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.

Let them waste their money on a surveyor if that's what they want to do.

@Bestbigsister

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

Yup.

I agree with pps. Let them call their insurance😁

As long as they are paying for the surveyor, let them crack on.

@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.

OK well:

1. stop taking in parcels for this ass wipe
2. tell said ass wipe that you look forward to the surveyor coming so that said surveyor can tell them what a dick they are being. Tell them appointment needs to be on a Sunday because you are busy all the rest of the time. They will get a lovely double rate invoice for being idiots.

Close door and make a cup of tea and ignore them

Ignore and let them waste money trying to prove you have done something wrong, to be told you have not.,

@Handsoffisback

Let them crack on, phone your insurance company for advice, do not engage with the NDN any further. No conversations via text, over the fence etc, nothing that could be misconstrued.

No, don't contact your insurance company unless you absolutely have to.

Wait and see what happens.

viques Fri 20-Nov-20 13:44:48 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.

Completely agree with this. Ignore the NDN. Phone your local authority and start asking questions about NDN's extension.

@Tessiot

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.

Very poetic!

Did the extension have planning?

I was also going to suggest The Princess and the Pea. Perhaps drop a copy through the letterbox and ignore.

Absolutely insane. If there were something in the party wall pushing off a dado rail, you would both be in trouble as it would be structurally unsound. If there's nothing your side, just ignore.

You are spot on toomanyplants.

Surely if it had an original dado rail, it wouldn’t have been on the outside wall?

Who the hell has a dado rail in 2020 anyway?

Awww - they're lovely! And they're back in fashion now, along with picture rails.

I'd just let their surveyor come and take a look, OP. But don't pay for your own, and don't contact your insurance company. It's highly likely to be a problem that's nothing at all to do with your house.

Did the extension have planning?

I don’t know.. it was there long before us, I will check our survey of the house, good tip thanks. Their drainage and so on now goes over their extension roof (single storey) and into the stenchpipe that was there anyway. All that can be seen from outside. I am not a building surveyor though so I have no idea if it’s up to relevant standards. Will check it out if they continue assigning blame.

I don’t even mind that they have extended their kitchen in that way but find it extremely odd that their first thought when their dado rail pops off is that ‘it must be the neighbours pushing things through the wall’ and ‘let’s call the house insurance to send a surveyor around’.

@Notjustanymum

Surely if it had an original dado rail, it wouldn’t have been on the outside wall?

It’s certainly not an original dadorail. I can’t imagine someone securing dado to their external wall

@MsJudgemental

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

I live in a tenement flat! Not a Barratt box but no dado rails either . Genuinely didn't know they were a period feature (unless late 90s Changing Rooms counts as period), but maybe they're a regional thing?

@yellowsubmarines

viques Fri 20-Nov-20 13:44:48 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.

Completely agree with this. Ignore the NDN. Phone your local authority and start asking questions about NDN's extension.

Excellent advice.

You are not allowed to appropriate a party wall.

@FTEngineerM

Did the extension have planning?

I don’t know.. it was there long before us, I will check our survey of the house, good tip thanks. Their drainage and so on now goes over their extension roof (single storey) and into the stenchpipe that was there anyway. All that can be seen from outside. I am not a building surveyor though so I have no idea if it’s up to relevant standards. Will check it out if they continue assigning blame.

I don’t even mind that they have extended their kitchen in that way but find it extremely odd that their first thought when their dado rail pops off is that ‘it must be the neighbours pushing things through the wall’ and ‘let’s call the house insurance to send a surveyor around’.

go to your local council website and look for the planning section. Put in your postcode and it will show you if they ever applied for planning. I had reason to be on there earlier and there were planning applications from the 80s on there (clearly uploaded afterwards!)

@notreallybotheredaboutausernam I’ll do just that, hold that thought.

Either it’s not there or there is no planning permission, it’s doesn’t go back that far (just over a decade)

Ha ha. Bet they’ve not got planning. What divs.

They’ve got lace curtains too haven’t they? I’m right arent I?

I don’t even mind that they have extended their kitchen in that way but find it extremely odd that their first thought when their dado rail pops off is that ‘it must be the neighbours pushing things through the wall’

I took that to mean they think the dado rail is being "pushed" off because your wall is sagging or bowing or doing something it otherwise shouldn't be doing? Either way it sounds like they might be on dodgy ground (no pun intended).

I’m interested to know what happens next on this... neighbours like this can be loons!

It is certainly throwing itself off the wall in dismay at its own hideousness. Noting to do with you, tell them.

@WellThisIsShit

I’m interested to know what happens next on this... neighbours like this can be loons!

I will update as events proceed. They said they were going to do it after Christmas odd