Party wall and NDN

[Mummyshark2018]

Hi all,
Looking some advice. Due to start single storey extension at rear of house (under permitted planning). We're in a semi. Submitted a party wall letter (section 6) which states we will be excavating within 3 meters of boundary. NDN (the house is tenanted so he doesn't live there) responded that he is not agreeing to the works and he wants us to pay for a surveyor. I've asked what the issues/concerns are but he is yet to respond. We have a conservatory at the back and the new extension will be replacing this so we are going no closer to his property than what we currently are, though we are going further backwards. He has already extended further out the back than what we intend to go. My question is can he make us pay for a surveyor if he doesn't actually tell us his concerns? TIA

We had this with our loft. And yes, he can force you to pay for a surveyor. Our neighbours are elderly and juat pAranoid. Was extremely annoying, and delayed the process, but you havr to just suck it up.

Afraid so, you also have to pay for your own. We had a nightmare both surveyors were shit and we had to pay off the neighbours. Never again!

The Act only applies if your foundations go deeper than the neughbour's foundations (if you're within 3m). If they've already extended it's extremely unlikely it will apply. When is the builder due to start? I would get him to check the foundations and then reply. If it applies, yes he can force you to pay for a surveyor.

@namechangedtoday15
Thank you. I will contact our builder as we only got the email from NDN on Friday. Builder isn't able to start until March'ish so we have time. How much do surveyors cost? We're in the south east. Thanks

I dont know - it can be thousands rather than hundreds if it gets tricky I think.

We are adjoining a LA property and they refused to even look at it, just outsource straight to their chosen firm of surveyors. We got the same surveyor to act as joint. Seem to remember it was either £1000 + VAT or £1000 inc. He apparently gave us a bit of a discount because we're in the industry but we didn't compare costs (as we had to use the ones the council wanted.)

(Also in the SE)

That's a lot of money! I thought maybe a hundred quid or so!

www.gov.uk/guidance/party-wall-etc-act-1996-guidance#contents

He is within his rights, he doesn't need to give reasons, and yes you pay for the surveyor. It doesn't stop the work going ahead but will set out what can be done when.

I know it's a real PITA having to pay it. Our surveyor charged £100/hour. I'm sure there are cheaper options. So annoying because we could have done it ourselves (a condition report with photos basically saying next door was in crap condition and all the walls were covered in wallpaper anyway) but we just had to go along with it.

To be fair a good condition survey can save you getting into a much pricier dispute down the line or paying for damage to be made good which was there in the first place.

This is why we dropped our plans for an extension, as the neighbour was just awful, despite having just extended himself without having done the party wall thing!

You can though, if he starts really racking up the costs, put in a claim that the costs are unreasonable.

We were told that £1.5k was what we should expect to pay for his survey.

My neighbour was such a cunt that we are moving!

Our architect recommended a surveyor who charges a £500 fixed fee, which we will of course pay. NDN is happy for us to appoint one to act on behalf of both of us which will save us having to pay twice. As we are only planning on going with 3metres of his current extension we have asked our builder if he can do another site visit to see if our foundations will go deeper than theres. Might not give us any resolution and we will prob have to pay for one anyway!

www.gov.uk/guidance/party-wall-etc-act-1996-guidance