Fence on a party wall

JuliaMary_2

Hello 
Advice appreciated please.
We live in a semi-detached house.  Our patio adjoins with next door and there is a waist-height party wall from when house was orignally built in 1940s and, until yesterday, a fence on the neighbours side which afforded us both privacy when on respective patios etc.
Neighbour will be new - they brought the property almost 3 years ago but have not yet moved in. They had put in plans to local council for quite extensive work but it's always a case 'work wil be starting soon' (it never does) and the house is becoming a bit of an eyesore.
Out of the blue new neighbour turned up on weekend and for a few hours was pottering in the garden.  Although there is lots of debris in the garden itself for some reason he decided to tear down the party wall fence on his side.  This meant he was immediately staring in on me, family, kids etc etc on patio - given we had family over for Easter this was very awkward especially as he kept staring in; making comments etc. I'm all for being polite/friendly with neighbours but I don't just foist myself on an event in their backyard without warning. 
He's said he will replace but I have a number of concerns:
i) that could take forever at the rate he works and based on his previous assurances and given he took fence down without warning am not convinced what he's got planned to replace it with
ii) we have no privacy in the interim from him, or builders (if they ever start) or anyone else he invites over
iii) will he use it as an excuse to build on party wall with his plans (he wants to extend back of house onto existing patio
It seems such an odd thing to focus on tearing down the party wall fence panels (2 in total - and only those on patio) when there is so much else to be going on with - literally debris everywhere else he could have focused on clearing up.
I'm thinking of getting a fencing company to put some panels up our side (attached to our side of party wall) for the privacy but am worried he may then think he can build his extension on the party wall which will then be behind the fence (if that makes sense).  Given he doesn't give any warning/discussion about what he's about to do I don't want to come home one evening and find the extension he's buidling is on top of the party wall. 
I also thought of putting a smaller fence ontop of the party wall itself but given I think it's a shared boundary woudl need his permission and given his current behaviour - and lack of contact (he's never there) am not sure if that's legal.
I would discuss all this with him but he's now gone off again to wherever he lives and I've no idea if I'll see him again before any other work starts. 
Grateful for all/any advice please.
Many thanks. 

ThisIsWeird

"I have a number of concerns:

i) that could take forever at the rate he works and based on his previous assurances and given he took fence down without warning am not convinced what he's got planned to replace it with. He can take as long as he wants - even forever. This fence seems to have been his - it was on his side of the boundary wall - so he can do with it what he likes. Including not replacing it at all.

ii) we have no privacy in the interim from him, or builders (if they ever start) or anyone else he invites over. That's your problem to sort out, not his.

iii) will he use it as an excuse to build on party wall with his plans (he wants to extend back of house onto existing patio. No 'excuse' needed - he can build where Planning allows, and the presence, or not, of a couple of fence panels will make not a jot of difference.

iv) I'm thinking of getting a fencing company to put some panels up our side (attached to our side of party wall) for the privacy but am worried he may then think he can build his extension on the party wall which will then be behind the fence (if that makes sense).  Given he doesn't give any warning/discussion about what he's about to do I don't want to come home one evening and find the extension he's building is on top of the party wall. To sort the privacy issue, having a fence put up on your side is, indeed, the obvious answer. That will not affect whatever rights he may, or may not, have for building up to, and on, the party wall. If he's going to build an extension that gets within Xmetres of your property, then he should offer a PWA agreement to you. Watch out for him trying to build without that - stick your postcode into your LA's Planning Portal, and keep an eye out for a Building Regs approval, or request for PP. Any sign of a build starting without this, let him know you insist on you having a PWA surveyor - that he pays for.

What sort of 'comments' was he making whilst doing this? Did you engage with him (in a neighbourly way), and what was his response?

If you haven't already got Legal Protection included in your house insurance, add it now - before this starts.

JuliaMary_2

Thanks - I did engage with him but as we had invited family over I didn't want to get into a discussion as it was also a birthday do for one of the little ones.  It was a relatively friendly brief conversation but just felt very odd to have someone suddenly staring in on a family do without warning.  I was bit busy to discuss planning/building at that time.

He has already had planning permission agreed by the council and I've seen the plans online.  I'll double-check those to confirm there's no impact on the party wall and what's been agreed and maybe call council tomorrow to double-check. 

I'll also check I've got legal protection in the house insurance - would that cover the party wall if he does do anything on that side or do you mean any other issues generally from neighbors building work? 

JuliaMary_2

BTW - we've never had a PWA from him.  If the council has issued planning permission does he still need to supply that? 

MikeJXE

What reasons would you think he has for taking down the fence other than 

The builder is starting work after this holiday ? 

eddddy

JuliaMary_2 said:

He has already had planning permission agreed by the council and I've seen the plans online.  I'll double-check those to confirm there's no impact on the party wall and what's been agreed and maybe call council tomorrow to double-check. 

I'm not sure that the council will comment on party wall issues. It's not a planning matter.

You might feel you want to appoint a party wall surveyor. Here's some general info: https://www.gov.uk/party-walls-building-works

I guess you could call some party wall surveyors and explain the situation, and get their initial thoughts on whether you need a surveyor and party wall agreement.


Just one clarification - you mention the neighbour potentially building an extension on the party wall. I'm not sure if you mean that literally, but a garden wall wouldn't take the weight of a building.

If the neighbour wants to build up to the boundary, they would have to demolish the garden wall and dig much deeper foundations.



Edit to add....

JuliaMary_2 said:

BTW - we've never had a PWA from him.  If the council has issued planning permission does he still need to supply that? 

Planning permission and party wall agreements are completely unrelated.

Having planning permission makes no difference to the need for a party wall agreement.

macman

Unfortunately the PW Act is a toothless tiger. If your neighbour declines to serve a PWN when the works requires it,  and starts to build, then your only option is to go to court and get an injunction against him. There is no other sanction available.
As stated above, nothing to do with PP at all. 

sevenhills

If he has put plans to the council, you will have seen them and know what's happening?

ThisIsWeird

JM2, download the plans from the Planning site, and post them - anonymised - on here. (They don't need to be without 'ID', but it's just more thoughtful to not post stuff that could ID a 3rd party). Hopefully someone on here can determine whether it qualifies for a PWA surveyor being employed to look after your interests. If it does warrant a surveyor being instructed, then he'd be foolish to not inform you. Look up info on this - I understand it should be done a certain time before the work starts, etc.

Whilst I can understand the 'toothless tiger' comment from reading some other threads on here and elsewhere, (and I've had no personal experience of PWA myself), I think that may do it a disservice. You need to do your own research on this, but a PWA surveyor should be able to look after your interests if, for example, the new wall is encroaching on your boundary, or new founds could be causing damage, etc etc. Yes, you could do all this yourself - intervening and threatening legal action - but do you really fancy that?! They should also be able to agree where the 'exact' boundary line is before the work begins - you don't want that discussion after the digger moves in...*

So, find out if you can have a PWAS - at no cost to you - and insist on one, by a recordable means.

Legal Protection is different. Imo, this is something every one of us should have in their policies (home and motoring) as a default feature. LP will give legal advice and guidance, and will also defend and take on cases for you if they qualify (which roughly means if you have a greater than 50% chance of winning). So, if, for example, you didn't qualify for a PWAS and discovered this extension was encroaching on your land, they will give you the correct guidance on how to insist they stop. And take action against them if they didn't. Add it now if you don't have it - it shouldn't be too late, as the potential incidents have yet to occur:-)

* Your house is a semi, so the 'exact' boundary line should be pretty easy to determine - it's the mid line between where one house becomes the other. Determine this, and see where it falls on that low garden wall - is it mid way, or is it down the neighb's side of that wall (ie could all of that wall be sitting on your land?), or even down your side - in which case it isn't your wall.

PWAS are also useful for informing you on issues that aren't as 'important' as you may otherwise have thought, or things you cannot do anything about. For instance, if you - or a future owner of your house - think you may wish to extend out that way as well, then the plans may show - and the PWA surveyor may suggest - that their new party wall touches or even 'straddles' the actual boundary. This is often sensible advice, as it means that your new extension would have the included 'right' to build to and onto that wall and include it - much better than having a tiny, possibly inaccessible, maintenance gap. (Not if your houses are currently detached, tho'!)