Does anyone know anything about party wall agreements?

[LiegeAndLief]

We live in a semi and are about to get a conservatory on the back of our house. The neighbours have an extension at the back of theirs so their house sticks out further than ours at the back, and then first bloke who gave us a quote for the conservatory suggested we use their extension wall as a party wall rather building a new wall a few cms away from it. This sounded good to us and the neighbours are happy about it. The company gave us a copy of the party wall agreement they usually use and that looked fine.

However, the company who we have actually chosen to do the conservatory have never dealt with a party wall agreement and are a bit dubious about it. I don't know anything about the legal implications. Is this a common thing to do and has anyone done it before? I just want to know that it will all be ok really! Especially when we come to sell the house or if we get new neighbours.

I'd be really suspicious of a company that had never used a party wall agreement/award. But, it sounds as if, because your neighbours are quite happy, yours will be very straightforward. Basically you have to give your neighbours written notice of your intention to carry out works not less than (I believe) 8 weeks before the commencement date. You can download a simple form giving your details, the details of your builder etc and enclose plans. The form should explain their three options: (a) to agree to the works; (b) to ask for a survey (at your expense) to make sure that the plans are fine and to record the condition of their building in order to compare it at the end of the build and make you responsible for any damage caused; (c)to ignore the letter in which case you will have to appoint a surveyor to safeguard their interests (and pay for it). It is up to your neighbours to get back in touch with you within the stipulated time period - hopefully they will go for option a but most sensible people would choose b which is more expensive for you but at least means that their back is covered.

Thanks Lala. It worried me a bit that they didn't seem to know about the party wall agreement, but they are primarily a window company so maybe they don't have much cause to deal with party walls - we have had several recommendations and one of the reasons the neighbours are so happy is because this company did their windows and were very good!

Sadly I'm not sure the first company knew what they were talking about either because their form only really covers option (a). There was no mention of surveyors etc, I thought we would just ask the neighbours to sign a form consenting to the works being carried out. Maybe I need to do a bit more research into this...

Our neighbours have just had an extension built that comes up right to our external wall (and the boundary). They were advised by their architect/builder to appoint a party wall surveyor to act for both of us (they paid). This surveyor came round looked at everything from both sides of the boundary before work started. Took pictures of how things were (existing cracks etc), so that if there were any problems when work started, there was a record of everything. This is probably going to be less of a problem for you as you are having a conservatory, rather than a full extension but it seems sensible to cover yourself.