Property advice. and I'm sure this is just wrong on every level

[Ant69]

I will do my best on this so if I have missed anything please ask.
my partner called me at work regarding our next door neighbour. now we live in an end terreced and his property is seperted from ours by his drive. at the bottom of his drive he had his kitchen extended which joind ours this was done before either of us had bought either property.

Anyway on my return home I find my partner very distrest and who is still coming to terms with cancer to find that my neighbours builder had extened his kitchen up by at leaset 6 foot and cut into my building with a cutting disk (right up the side elevation) and attached flashing to by building and without a doubt drilled holes to secure the extened roof.

Now can someone give advice on this, is this allowed can neighbours just come along and cut into your property without even coming and talking to you first? can neighbours just come along and drill and attach things to your property such as flashing and extenions?

I have spoken with him but lets just say he isnt very nice.

Has anyone been through anything like this and could you give me any advice if you have.

Thank you in advance x

No they can't - you have every right to remove anything that is attached to your property and demand he makes good any damage done. The deeds of your houses should show exactly where the boundary is between your two properties and he can't put anything over the boundary.

i'm pretty confident what he's done is illegal.

You need to contact the Citizens Advice and get some legal advice and guidance. This guy sounds nasty, don't let him intimidate you.

they are almost certain to require planning for something this close to your house. do they have it?

I do not think so, no. You need proper advice. Try your local Citizens Advice Bureau as a first port of call for where you can go next.

Check your home or contents insurance to see if they provide cover for legal expenses if you need it.

No. What they are allowed to do depends largely whether it is a 'party wall' or not.But in any event they need to serve notice under the party wall act 30 days before they do any work and you can object during this period.Ring your building control officer at the council tomorrow and tell them what is happening and they will serve a stop notice on the build.Then get yourself to Citizens Advice.

They need to have a party wall agreement. You can appoint someone, and they need to pay for it, i think..

www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/ should give you the information you need. It also has forms you can download to help you with the party wall act. Take lots of photos now before they do any more work.

You could phone your local planning office....he'd probably need planning permission and almost certainly hasn't got it.

No he can't just attach his structure to your wall. It's illegal to do so without consent. Get some legal advice.

Actually...what Ariadne1 and Samsgoldilocks said.

you would also be better posting this in legal or in property. good luck.

Take photos asap of it from every angle ASAP

I don't think it is clear cut so I think you need some advice from either CAB or your local planning department.

They should have served you notice with a party wall agreement, although they are allowed to do certain things to a party wall whether you 'consent' or not.

thank you for all the advice.. I thought it was illegal on what he had done.
First, No he hasnt got planning for building this extened roof.
Second, the job has already been done :( everything was fine when I left in the morning and by the time I got home at tea time the job was compleat
His building (kitchen had growen by 6 foot and my house had been cut right along the side....

It almost certainly needed a party wall award, possibly planning approval and in all likelihood building regulation approval.

Chances are if they have put anything into your wall that it is trespass as well.

As others have said, speak to CAB. You should also speak to building regulation officer at council too - who will possibly come round and inspect.

Are you in England (party wall not applicable in Scotland) ? If so under the terms of the party wall act you would most likely have to be notified. In addition, planning approval would most likely be required, part of that process notifies neighbours & gives them time to raise any objections to the proposed development. In addition to that a building warrant would most certainly be required, which you wouldn't be notified of but it is a requirement.
You should notify both your local planning authority & building control office that the work has taken place & explain to them you believe it's unauthorised. They have the authority to have it taken down if it doesn't fulfil the necessary criteria.

All of that said, it sounds like there are wider issues in that the fabric of your building has been tampered with (& maybe structure? Depends how deep the cut is) & for these issues you need some legal advice. You probably want to ensure the works aren't going allow water into your property or have affected it structurally or adversely affect the 'sellability'

Best of luck, hope you get it sorted.

Thanks for the advice Heart. yes I am in England (Yorkshire)
It's not a party wall the wall to the rear of my property is owned by me also all the flashing and the main cutting and fixings has taken place on my side elevation which is without any question is my house. I have checked my deeds and the only reference to the side elevation is that they must allow access to there land to do any maintinace work to my property (yes I would inform them first and have done in the past when I had roof work done)

Ok, sounds like a legal issue then. That said I'd still contact planning & building control & report them, they tend to get hacked off with unauthorised development but if it is in accordance with standards they may grant your neighbour retrospective planning & warrant approval. They probably won't be interested in a neighbour dispute but may be sympathetic & give your neighbour a hard time if they haven't applied for permissions they're more likely to be fairly rigid with compliance issues.

best of luck.