Party Wall Act - does this fall under it?

[DropZoneOne]

We live in a row of houses that are connected to the next house by a garage. We're house 3 in a row of 6. A few years ago, our neighbour (no 2) converted their garage that connects to no 1 into a useable room. Planning permission wasn't required although building regs were.

Owners of no 4 now want to do the same - the wall of their garage is our living room / dining room wall. They mentioned this to us a couple of weeks ago and we said the wall was a party wall, and we wanted assurances on what exactly they were doing (as owner is doing the work himself rather than get a builder in and has a tendency to do things on the cheap so we are concerned he may cause damage).

We've gone away on holiday and returned today to find tarpaulin over the top of the garage, and can see debris in their back garden. He's obviously started work whilst we were away. They are now away for the weekend so we can't say anything immediately.

I've been looking up the party wall act, and I think they needed to have given us written notice, but as I don't know exactly what they are doing to the wall, I'm not entirely sure. There are new owners in both houses 1 and 2, and neither know the history of the conversion between them.

What can / should I do next? Told DH to check whether our home insurance has free legal advice but instead he's being all PA, so it falls to me to take action.

[cexuwaleozbu]

Contact your buildings insurance people yourself (dh is clearly being pathetic but you need to act quickly)

[OctoberOctober]

Call a couple of surveyors who deal with party wall issues, they are likely to be able to advise you for free over the phone in hope you will use them. Depends what they are doing next door and how structural it is.