To not engage with this complete idiot?

[FTEngineerM]

NDN came round to get parcel and then said ‘just to let you know our dado rail in the kitchen is coming off it looks like something is pushing it from your side’ (we’re Victorian terrace and party wall is 55cm+ solid stone).

So I asked details of location and confirmed there’s nothing on the wall at all in that location let alone long enough to penetrate over half a meter.

Now NDN is threatening surveyors and their insurance company coming and assessing.

What do I do? I have so far just not engaged past this point but is that the wrong thing to do?

NDN can’t possibly know something is pushing through the wall it’s just speculation, to come around and wave around accusations without any actual evidence IMO is bonkers. But I don’t want to say or do anything that they can take and use if I take too much interest in helping resolve it.

Or am I overthinking it? And nothing will come of it.

@sallyedmondson

Confused. Was what is now their kitchen wall (dado one) once your outside wall? If that is so I think there should have been a party wall agreement before they joined it to your house with a roof. Diagram needed.

Rather crude drawing but..

Ours is end of terrace, theirs is marked NDN, original building marked with solid line and their extension dashed. The wall that the dado rail is on is on the left hand solid line of our house on the sticky out part on the right.

Who the hell has a dado rail in 2020 anyway? The thing's probably trying to prize itself off in the hope it can jump into a time machine

We have a dado rail and picture rail in the hall, original from when the house was built (1930s)

They'll come back into fashion y'know .

I wouldn't be letting anyone impinge on your privacy.

My neighbour accused my extension of causing excessive movement in her flat. She brought around about 4 different builders who said that she needed to upgrade her home. She still wasnt happy and was hounding me by phone.

Then she paid a structural engineer £1,000 who said exactly the same thing. That the hotter weather that Summer had caused alot of issues etc and all she needed was decorate her home, which was ahead hadn't done anything too since the 1990's!

I wonder did they have proper planning and regs for that?

Sounds as if maybe they've put up a construction without planning permission, in which case they will be wise to back off.

What?! It's a dado rail! How can they have put something up without planning permission on a party wall in a terrace?

NDN is next door neighbour.

I wonder what’s next - their avocado toilet seat is wobbly and that’s your fault too...?

Just ignore. If she mentions it again, it's time for a counter-complaint.

   " I saw  your  bluetits stealing all our peanuts from our bird-table. I want my peanuts  back. The RSPB have been informed and will take action".

don't let the surveyor in - & they have to pay or go to their insurance (if they can get through as most are probably wfh & you can only get them by email)
inform them they need to contact their insurers who will check - any loss adjusters/surveyors will have i/d "hopefully" you say " they won't increase your insurance next year" Most Victorian extensions are single skin bricks with no foundations, & damp. I am trying to figure out how you could possibly be the cause of this
Please obey rules & provide diagram! & do you mean they used garden wall as one of their walls for extensions?

i would go with blown plaster, had problems when dd 1 took posters off her bedroom wall and a load of plaster came off with them well, only to be expected they were heavy metal and i had encouraged as i'm a huge fan !

I wouldn't call your insurance company, you don't want notes on your account which could be construed as a problem when you know it is anxious neighbour.
Let his surveyor have a look (after you've checked his credentials) it will earn you neighbour brownie points as cooperative and will stop him speculating which could get tedious.
Just don't agree to pay half or anything crazy obviously.

@sophandbridge

Sounds as if maybe they've put up a construction without planning permission, in which case they will be wise to back off.

What?! It's a dado rail! How can they have put something up without planning permission on a party wall in a terrace?

NDN is next door neighbour.

Look at the diagram. If it's on the wall in the bit that used to be outside, then that whole bit could have been converted without planning permission.

@2bazookas

Just ignore. If she mentions it again, it's time for a counter-complaint.

   " I saw  your  bluetits stealing all our peanuts from our bird-table. I want my peanuts  back. The RSPB have been informed and will take action".</div></div>

just point out the offending tits madam and they will be questioned and tried for theft'

Living in a terraced house myself I think their kitchen extension looks decidedly odd. I would want to know what they did about soil pipes, drainpipes, access to sewerage pipes, damp proof courses and all the other little bits and bobs that in terraced houses tend to have tucked away in the area between one house and another, and which in the case of sewers are often shared between properties.

I would also be checking back with the local council that their extension was both approved and signed off and that a party wall agreement was made .I would also look back at your own survey and see if the surveyor mentioned next doors extension or noted any problems .

I think you could find that the problem is all theirs.

A late Victorian terrace house with nearly two foot thick stone walls is something I would like to see.

If its true it isn't you its the princess and her pea.

Dado rails are standard in period houses. We don't all want to live in Barratt boxes.

cross posts op!
So she had this built & used your wall as her wall - hmm. as pp says I wonder how long this has been up & whether she got building regs & party wall agreement - you might not need planning but she would require these for permanent roof (not conservatories I think) if she has built over drain (for instance) that its a no-no.

Your neighbour is a moron! Let them pay. Don’t spend a penny yourself.
Ignore them.

@AnimalNitrate

Who the hell has a dado rail in 2020 anyway? The thing's probably trying to prize itself off in the hope it can jump into a time machine.

Let them crack on with the surveyor. They'll find out what's causing it.

I wish our bloody dado rails would fall off -

@mumwon

cross posts op! So she had this built & used your wall as her wall - hmm. as pp says I wonder how long this has been up & whether she got building regs & party wall agreement - you might not need planning but she would require these for permanent roof (not conservatories I think) if she has built over drain (for instance) that its a no-no.

Imagine the surveyor asking about them having plastered over your external wall, potentially without a party wall agreement.

I'd tell them to crack on, and to invite you to be a fly on the wall during the inspection.

I'd be happy to let a surveyor in as well. There's potentially something structural going on with the wall, and if they are happy to pay for finding out what it was, then let them I say!

Let them look but my guess would be that they have water coming in at the point where their extension joins your house. This is their problem to fix but if the fix involves doing anything to your wall then look into Party Wall agreements - this is an expense for them to bear not you.