Party wall agreements

[Missyj1]

Hello,
Anyone had to arrange this? Just wondering at what point you found that you’d needed to apply for one- was it a condition of planning consent?

It's nothing to do with planning. If you read the guide it's pretty clear when you need to serve one - except one provision says you need to serve one if you're excavating within a certain distance of your neighbours property and you're going below their existing foundations. We didn't know how deep their foundations were until our extension started, so we served one anyway explaining the position - that it was only cautionary & probably not required. When builder started digging, and realised we weren't going deeper, we told them it didn't apply.

So at what point were you first aware of this? I’m trying to work out if it is first raised by the architect, the builder, council, or whether we’re just meant to know this through some form of osmosis!! I don’t mean who organises it, I mean how do you know that this is something you need to look into at all.

I got the Haynes Extension Building manual and it mentions it in that. I’d also done research in the internet about extending and it mentioned it then too. I would suspeyyour architect would bring it up with you- it’s something extra they can charge for.

B&B

Right from the start. You have to serve the notice at least 2 months before you start works. We didn't use an architect, it was just something we knew we had to consider at the start of the process. We discussed it with our builder when we went through the plans.

It used to be picked up by planning in that party wall companies would contact building and adjoining owners touting for business. It’s an act that is clumsy, some builders do not mention it or imply it’s not important as they are usually constrained by time windows. Not really in an architect remit. Like many things it’s not a problem until you fall foul of the legislation. Talking to the neighbours is usually the first stop, remembering the timetable, so it can be upto two months notice. My neighbours have breached that act (we had an award) and we are about to go to court. Their builders made the mistake, they cannot afford to rectify and our property has been adversely effected. They are looking at thousands just in costs. I have name changed for obvious reasons. If you have an architect remember that amendments can need new drawings and cost hundreds of pounds for the surveyor(s) to inspect. As in my case do not pure concrete in next doors property over the sewer pipe and crack it.

Gosh propertywoe, that sounds so stressful. We aren’t attached on one side to our neighbours and our architect casually asked if we’d be getting a party wall agreement, it was the first time we’d heard of it and nothing was stipulated in our consent. We raised it with our builder who said we don’t need one as we won’t be digging deeper than next door’s foundations. I’m wondering whether to leave it at that or if there’s someone somewhere responsible for confirming this. Our neighbour objected to planning so I’m not sure she would consent to this really.

The neighbour doesn't have to consent actually. Even if they refuse to sign or are completely absent the surveyors can sort it all out. It could be expensive but they can't legally block any work on the party wall or other party structures once you have the surveyors to decide what's best

Part 6 of the award states the 3 metre rule to neighbours, not going below neighbours foundations can raises the question of how deep neighbours foundation are? There is also a very small risk that building control could demand deeper foundations. But that is usually a small risk and your builders should be confident on land conditions and nearby trees.