Party Wall Agreement – best practice to appoint a surveyor or not?

[MalloryScowls]

Our neighbours are planning an extension which, due to the proximity to our house, will fall within the Party Wall Act. We have no objection in principle to the work being carried out (though we’re not looking forward to the noise, dust etc). We just want to ensure that our property is protected and that we are covered if anything goes wrong.

I understand that our neighbours will need to issue us with a Party Wall notice before the work begins and we can either “consent” or “object”.

Questions:

If we “consent” to the work (so no requirement for a surveyor to be appointed) what come back do we have if the work impacts our building? (We would take dated photographs inside and outside our property before the work begins).

If we “object” so that a surveyor(s) is appointed what, in practice, would the surveyor provide for us? Presumably they won’t be able to determine the type/depth of foundations currently in place so I’m not sure what additional information/benefit they could provide for us.

I’d really appreciate your advice/experiences. We have no intention of being obstructive but we do want to make sure our own interests are covered.

Thanks

Mallory

Get a surveyor and map out where the exact boundary lies. They would need to have it for planning anyway. I was always on very friendly terms with my ndn. I wish I had asked for a surveyor when my neighbour was planning their extension. I worked away during the building. They built well over my boundary and I never felt able to speak up when I got home in case it caused problems.

Hi Madhouse

Thanks for sharing your experience. Sounds like you had a very stressful experience - that was very bad of them.

For us the boundary line is very clear as there is a low retaining wall running between our properties and the plans have already been drawn up. I'm just looking ahead to the next step so that we can be prepared and manage expectations/assumptions. I'm sure our neighbours would prefer not to incur the cost of a surveyor but I don't want to go into this naively and I have no idea how risky (or not) digging foundations close to neighbouring properties is.

M

This is such a hard one. If you get on ok with your neighbours, you feel as if you’re being obstructive and causing them unncesssary expense if you take on a surveyor. And yet, if you’ve just recently renovated yourself, or your property has a history of structural problems (as mine did), you don’t feel comfortable letting them proceed without.
Imagine the worst that could happen - that they screwed you over in some way. Then you would be grateful that you had a surveyor acting for you and you didn’t have to ruin your relationship by negotiating repairs.

Hi Eleanor,

Yes, that is exactly the dilemma. It's a tricky one. We get on well with our neighbours and don't want to make things harder for them but I think we do have to cover ourselves even though there are no (known) structural issues with either property.

I need to try and work out what (if any) tangible benefits an appointed surveyor would give us to ensure a good outcome all round. And whether it would provide us with anything over and above the normal legal recourse if things take a bad turn. Oh for a crystal ball! I'll keep researching and asking questions in the meantime.

M

My friend lives in a wealthy area of London and was absolutely amazed that a neighbour wouldn’t take on a surveyor if building work was planned, just to save the building neighbour some cash.
Those of us who live in “normal” areas know what an annoying extra expense a surveyor being appointed would be, to anyone on an average income planning a build. But the law is on your side.

We got on well with our neighbours and agreed not to have a party wall surveyor. Biggest Mistake Ever .

They totally took advantage, the contractors damaged our property and there were many other issues which I won’t go into here.

If ever I was asked again I would request a surveyor. We aren’t in speaking terms with our neighbour now an I think having an impartial surveyor could have avoided this.

Marmite - that's horrible and exactly the scenario we want to avoid. I hope you got the issues caused to your property sorted in the end despite the break down of communication.

Based on the nature of the work and how close it will be to our property I think we'll be opting for a surveyor to be appointed. We'll make it clear to neighbours it's for a safeguard rather than a tactic to make life more difficult/expensive for them. Hopefully they will see it that way too...

Check what your home insurers say. Our neighbours are very friendly and would have been happy to not have a surveyor. But their home insurance said absolutely no way and they had to appoint one. We found one surveyor who the neighbours on both sides were happy with and it didn’t add a great deal to our build cost, so it was fine.