Well, ...
Out insurers weren't especially interested (we had a rather heated exchange as to what was "malicious damage"), though they did make a note on the file in case there was damage due to the exposed roof/broken tiles. They are sending me information on our legal cover, to see if we would be helped by that.
Planning said the removal of a chimney was nothing to do with them, as one could remove it without PP.
Building Regs were incredibly helpful and I was speaking to someone very senior for about 40 minutes. It was rather a relief to talk to someone who had obviously been around this aort of thing for a long time. I discovered that their loft hadn't been signed off, as the work was not of a sufficient standard, that fees had not been agreed (he didn't discuss this with us, natutally, he was reading a list off his screen) and that the plans were unclear (there are, apparently, to be three bedrooms in the loft and no one can quite work out where the side dormer is to be). Building Regs have quite specific and limited powers but he did know his way around the Party Wall Act and it was a very useful chat. He sent out a surveyor to check the chimney. By the time the surveyor visited, a chimney had been rebuilt, which, as far as it is, meets building regs (but it is not as high as the other one nor in the same style, so it will need to be redone). Apparently this surveyor made it very clear that certain things should not be removed (there are some metal struts in the shared passage) and major things should not be inserted without advice from Building Regs. After some questioning, it transpires that, as he inspected the chimney, he noticed two new (can't think of the name, piles?), one timber one metal, fixed into our party wall. *sigh. Also, though a skip has been delivered for which I had to move my car, none of the debris in the passage has gone and, in fact, the weight of it against her fence has caused it to break, so the passage is a further blocked. And,I went out my back door and almost slipped on a large piece of black tarpaulin which had come down; had I been going out with hands full of dirty washing (my washing machine is in the shed at the back) I might easily have fallen badly. I am calling the HSE tomorrow to register a complaint (the onus has changed to be on me to do that, the helpful man at Building Regs told me).
We have received legal advice, which is to employ a party wall surveyor PDQ, as they are the place to start, are cheaper than a solicitor and can always refer us to a solicitor if they get no resolution. We are currently trying to find a reputable one.
Unbelievably, the other side, who HAVE PP and whose work is funded by the Council under aids and adaptations (or similar) also blundered. I was actually on the phone to Building Regs when I went outside (to look at the chimney) and I realised the builders there had removed a fence on our property we had told our neighbour we wanted to stay and were digging foundations for her extension well over our boundary, having had to lift bricks from a paved area and move some of our bits stored out there.
Well, being a little more versed in planning law than I was previously, I went politely but definitely ballistic at them. They said they tried to knock to warn me, but I kept repeating "That's not good enough! That's not how it should be done!!". One also made the mistake of telling me to calm done, at which point I rounded on him and told him not to speak to me like that. I also tried to convey the phrase "the straw that broke the camel's back" but, though he's been here 15 years, neither my Albanian nor his English was up to the task. Anyway, work was stopped, contractors called, .... I was especially annoyed as, knowing the work they were to do, I had raised my concerns with the Council's architect and have a text telling me not to worry, that no party wall work would be done till he got back from holiday (mid-August) and that the work to be done would not need the Party Wall Act. There is a polite but annoyed text awaiting this man on his return, telling him how I am looking forward to us talking so he can explain what went wrong in his absence, and how angry I am as I raised these very points in advance. After all work was immediately halted, after the legal papers were brought over in person by an architect/contractor, after a temporary fence was erected to protect my children from the deep ditch over our boundary, after many apologies and the use of the workmen to move, under my direction, anything I thought might be damaged by the work and after talking to DH, I signed the papers and work restarted. Being oh-so-English, I made my displeasure clear to anyone who was unwise enough to say "Are you alright?" by emphatically replying "No, no I am NOT", which threw quite a number of people, as it is a common opening gambit.
As an aside, we are installing some temporary fending of our own this week-end: being unable to do proper work on our fence, we never-the-less want to make certain boundaries clear and, TBH, I want to draw up the drawbridge and hurl missiles at anyone unwise enough to come close.
Oh, and, the none-chimney neighbour and I share a frontage (there was, I assume, a divider there years ago, but it is open now). Anyway, our gate is broken and wedged open, for the children's safety and till we have the moment to mend it. As hers is kept shut, the builders are traipsing through our gate, sometimes knocking it off being wedged, which causes aggro, and they have dumped loads of packing near her bins, further blocking her gate. I know it is nothing compared to other stuff I have mentioned, but seeing in them come through it and acroos my line of sight is driving me bananas and I am going to convey this to her tomorrow. I imagine little success, as she shrugs and says she has no idea what the builders are doing but, if they persist, I shall tie it shut (warning our great Postie in advance) and all of us use hers. Grrrr!
Think that is all (to date!).
Copied and pasted from Chat.