We have built a small extension to he back of our terraced house. We were advised ( wrongly) by our architect that we did not need a party wall agreement. We verbally informed the neighbours of our plans and they had no problems or concerns.
I had a minor run in with one neighbour when she reversed in to my car. She screached and swore and screamed at me in the street and claimed I was blocking her drive ( I wasn’t) and therefore it was my fault she’d scrapped her car ( on my car, causing damage to both cars). I asked her to apologise for scratching my car and she went crazy.
The next day they made complaints that our building work had damaged their house.
We organised for the building inspector to view it and for our builder to have a look in order to see if she could sort it out. They declined.
My husband was allowed to see it and took photos which show damage that our surveyor say are insignificant and unrelated to our building work.
Yesterday I got a letter from them their surveyor saying we MAY have cause damage and they want to know how we plan to rectify this.
I don’t know where we stand. I know we didn’t cause that damage- but we didn’t have a party wall agreement in place. If they take this to court then would they win as we should have had the agreement in place?
I would be agreeable to having our builder fix the “damage” just to get rid of them- but since they’ve been in cooperative so far fear they won’t agree. Why turn down the free option of an independent surveyor then threaten to get a surveyor round for £500+? Why not speak to us directly? I think this is just because the woman is angry as I stood up to her temper tantrum.
Is it possible we would be able to win if it went to court? If we could prove it wasn’t our fault? Or do the people with the “damages” automatically win as we disn’t Have the party wall agreement and should have?