Next door did work without permission

[twixxy]

So we live in a terrace of six late Victorian houses. The house to our right (end of terrace) has been doing the place up after renting it out for the last ten years. They mentioned (when we ran into them in the supermarket) that they would be doing work but given we were shopping for groceries didn't give any specifics of what it entailed. Turns out work included a loft conversion plus knocking out the chimney breast in the master bedroom so they could fit full depth wardrobes across the whole wall rather than just in the alcoves.

Both these things affect our shared wall but they didn't get a party wall agreement and as we didn't know about either of these specific things until they were underway it was too late for us to do much at the time. As legally they should have come up with the paperwork two months before doing the work we asked very nicely if they could get a retrospective agreement and they basically told us to piss off. Imagine that it would be a nightmare to sell our house without the paperwork (scarred from all the hassles from our last sale even when we did have the bits of paper) so what can we do? The law says they should have done one thing but for us to legally enforce it will cost us a fortune if they won't play ball. Presumably the council were involved in making sure the work was done to standard (loft conversion is a big project right?) so shouldn't they have insisted on the paperwork? I thought specialist loft firms would make you do this to stop any hassle. Seems not. Help!

Building control is not the same as planning by the way. Planning applications are always on line. Building Certs aren't.

Thank you. I will investigate

You have an email stating they have had work done without the PWA? Is it not easier to make a case against them if anything goes wrong your side in that case?

The party wall agreement has photos before and after. Any damage can be attributed to the works as there is no record of it being there beforehand verified by a pwa surveyor.

A party wall surveyor needn't be a 'proper' surveyor, chartered or otherwise. If you have done two party wall agreements you can call yourself a pwa surveyor. I don't think you even need any qualification for it. The two pwa can be on fences/walls, I believe, and not even inside a property. I guess this was to keep costs down. However, it does mean you could get a thoroughly unprofessional person entitled to call themselves a pwa surveyor without really having much expertise and not really knowing their stuff.

I had to hire a chartered rics surveyor in relation to my neighbour saying they did not need a pwa for an extension. Their pwa 'surveyor' rang him up and the rics guy said to us that he was wrong in what he said and didn't really understand the party wall act.

"The problem is that anybody can set themselves up as a party wall surveyor, there are no qualifications required and it is not necessary to be a member of an appropriate professional body. There are many surveyors with no qualifications whatsoever marketing themselves as ‘specialist’ party wall surveyors; an entirely meaningless description. "http://www.peterbarry.co.uk/blog/2012/feb/23/how-using-cheap-party-wall-surveyor-can-substantia/

Slightly off piste, but some can obviously be have a go harrys. I think the pwa agreement would have been better for your neighbours as they would verify damage already existed and was not caused by them. Now damage could possibly be attributed to their works, even if not caused by them.

Of course you can get rics people who are also pwa. They are professionally qualified.

Just on another note, I seem to recall building control need not have been sought at your local council. I think it can be applied for elsewhere. Hazy on this as a few years have lapsed since I was on tenterhooks.

The best was their builder said we didn't need the pwa. Our rics surveyor said we did, but of course we were going to over ride his professional advice on the say so of their builder!

I don't know anything about party wall agreements but I did a fair bit of research into building regs and indemnity insurance when burying our house. They should have obtained building regs approval for removing the chimney breastfeeding, not sure about the loft conversion.

I don't think it always appears on the council website, or may be delays. If I was you I would phone the building control department of your council and explain the situation and ask if there is building regs approval. if there isn't, hopefully that will result in the council paying a visit to inspect, though I don't know if they do this in practice.

If there is approval, that should satisfy your buyers that the work was done to a sufficient standard for the building control dept.

Indemnity insurance only covers against the council talking action over lack of planning permission/building regs, it DOES NOT cover you for problems arising from poor workmanship.

Love "the chimney breastfeeding,".

And if you call the council you then can't get indemnity insurance

They 100% needed building regs approval for both the loft conversion and the removal of the chimney breast.

Was it done recently? They can be prosecuted for a contravention (and not applying is a contravention) for up to 2 years.

They have to involve the local authority building control to regularise the work - it is not possible to use a private company once the work has started.

I would contact your local building control and take it from there.