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Party wall agreement

7 replies

Annigolden · 16/08/2022 21:55

I have printed off a standard letter etc about forthcoming work on my house and given it to neighbours to sign and return. They haven’t yet. What happens if they don’t sign? If my work is within permitted development and doesn’t impinge in their property at all, can they object?

I have a feeling they will be difficult for the sake of it.

OP posts:
TizerorFizz · 17/08/2022 08:25

If you need a PWA it must affect their property! You need to appoint a party wall surveyor. The neighbours should object to your proposals snd appoint their own surveyor, that you pay for! I would never agree to some printed off piece of paper with no professional appointed. So appoint a surveyor. They might respond then.

Annigolden · 17/08/2022 09:32

It impacts only inasmuch we are building next door. We won’t touch their property at all.

our builder advised we use a standard letter as it’s relatively straightforward and standard practice.

the guidance says if they don’t sign then we are in dispute so yes I would have to get a surveyor.

That wasn’t my question though. I asked what they might object to.

OP posts:
neverendingpartywallproblems · 17/08/2022 10:07

Don't trust your builder on party wall legalities. Ask your architect or a surveyor exactly what is required

It is impossible to comment on what they may object to without knowing what work you are planning. Whether you require planning permission or falls under permitted development is completely independent of the party wall process. The party wall process is there to protect both owners from any damage that could arise when working on or near the boundary

purpledagger · 17/08/2022 11:08

When we were having some works done, I had to keep chasing one of my neighbours for a response (either way). I eventually just asked them outright and their response was 'oh, was I supposed to sign it?', but they did in the end.

Our building company said that most people do eventually sign them and offered to speak with our neighbours about any concerns they may have.

TizerorFizz · 17/08/2022 19:38

@Annigolden
The rule is 3m. If all building work (including drains and foundations) are more than 3m away from their property you don’t need a PWA. If adjacent or within 3m you do and what I advised applies. So are you totally more than 3m away or not?

Shattered04 · 17/08/2022 20:26

I hope you gave them some advance notice, as once you deliver the party wall notice, the clock starts ticking for them. It's not always convenient for people who are new to party wall stuff to have the time to understand all the implications within 14 days, on top of whatever else is going on in their life. Our neighbours did this, no warning - just put it through our letterbox without even knocking, no cover letter either. It put our backs up as we were dealing with a lot of life crap at the time and then had this time-sensitive complex topic to learn about and deal with on top. If they'd come to chat to us beforehand about what they were planning, which they'd known about for months, it would have all been a lot more amicable. We'd had a good (but distant) relationship with them beforehand, but how you deliver the news over impending noisy building work lasting months makes a huge difference to how smoothly things go, and may account for a negative response.

Also they just printed a notice out off the Internet as that's what their builder told them to do. It should have been a straightforward notice from their perspective, but they still made at least three not immediately obvious mistakes with it, each of which would have rendered it invalid on their own. We found our own surveyor who told them this as they didn't believe us initially, and they had to start it all again, only doing it properly this time with a surveyor of their own. This is why it's so important to get somebody to do it properly! And yes, it's quite reasonable of them to get their own surveyor (which you have to pay for) - it's generally recommended. Our neighbours very much held that against us, and by their own admittance were deliberately spiteful to us as a result of it increasing their costs fractionally.

To answer your question, there's pretty much sod all they can do to object - that's to do with the planning permission (if it's needed) side of things. If you haven't got planning permission, be absolutely certain you don't need it and check for yourself, because if they are going to object, and it turns out you did need it and they discover that, it could get messy. Party wall is just to protect their property, and there's no realistically enforceable clauses that can go in it (sadly, even stuff about the volume of builders radios or blocking driveways isn't worth putting in party wall agreements as it gets ignored and nobody enforces it) that would interfere with your building plans.

TizerorFizz · 17/08/2022 22:52

Party Wall agreements are nothing to do with planning permission. Completely separate. Pp
might or might not be needed. Permitted development doesn’t mean a PWA is not needed. The only time a PWA is not needed is where the development is further away than 3 m from the neighbour.

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