Do we need to appoint a party wall surveyor?

[MaryMotherOfCheeses]

Next door are planning an extension. Have put planning application through the council.

So we've now received a letter from a "party wall surveyor", clearly touting for business having checked the lists the council issue, saying that we can appoint them, next door pay, and they'll check our party wall, due to foundations being dug near it. (extension won't actually touch our house, there will be a small gap)

Now, I'm never normally one to turn down something for nothing, but is it necessary?

I'm certainly not an expert on these things but we have recently built an extension and have a party wall agreement with next door. It's definitely better to be safe and I would recommend it. It's to protect both of you in the future if you ended up with cracks etc which you might attribute to the new building.

It's to do with the angle (45 degrees if I remember) spanning from the base of the new foundations which can compromise your building. So the two buildings don't have to touch IYSWIM.

In the end we didn't have a full agreement with next door - we had a survey done so that they have a baseline for the future incase anything were to happen we both know what the current state of their property is.

Like you I would be suspicious of this surveyor blatantly touting for business (but who can blame them!) so shop around if you think it's the way forward - a chat with your neighbours is a good start. They are right that next door should pay as we did!

I hope this helps.

If you don't want to cost them double, have an agreed surveyor, ie, their surveyor who will act for the wall on both your behalves. This will already cost them around a grand.

Jolly sensible.

they don't actually live there yet (house is empty) so I'll have to try and get hold of them.

You don't need to appoint your own surveyor, your neighbour who is building the extension will appoint one who will be impartial and work for both of you. I don't see why you would need to have 2 surveyors working on a party wall agreement.

A lone voice ... I have been involved with lots of projects, some of which have involved party walls, and it sounds entirely unnecessary to me.

Definitely. We ended up with a dirty big crack in our wall when next door extended which meant wall had to be dug out, bound, replastered and redecorated. It was sorted out by a surveyor (we employed theirs but paid him directly so that he was in our employ and not theirs) very easily and meant we didn't have to deal with their builders and didn't have to deal with the neighbours over it. Both sides let the surveyor get on with it and it meant there was no bad feeling. We did the same for neighbours on the other side when they extended and, as they're tricky to deal with anyway, meant we didn't have to involve them when there was an issue.

I would speak to your neighbour and tell them what you've received. Tell them you don't want them just spending money for the sake of it but you would like a surveyor involved to put your mind at rest.

I would initially suggest that you appoint one together (with her as the primary appointee) but make sure you get one through the RICS website that's accredited.

It's going to come down to how deep your neighbours footings need to be, the angle of repose can often mean that your footings are undermined which will cause problems for you so it's worth it really.

I can reccomend a good one if you happen to be in the Merseyside area. I'm a project manager so this is something I deal with on a daily basis.

Good luck!