Basement extension nightmare - please console me

[drjohnsonscat]

I live in a terraced house and my neighbour to the left is going to excavate under the house and garden to lower the kitchen (which is in the basement) by one metre and have it run on into a room under the garden - so they will excavate the entire space under their house and under their garden. They will have to move out while this work is done and really, we will want to move out but won't be able to. This will be a year of drilling and effectively tunnelling and earth removal. Our houses are only about 18ft wide so we will be right on top of this work.

I have today discovered that my neighbour to the right is planning to do the same thing. So both sides digging huge holes underneath their properties. The houses are Georgian so don't have modern foundations and I just don't know how the infrastructure is going to stay standing. And I don't know how to bear the disruption and awfulness. I just want to cry. And move.

Why is it legal to impose this on other people? They are doing this to improve their own properties and therefore will have to bear the disruption. I will have to bear the hideousness and the fact that my house will be effectively uninhabitable - but with absolutely no benefit to me. I have no grounds to oppose the planning application. Making a family home effectively uninhabitable does not count as a good reason to object.

I don't have any advice, but I really feel for you

Have they served Party Wall notices? Sounds horrible.

sadly this is not gutting and renovation which I've lived through myself. This is pile-driving basically - excavating tonnes and tonnes of earth.

It sounds like a nightmare. I hope at least they do it at the same time so its not prolonged.

You are right that this is living in the city (London). In my last flat a developer built an eight storey building in our light-well. Amazingly it got planning permission without so much as a visit from the Council. But after a long fight the residents got compensation from the developers (FTSE 250 so they had a reputation to worry about and didn't want us to carry on with our campaign). The compensation was was derisory but at least we felt that we'd been acknowledged.

It was awful though. A really hideous two years of fighting. I hate feeling so out of control about my own home . Trying to remember I am lucky to be a homeowner in London but right now I feel ambushed and upset.

We haven't got to the party wall point yet - neither neighbour knows exactly when they will start. But will definitely bear all that advice in mind about getting my own surveyor.

thanks for the comments about the pile driving. Maybe I'll feel better about it in the morning.

How will my garden wall (10 ft tall) stay standing? I know this is for the party wall guy to deal with but I can't imagine how you can dig to room depth along one side of a wall and have it stay upright!

oh thank you turniphead. It's good to have knowledgeable people to talk to me about this. I'm just picturing that K&C street where the road caved in, swallowing a car, because of a basement excavation

Getting my house recorated would help me come to terms with this...

Get hold of the Home section from the Sunday times last Sunday it has a double page spread about the pitfalls of basement extensions. Including what the structural surveyor must have been asked to check for.

OP I feel your pain, I live in London too and everyone round here is frantically extending upwards, outwards, sideways and downwards. One of the people in my street did all of that in one (very long) building project. Of course they lived off site....

I've looked up the Sunday Times article that Lonecat mentions, have pasted the top tips below (they are for the people undertaking the extension but still helpful in terms of questions you might ask them).

Top tips

DO let your neighbours know your plans before starting work, and warn them about any possible disturbance you might cause

DO find out if any neighbours have already completed basement excavations, and whether there were any stumbling blocks

DO get your structural engineer to conduct a full survey of what is underneath the house before you start any work

DO check any prospective contractor?s credentials and ask for references from past clients

DO ensure they are fully available to oversee the job and won?t just be popping in now and again to oversee less experienced builders

DO line up somewhere else to stay as a respite from the chaos in your own home

DO consider how you can maximise your basement space ? for example, creating an extra bedroom ? to add value to your home

DON?T assume that anything will be straightforward. Prepare to be flexible with your budget, problems that might arise and how long the work will take

DON?T pay in instalments, if you can possibly avoid it. Try to agree on a figure up front, payable on completion of the work

DON?T go ahead without a legal contract with your builders, highlighting any problems you know of.

"Be sure to insist on your FULL rights under the Party Wall act. Ie that they pay for a party wall surveyor who acts ONLY for you"

Sorry to say this but the Party Wall Surveyor's prime responsibility is responsible to the Act i.e. s/he cannot be partisan but must certainly have your best interests at heart.

Although they are supposed to be impartial, I always think it is more reassuring to choose your own, rather than accept the other part's choice of PWS.

Quite agree PJ...

Have you had a bad time with a particular PW surveyor Turniphead1 because that's never been my experience.

thanks so much to everyone for posting.

I do feel better about it now and will definitely follow the advice on here.

The party wall surveyor should also take extensive photographs of your house before ANY work starts. You should make sure you see these and they are adequate. Make sure your house is accessible for this, and make sure they take pictures of all wall/ceiling joins, corner joins in rooms, door frames etc. Also the garden wall - if the worst happens and this does get damaged you should insist that it is repaced with like ( eg reclaimed bricks rather than new).

Also check the structural arrangements - I'm not sure, but you might find that the structural support ( especially on both sides) will also protect your house in the long term against sudsidence which can be a problem in some ares of London. You should also check that whatever supports they put in won't adversely affect your wishes in the future. eg should you choose to put in a basement extension, or future owners. ( In fact could this be useful....?!)