Neighybour party wall cost dispute

[YorkshireReno]

Hello! I was after some advice. We recently completed a large renovation on our semi-detached house, which impacted on the party wall, and understandably we are responsible for repairing any damage now it is done.

Our issue is that the neighbour has gone ahead and completed their repair works and sent us the bill without any indication in advance of quotes, or allowing us to see the scope of the works needed. The bill is many thousand pounds. Maybe double what we would have expected to pay, with seemingly the entire house being fully repainted/decorated. We had hoped to have our builder go around beforehand and give us a sensible indication of what was actually damaged and what we needed to pay for repairs to benchmark their quote(s). We have an independent structural engineer's report but all that said was that no structural damage was caused, simply some cosmetic issues needing painting or plastering, so not comprehensive on the scale of repairs needed.

We are conscious we have to live next to him for probably many years, so not sure how to address this.

He also has form for asking for many ongoing costs during the build and we have already paid him a fair amount for these, e.g. extra cleaning and window cleaning costs too.

I think you need legal advice, but did he show you evidence of damage at the time of it occurring? Did he take evidence to show you or is he having a revamp on your dime?

Also, what damage would you/builders expected for the work they carried out.

I’m assuming you do not have a party wall agreement/schedule from prior to the works starting?

The Party Wall agreement should have covered this. Did he have his own surveyor?

Well, we each have our own surveyor and solicitor and the party wall did cover it. They were meant to show us the quotes/damage first but they didn’t. Our solicitor says he recommends he doesn’t get involved unless we can’t resolve it as it will incur extra fees.

I’m just unsure how hardball to play since we have to live next to him! But I do think he’s trying to sneak in some extra redecoration but have no real way of knowing now.

I suppose you have 3 options.
1.You pay what he's asking.

1. You instruct a solicitor to set out your legal obligations under the PWA.
2. You try to do a deal with him.

You seem to be aware of 'damage' caused to his property. How long has this been the case? Have you been proactive in getting quotes, discussing quotes or getting your builder to have a look at the damage?

Someone damages my property, i would expect them to be the party chasing around trying to get things sorted before any more works carry on. I wonder if it may be a case of they wanted it sorted, and they wanted it sorted straight away, and i cant blame them tbh.

Without knowing the details it’s difficult to say, but I think I’d offer him nicely and straight away what you consider to be a reasonable sum (maybe back it up with a couple of retrospective quotes afterwards) and then leave it to him to take any further action under the party wall agreement- which seems unlikely if he hasn’t followed the agreed process.

We have been chasing them repeatedly for many weeks to allow our builder access to check the damage and quote, or even to receive photos of the affected areas with no response (according to the structural engineer report damage was cosmetic only and just required some plastering and painting). The usual process is that our builder would fix the work. We are more than happy to pay for repairs (and have already paid for extra cosmetic works to their house as a goodwill gesture, and regular cleaning and window cleaning throughout, and costs for them to rent a coworking desk when it was noisy and they were wfh). What I don’t want to do is pay for their house to be entirely redecorated at our expense if it didn’t need to be in addition to all this.

As I understand it, they don't have to agree to your builder doing the works. yes, I think you're allowed to consider getting other quotes but its not down to you to say your builder would do the work. Did they push back when you said you wanted your builder to visit? Maybe thats why they've gone ahead and got their own tradesman in to do the work.

Shouldn’t your party wall surveyor be communications/negotiating with their party wall surveyor? That’s their job?

Well without having seen the damage that needed repair in person, or via photos, and without seeing and agreeing to the quotes to make good such repair you have no idea what is reasonable.

So on that basis I would refuse to pay. I'd also say you've gone above and beyond to accommodate your neighbour during the building works. Renting him a desk, for example, was a goodwill gesture to maintain neighbourly relations. And now he is taking the piss, in my opinion.

So I would say to the neighbour, that as you were unable to ascertain the exact damage that needed rectifying (he refused access for your builder or independent contractors to quote) you are refusing to pay the costs as you are unable to see how small remedial measures to repair a wall would cost x thousands of pounds.

Put it in writing yourself (email) or if you'd prefer get a solicitor to send it.

Or offer him what you consider reasonable with the above caveats.

If you haven’t got one get a fully itemised invoice from the neighbour.

Go through the detailed invoice with your builder, structural engineer, architect etc. and

• identify which items reasonably are covered by the PWA e.g repairs to damage and which are not e.g. repainting windows and walls etc on far side of neighbours property.
• Draw up your own list showing items you are responsible for and cost neighbours charging.
• review the costs for the items you are responsible for and identify those that are unreasonably high - put a realistic high end quote figure along side
• Total up neighbours costs and yours.
• Send list (with your costs) to neighbour with offer to pay the cost you feel is reasonable for the work you are responsible for.
• Be prepared to negotiate over the items and costs.
• Accept that you are in part paying for the inconvenience your neighbours have suffered and so may have to pay the invoice costs of the items you are responsible for.
• Consider if bringing in an independent mediator may help reach agreement, they may cost less than legal fees etc.

As long as you have all this documented, emails, recorded delivery letters, dates & times, along with your party wall agreements etc i would say you should refuse then. I would also stop doing all these little extras for them (Unless you have agreed to them as part of the agreement). I wouldnt worry about any future relations with them, who wants to be friendly with people who cant be reasonable.