Neighbours illegal renovations went through the supporting wall....

[SW10Lond]

Ok, so while I was at a friend's house a few months the entire supporting wall in her apartment cracked and the builders for the neighbour next door could be seen through the cracks on the other side... This, apart from almost a year of noise that forced my friend and her young baby to stay somewhere else when it became unliveable. The neighbour had no building permit for the work.

The builder was rude but forced his way into her apartment to do a quick cosmetic repair job and said that was sufficient, and the owner came to give her some flowers and cheap bottle of wine. They think that should do it. I got offended at the audacity of these people and felt they took advantage of her (she has difficulty confronting people). I insisted for her to get a surveyor and quotes for a proper repair job and it ended being quite a price tag for a proper repair and reinforcement.

I've now offered to help my friend and demanded the neighbour to pay her for the estimated repairs. The neighbour insist to have her rouge builder do the repairs and refuses to even mention any money. instead, they sidestep my friend and communicate with the building management (whom they have convinced the damages were small and my friend is "difficult" which is not true). I told the neighbour it's not her decision but my friend has the right to chose her own (regular) builders for her property. I'm sure they will refuse to pay. I'm willing to engage a debt collector and involve the council to report the illegal renovations they did on their apartment if she does not pay my friend.

Do I have the right to engage a debt collector if they refuse to pay, without a court order?

Am I being unreasonable?

I would start by informing the council. Building control must be involved to make sure the work is safe.

I got offended
I insisted
I...demanded
I told the neighbour
I'm sure ...
Do I have the right..

Do you always run rough shod all over your friend? Does she have an opinion in this? Or are you so pompously up your own rear end you can't see you are just as bad, if not worse than the 'rouge' builders?

Sounds like the sort of thing your friend should be using her buildings insurance for.

Do I have the right why would you have any rights

I don't know what you think a debt collector will do.

Your mate should have let the council know straight away. she needs to contact them

You don't have the right to engage anybody because it's not you they owe the money to

Buildings insurance and Council Planning Department are the route your friend should take.
You mention "apartment" in your OP; if this about flats, they may have a management officer your friend should inform.

by all means offer support to your friend but this isn't your problem and you cannot take over with regards to engaging anyone etc.
advise her and help if she asks for it.

It's a flat. The supporting walls are usually the responsibility of the freeholder. Who is the freeholder? Report it to them and let them sort it out.

Contact the owner of the other house to get his insurance details or your friend can issue a claim in the county court.

It's a flat
I am not sure if it is or not.

First the OP says - "I was at a friend's house" and then she says - "into her apartment".

Which one is it??

You cannot engage debt-collectors without a court order! Otherwise I could send debt-collectors round to your place for any spurious reason I could think of.

If it's an apartment/flat and not a house as you first stated then the first port of call should be the freeholder, who is responsible for taking out the buildings insurance. Next, the Council who should examine what building works the neighbour has had done, some of it might not have require planning permission or building consent.

Under NO circumstances should your friend have anyone undertake repairs until and unless the damage has been seen by a surveyor who the insurance company has engaged.

If it was a house it would be the owner's insurance company dealing with the neighbour's company.

Get your friend to take photos of the damage to pass on to the freeholder with a time-line of events

Seems like there are some misunderstandings here by quite a few people. I am asking on behalf of my friend - not me.

FFS lay off the OP some of you

OP clearly wants the best for her friend, who seems to be very non-confrontational. Does she own the flat?

OP, I second calling the Council Planning department , and the management /free holder. Good luck.

@StillDrivingMeBonkers I get it: You're a jerk. You never do anything for your friends so you have to be an ass. I am asking on behalf of my friend as she moves forward on the issue.

@Chloe84 Thank you for your effort to respond. Yes, she owns the flat.
She wasn't sure if she would contact the council at this stage or not - but it seems it's the best way to proceed in addition to communicating with the owner. She already has the surveyor report, quotes, etc.

The neighbour who is responsible for the damages owns her flat as well.

Is the neighbour a lease-holder in the same building or a separate property next door?

Whatever your friend does, s/he must get in contact with the freeholder asap. It's a pity that a surveyor has already been instructed as that is probably money wasted. The freeholder's insurer will need to appoint their own surveyor to decide on what the damage is and the cost of repair

Surely there must have been a Party Wall Agreement put into place before the works took place?

She needs to inform the council as they will have an individual or team in charge of overseeing private housing stock. Then she needs to contact a surveyor for a full structural survey and then seek advice from her insurer. Only then should she contract someone of her choosing to correct the 'work'

If it is an apartment and they ave gone through a suporting wall, your friend has a big issue tbh.

I would go through the building management relating the incident and giving them the quote from her builder (hopefully also stating how bad the damages are).
I would go through the house insurance and ask them to deal with it.

The neighbourg will not buldge. Clearly said builders are crap and they wont want to have to pay that much for the repair.
If this is the insurrance compay who deals with it, your friend wont have to deal with the neighbourg and will avoid most of the confrontation.

She can also report the issue to the council if the work has been done wo building permission. Up to her of she wants to do that but i would be aware that doing so on the top of the insurance/building management will be seen as a head in attack by the neigbourg and will make relationship betwen them quite hard.
If this is something she really feels strongly aboout, then go for it. Otherwise, I would wait a bit for the sake of making relationship as easy as possible.

@BitterAndOnlySlightlyTwisted Thank you for the advise and suggestions.
She had to undertake repairs to cover the damages as the problems just kept being delayed for months on end to be dealt with. She contacted her building management, who advised she should have it repaired and would then be reimbursed - but the management later brushed off any responsibility to deal with it. Her initial advise was that her building management would handle it.

As has previously been mentioned, the freeholder of the building needs to be informed as there's probably a term in the lease that says any building work needs the permission of the freeholder. As the fabric of the building has been damaged, it will be the responsibility of the freeholder to sort out claims for damages and repairs.

Also, the council's building control officer should be informed, as any building work would have had to have been signed off by them.

@FruBayerischOla Well, unfortunately it's one of the problems... the neighbour did a full gutted renovation (expanded rooms, etc) without any planning permission. When the property was damaged my friend was wrongly advised. There was no Party Wall Agreement. She was basically left by the neighbour to do the run-around with the management.
I'm trying to find out what the best process would be for her to move forward.