Buying a house, both neighbours have extensions that cross the party wall

Bark01

Survey came back today and the surveyor said both neighbours have extension that come an inch or so over the party wall and this will make the house difficult to sell in the future. 

What should I be doing here, I haven't instructed my solicitor to start on anything yet. Should I let them get on with it or contact the seller and ask for any party wall agreements. Or are those moot as the party wall agreement doesn't transfer with ownership?

Having spoken to my Soliciters they have said it gneraly not an issue they will get  the seller to put a party wall indemnity policy in place on completion which can cover you should anyone wish to enforce legal action.

bryanb

Find another house to buy

chanz4

an inch lol

[Deleted User]

It's a legal issue, and could escalate in future. It could be sorted out, but the neighbours are unlikely to be inclined to help much.

Walk away and find somewhere else.

Richard1212

If the garden was the same size as it is now regardless of the knowledge you now have of having "lost" one or two inches to neighbours, would it make the slightest difference to your decision to buy ? Of course it wouldn't ! So why bother. Go ahead and buy the house if it's the one you want. Surveyors are useful but if every on of their customers followed every tiny aspect of their reports, no houses would ever get sold !  It is a daft thing to say that no-one will buy your house when you come to sell it-----over an inch or two of garden that has no meaning ???? Really ??

FreeBear

Party Wall Agreements are only of use during construction. One the building work is complete, any PWA becomes void & worthless.

If these extensions are now party walls on both sides, you would be able to use them (subject to a PWA) to extend yourself. This would save on having to dig foundations & build walls on two sides.

Jonboy_1984

Doing as @FreeBear says would mean any extension you later make would be the maximum possible size and avoid any tiny gaps between the properties that cannot be kept clean or repaired.

it wouldn’t bother me.

Bigphil1474

OP, if you buy it knowing it has lost an inch, why wouldn't anyone else? 

silvercar

People do get wound up by small things. Previous house the neighbours had window sills at the side of their property that protuded into our airspace by an inch or two, similarly our satellite dish had a small sector that went into their airspace. Neither of us cared.

In your case, the advantage of a wall you could build from surely outweighs their building on the party wall. If they hadn't have done so, you still would have had the wall there but without their extension linked to it - so what difference does it make?

littleteapot

silvercar said:

People do get wound up by small things. Previous house the neighbours had window sills at the side of their property that protuded into our airspace by an inch or two, similarly our satellite dish had a small sector that went into their airspace. Neither of us cared.

In your case, the advantage of a wall you could build from surely outweighs their building on the party wall. If they hadn't have done so, you still would have had the wall there but without their extension linked to it - so what difference does it make?

I totally agree with your statement, and the OP doesn't need to reject the property just because of this percieved 'issue'.

Unfortunately surveyors and solicitors justify their existence (and to some extent protect themselves) by highlighting and making a fuss about things that are not really an issue and may actually be beneficial to a buyer who wants to extend their neighbouring property in future. This hysteria puts off many buyers who don't fully understand what they read in the survey report and as a result can reduce the sale price of properties which are 'affected' by these apparent, but trivial, incursions into the boundary.

ThisIsWeird

In the OP's, and LittleTeapot's similar-but-polar cases, are the straddling neighbours obliged to allow them to be used as 'party' walls?
On 'semi' and terrace plots, it makes total sense for these extension wall to also be 'party', so the first one to build their extension's outer skin should be allowed to do so straddling the boundary line. The late-comer adds their inner skin to this. Triple-wall! Great! Almost certainly better than the house's.
But, how do you oblige this to happen? Are there 'rights'. If a neighb refuses - "Don't touch my wall or roof!", can they prevent you?