Any surveyors, architects, or builders here?

[spendorman]

Any surveyors, architects, or builders here?

My house is a semi-detached, and over the last year the attached neighbour has had extensive work carried out to his house.

This includes a rear and front extension, taking down of the chimney breasts on party wall, new roof with non matching tiles to mine, disturbing my tiles and putting a fiberglass valley under them. Flashing around shared chimney stack disturbed and not replaces as it was.

1) The party wall agreement defines that power tools will not be used for removing chimney breasts. But they have been used extensively. There appears to be no comeback on that, what happens when these agreements are not met. What can I do about it? Is there any penalty for this?

2) It appears that the party wall agreement is not observed, but just used as a tool to allow access to my house. What can be done when the agreement is broken by one party?

On a semi-detached property where the remodelling party uses roof tiles that do not fit in with existing structure, can they just change the water handling design of the other house without any notice?

Many thanks

[Pieoftheday]

I'm no builder but I do know chimney breasts are load bearing so let's hope they took that into account

[spendorman]

Thanks for your reply, I asked the party wall surveyor about that and he said that the council will inspect for that. He's not very helpful, I don't know if the council has inspected.

[Pigmy Pony]

Building Control down at the Council I would have thought. And back up any calls with letters or emails. That thing with the chimney breast sounds all wrong. Actually I would have expected that an inspection would have been carried out, to "sign off" the work.

[spendorman]

Building Control down at the Council I would have thought. And back up any calls with letters or emails. That thing with the chimney breast sounds all wrong. Actually I would have expected that an inspection would have been carried out, to "sign off" the work.

Thanks, I may have to contact the council. My surveyor is not very helpful.

[Lawrence001]

Were you asked to sign the party wall agreement and you said you wanted a party wall surveyor to draw it up, paid for by the neighbours? Usually they'll try and get you to sign one off from the internet but you have the right to ask them to pay for an inspection. The should be done by a party wall surveyor acting neutrally for both parties (IIRC, else it's probably one acting for you) paid for by your neighbours.

If you trust them you usually just go with the simple option which our neighbours did for us.

[spendorman]

Were you asked to sign the party wall agreement and you said you wanted a party wall surveyor to draw it up, paid for by the neighbours? Usually they'll try and get you to sign one off from the internet but you have the right to ask them to pay for an inspection. The should be done by a party wall surveyor acting neutrally for both parties (IIRC, else it's probably one acting for you) paid for by your neighbours.

If you trust them you usually just go with the simple option which our neighbours did for us.

I was asked to sign, the neighbours and their surveyor wanted me to go with them. I contacted an independent PW surveyor, who no seems dismissive of damage done to my property, and tells me I am now out of time to claim, the work next door took about a year to complete and has only just recently finished.

[Edward]

Recommend you find another surveyor experienced in party wall matters and ask them to recommend a course of action you can take. I can't see how the independent surveyor you asked says you are now out of time considering the works have only recently been completed.

There does seem to be quite a lot happening judging from your posts Alex. On the one hand a neighbour that shares a party wall is allowed to do things to their property so long as it does not negatively impact you. So using different tiles is not, so far as I'm aware, ordinarily something you can object to. But of course if they do something that negatively affects you (such as water run off) you have grounds for remedy. A surveyor can judge things and make a recommendation.

Also, so far as I'm aware, the council building control inspector can't adjudicate on party wall matters, all they will do is judge if the works done meet regulatory spec (safety, thermals etc). Did the neighbour get a completion certificate? You can look it up on the council portal.

Removal of chimney breasts normally require a structural engineer report to be submitted to building control before removal as breasts are often support structures.

[spendorman]

Recommend you find another surveyor experienced in party wall matters and ask them to recommend a course of action you can take. I can't see how the independent surveyor you asked says you are now out of time considering the works have only recently been completed.

There does seem to be quite a lot happening judging from your posts Alex. On the one hand a neighbour that shares a party wall is allowed to do things to their property so long as it does not negatively impact you. So using different tiles is not, so far as I'm aware, ordinarily something you can object to. But of course if they do something that negatively affects you (such as water run off) you have grounds for remedy. A surveyor can judge things and make a recommendation.

Also, so far as I'm aware, the council building control inspector can't adjudicate on party wall matters, all they will do is judge if the works done meet regulatory spec (safety, thermals etc). Did the neighbour get a completion certificate? You can look it up on the council portal.

Removal of chimney breasts normally require a structural engineer report to be submitted to building control before removal as breasts are often support structures.

Thank you, quite a lot of useful info here.

The bit about the new roof tiles next door, they do not interlock with my tiles so mine have been lifted and a fibreglass valley fitted. This was without my knowledge or authority. This changes the water handling of my roof and I don't think was mentioned in the party wall agreement.

[hifinutt]

so we had years of horrendous building work next door when they actually knocked down the side of our house at one point . i have about a foot high in papers . We actually obtained the land registry details to find out any covenants on what they can and cannot do . we had a brilliant party wall surveyor [ we had one each] . it is tricky if they dont conform becuse court action is incredibly expensive

Your buildings insurance will probably have legal cover and any damage will meet with solicitor action . its worth ring them if you have not done already . You can pay for your own RICS survey in support of this . we spent 5k on surveyors and solicitors . they wanted to open their windows over our property which would make and extension for us hard . Cost a bomb as not covered under insurance but worth it

you can also ask the RICs mediation service

https://www.rics.org/uk/products/dispute-resolution-service/