Party wall, chimney breast removal

[gillybean2]

Came home last night to a skip on neighbour’s driveway He had put a note through the door to say he was getting the chimney breast in the upstairs back bedroom removed. He wasn’t at home.
His builder turned up this morning as I was heading to work. Ds said it’s been noisy all day and he’s now concerned as a crack has appeared on his bedroom wall. He’s sent me these photos.
I’ve tried calling the neighbour and sent him a text with the photos but he’s not responding. I left a voicemail asked in if he’d had a survey done. I’ve just looked up online too and it appears he should have involved building control at the council and given me at least 2 months notice.
What can I do at this stage? Ds concerned as his bed is against that wall. Council is shut and I don’t want to go in all guns blazing with the neighbour but equally very concerned that the structure of the wall is compromised. Anyone know where I stand and what I can do?

The chimney on our side was removed long before I bought the house. Hence the flat wall on our side in the photos.

I don’t know whether it’s just the photo, but this does look like an old crack which has been painted over in the past.

They shouldn't be doing thst without a party wall agreement.
You will almost certainly need to sue them and you can't avoid this as your house will become worthless if it doesn't have structural stability. The only alternative will be if your legal overtures are sufficiently frightening that he pays up without a court order.

You don't muck about with chimney breasts it's an insane amount of work and expense to maintain structural stability for the sake of a few square feet of floor space.

First action tonight is to find your building insurance cover documents and find out if it includes legal cover. If not loot at any other policies you may have that might include legal cover.

Get very fierce in the morning.

Our neighbour did this, without a party wall agreement and with no notice.
I rang building control who did go round but the damage has already been done.
We had have a surveyor round to assess the damage.
We had remedial work done on our house insurance, the insurers took the neighbour and their builder to court to recover costs.

We moved house!

They would need a PWA but, once the work has started, they're pretty worthless and not retrospective. I think you can get an injuction to stop the work now though until you've spoken to building control. Re the crack, bashing walls will often cause cracks in the plaster from the vibrations. It doesn't yet look like an actual crack in the wall.

I painted that wall myself. The plaster is pretty old but it did not have such a crack in it before today. I’m not home yet to look at it up close.
My neighbour is actually a solicitor…. He’s not staying at home, presumably because of the work. If he won’t answer my calls can I simply tell the builder to stop in the morning?

Definitely tell the builder to stop. Then phone the council ASAP.

So just to update, neighbour did come home last night. I asked if he’d had a structural survey done and been in touch with building control and that it was a bit late but he should have looked into a PWA.
He said it didn’t need a third party wall agreement and that he assumed his builder had dealt with anything required and he only needed to worry about building regulations and apply once the work was completed. He also said he didn’t think they’d started in the chimney yet as they’d only sent him pictures of a different thing they’re working on. Clearly incorrect due to the noise and number of bricks in the skip.

The builder came round and looked at the crack this morning and said it’s superficial. I asked if he’d submitted anything to building control at the council etc and he said no he wasn’t the homeowner so it wasn’t his job to do that. He also said it would be quieter today as they’d already removed all the chimney and it wasn’t tied in I think he said. So wasn’t a structural support.

I sent the neighbour a link to trust a trade which had a whole section on chimney breast removal. I tried calling the council but they weren’t open. So I asked the neighbour to contact them and arrange a visit. His builder had said they’d likely pop out if asked as they’re often in the area. I sent neighbour the link to building control at the council.

So he applied online for a visit and says they’re coming tomorrow. He has also now said he has applied retrospectively for building regulations application.

So I don’t think there’s a lot I can do really now other than wait and see what the council say.