Party Wall nightmare

[Dogmatix34]

We are planning a loft conversion and notified both neighbours (terraced house) in November. Both neighbours are landlords and both wanted a survey done.
One side seems to be all sorted but the other side are still throwing up issues 5 months later. He is a professor of Structural Engineering (just our luck!) and is demanding structural calculations and an enormous level of detail which neither of the two surveyors nor the loft company have ever heard of before. We have had 4 start dates, all of which have had to be rearranged.
His latest email asks our structural engineer to "explain in detail how he come to his ‘considered professional opinion’?"
My question is, can he continue to object or can we just say enough is enough and that we are starting on X date? I am concerned that he could take us to court if we start without his agreement. Many Thanks in Advance

Bump

No, you can't go ahead until he signs the agreement, that much I know. My (shaky) understanding is that if he refuses to sign, you are then officially in dispute and have to appoint a further independent party wall surveyor to mediate between existing parties. All at your expense The party wall act seems to be calculated to basically print money for surveyors at the expense of homeowners. It's shit, but unavoidable, and you'd be in a whole heap of trouble if you try to go ahead without party wall agreement. There's an awful lot of googlable expert advice out there including some specialist forums.

We weren't in dispute but neighbours still played silly buggers enough that party wall surveyor had to make an extra site visit charged at 100 quid an hour! Plus an extra fifty quid to print out a copy of the agreement He was a slippery bastard but he did also say that the neighbour couldn't just vindictively string out the process indefinitely, and if in dispute the independent surveyor found the neighbours were deliberately being obstructive they could order the transfer of some of the costs from you to the neighbour. Whether he was telling the truth about that I have no idea though, as I didn't trust him as far as I could throw him!

Thanks for the replies. Reading the official government advice on the website it does point out that the surveyor is not actually representing you but just there to give an opinion so I’m now starting to question his surveyor who seems to be responding to his every query. I think they are intimidated because he is a professor.

Hi, Dogmatix34 . Sounds as though you got the wrong surveyors progressing or not progressingas it seems.I have been involved twice with party wall, our neighbour and then us.

frosoup's right anything needed to go through the process has to be relative and reasonable. Our neighbour become bats**t crazy which was really disappointing. We consented to theirs a few years earlier subject to a survey before the work started which was a few hundred quid.

We went with the same party wall surveyor that came round to do the survey and he really knew his stuff. From the off they asked for reams of stuff (nosey buggers) that our surveyor said was nothing to do with the process, and our surveyor refused all but one request which he told me I would need anyway.

He made it clear from the start to the other surveyor and my neighbour what the law regarding party wall can and can't deal with. And told this other supposedly very experienced (just not in party wall) surveyor that he would not entertain requests and that anything 'unreasonable' if pushed forward would be billed to my neighbour. He also told me if the other surveyor carried on he would sack him off for negligence. 2 weeks later everything got sorted.

Did you get it sorted in the end?

It seems absurd that both surveyors are being held ransom, surely they should know exactly what is and not needed as part of the process and their job/role and whether it's satisfactory?

Still not sorted! Thank you very much for that advise soafiee, we were just saying tonight that we’re starting to have doubts about our own surveyor pandering to all his requests. We have to wait ages for a reply each time ( the other surveyor went on holiday for 3 and a half weeks). It has now been six months and it has still not been resolved. We are wondering whether to make a complaint to RICS?

Your're joking! Can you not make a formal complaint through their company complaint procedure?

Sounds like negligence and or that You're having a loft conversion which 2nd to an extension for the most common type of building work.

Speak to another 'experienced' party wall surveyor for a second opinion. If they're RICS then indeed call them up and ask questions. I have used the same party wall surveyor twice if you like I can give you his details. He reviewed and advised us of our rights and obligations prior to a formal appointment.

At the very least you should have a clear understanding of what is being asked and why and where this can be demonstrated as legally required/compliant. Maybe the theme of your next email to your surveyor?

We finally got to speak to our appointed surveyor yesterday, a young lad who was completely out of his depth. We made our feelings very clear and we are planning to speak to the company director Monday morning to request a different surveyor. Perhaps we should have done this some months back...

It’s all getting so frustrating that we are tempted to forget the whole thing.

I wouldn't let it put you off your plans, it just sounds as though you've been dealt a bad hand.

Sounds like general bad practise, hopefully the director will offer his/her apologies and ensure that it doesn't happen again! How many other cases does this young lad have under his belt, so much so that it takes three weeks to respond to emails!

Bad business model. Hopefully your not made to pay for inept service thus far.

Thanks for the reassurance and the advice, much appreciated. I’ll let you know how we get on!

2 weeks into the build! We put a bit of pressure on finally and managed to get both sides back signed! What a palaver! Thanks for the advice.

Glad to hear OP, we had nightmares with our party wall agreement. Neighbours were absolute buggers but not as bad as yours it seems.

I hope the build goes well!