're not going deeper than the foundations (which I suspect are pretty skimpy on what was essentially the posher end of Victorian slum housing). I understand it can't be done retroactively and I suspect it's too late now, but I'm concerned that if this step has been skipped other aspects of digging a massive hole under their house might also have been skipped, and I don't know to what extent that would affect our insurance or our prospects of selling our house one day.

Is there any way of checking if we should have had notice? There's nothing on the council's planning site, but if it doesn't require planning permission there wouldn't be. How do you start a conversation with a builder that's essentially "so, the guy paying you definitely checked this wouldn't make our house fall over first, right?"

canaldumidi

Contact a Party Wall surveyor and explain what's happening. Ask whether a PWA was/is required.

The only action you can take if it IS required is toapply for an injunction tostop the work till a PWA is in place.

As you say, once the work is done (and any associated damage!) it's too late for a PWA

You could also contact Building Control - I'm sure Building Regs apply.

Planning? I'm not sure - one hears of planning disputes over basements so I'm not sure of the rules.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/party-wall-etc-act-1996-guidance

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/5/basements

FreeBear

canaldumidi said: You could also contact Building Control - I'm sure Building Regs apply.

Planning? I'm not sure - one hears of planning disputes over basements so I'm not sure of the rules.

Building regs would most certainly apply, especially if the space is being converted to a habitable area. As for planning, if the cellar is being extended, then PP would be required - Just a conversion (tanking, insulating, etc) wouldn't normally require PP.

First call would be to the local council's planning dept to see if building regs have been applied for. Next call should be to the house insurance company - There is a very real risk of collapse if the cellar is being extended, so the insurers should be taking an interest even if you don't have legal protection.

nkkingston

Ah, boo, I was hoping for a "no, this is perfectly normal, find something else to worry about". Need to see if I can catch one of the builders outside to 'casually' enquire precisely what work is going on (who knows, maybe the basement was always a habitable area and the previous tenants just... used it... to store aggregate...), then check with the council to see if they've applied to do it (because I can completely see the planning website being a bit behind right now).

FreeBear

nkkingston said: Ah, boo, I was hoping for a "no, this is perfectly normal, find something else to worry about".

Any basement work should be something to worry about...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-43038935

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-36502418

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11918347

With a little bit of (excuse the pun) digging, you will find several more botched & collapsed basement conversions in London.

ss2020jd

FreeBear said:

nkkingston said: Ah, boo, I was hoping for a "no, this is perfectly normal, find something else to worry about".

Any basement work should be something to worry about...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-43038935

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-36502418

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11918347

With a little bit of (excuse the pun) digging, you will find several more botched & collapsed basement conversions in London.

I used to read about these in horror (and fear) when I lived in a small Victorian terrace and the digging out became all the rage for a while. Thankfully it was never right next door. 

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.standard.co.uk/news/london/two-houses-collapse-basement-work-chelsea-b43428.html%3famp

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2019/12/03/couple-handed-1000000-bill-botched-basement-conversion-led-house-collapse-11264594/amp/

You are right to be concerned, and it looks like you should have had formal notice under the Party Wall agreement (two months before work started) so you could have your own surveyor or structural engineer to check and protect your home. I just googled quickly the following for an idea, but there is further information out there. It is the neighbouring owner’s responsibility to do this. 

Extract from one of the links below:

If works are continued without a notice being served the person doing the work is breaking the law and you will lose much of the protection that you are entitled to receive under the Party Wall Act.  In this case you should consult, in the first instance, a Party Wall Surveyor. 

https://psbjmagazine.com/features/advisory/4839/neighbouring-building-works-know-your-rights/

https://www.partywall.info/my-neighbour-is-doing-work.html

https://collier-stevens.co.uk/faqs/party-wall-excavation-questions/

I would also make enquiries with the local authority. Start with a call to building control. The builder might be helpful and forthcoming, but always best to check yourself. 

Horror stories of collapsing houses aside, if not done properly it could lead to subsidence or other issues so act swiftly to make sure you’re protected. 

GDB2222

The practical course is to speak to a PWA surveyor today. Take it from there, but an injunction may be necessary. You need to act quickly.

TripleH

It might be worth talking to next-door's other neighbour to see what they know. A possible joint effort to spread the work.

Your neighbour might ensure their house is okay but maybe not the properties either side.

GDB2222

Incidentally, you don’t need an injunction if the neighbour agrees to stop work without one. That saves a shedload of costs for both parties.

dimbo61

How many bedrooms has the student rental property already got ?
3/4 might not need HMO licence but more than that needs a full HMO licence and that involves much more than just an extra bedroom or Two in the basement.
Full tanking out and water pumps if any water leaks into the basement, Fire escape route and light/ventilation.
Article4 ????
Mains wired interlinked smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms, fire doors and escape route, room size for bedrooms and bathrooms, kitchen and living areas.
Get onto planning and HMO licence people with local council as well as building control. 

nkkingston

I'm assuming if we hire a Party Wall Surveyor, they'll want the contact details of next door's owner so they can get permission to inspect? I'm going to try emailing the estate agents to see if they'll pass our details along and we'll see if Mr K on the other side has managed to get hold of them (Mr K was a bit of a thorn in the side of the previous owner when he disapproved of their building work - I definitely want to see if he's had a PWA!) since the alarm incident, and failing that we'll ask the builders, but I'm conscious that neither agents nor builders can legally supply them without the owner's consent, so if anyone knows any other tacks I'm all ears. Previous landlord has already made it very clear it's not his problem.

In terms of HMO regs, it will need to be registered once it moves up to 5+ bed, but because it's likely to be student housing there's not likely to be any tenants until next June, so I'm not too concerned that it isn't on the register yet.

Ideally, we want to keep good relations with the new landlord, so if we do have any issues with tenants they're easy to resolve, and if we sell in a few years we don't have to declare any disputes. We don't have the money to pursue injunctions etc - google suggests hiring a surveyor is going to be £3k-£5k, and I'm potentially facing redundancy in the next six months so we really don't want to be emptying our savings right now (everything says it's the homeowner's responsibility to pay initially, but nowhere says how you might make them pay up if they've not done one originally).