Dispute over repairing damages caused by party wall work - what’s next

[petiteHBB]

Hello,

Can anyone give us some information about the process of resolving disagreement on repairing damages caused by neighbour’s building work?

Our neighbour had some building work done which caused some damages on our property. We have a party wall agreement with schedule of condition and the damages have be confirmed by the shared surveyor. Can we insist on appointing our own contractor for the repair? If we can’t agree with the neighbours on the plan of repairing, what should we do? do we need to involve the shared surveyor for the final decision? Do we, as the adjoining owner, have to pay for the fee?

Many thanks!

Your joint party wall surveyor should be your first point of call for all of this OP - they should be handling ALL of this for you.

You can appoint your own contractor for the repairs. Logistically it’s probably easier to just ask the surveyor to agree a sum for the repairs, the neighbours give you a cheque and you sort the work yourself. Not ideal, as obviously this is admin for you, but it’s what I’d do in your position as I like to have control over my own property.

Keep in mind though that what you feel should be done repair wise and what is required by the very vague ‘make good’ wording of the Party Wall Act might well be two very different things.

For any future readers; always insist on having your own surveyor (and I say this as the one who did the building work!) - it’s better all round for everyone.

Many thanks for your reply @LondonNQT and sorry for the late response.

You're absolutely right, we're regret not to have our own surveyor... We have some discussions with our neighbour but it didn't go very well. Do you know if the surveyor can redo the final inspection then revise the conclusion of the damages? and what happens if we can't agree with the conclusion from the joint surveyor? I know you can have a third surveyor if both sides have their own surveyors. But what happens if the surveyor is shared? Apology if the questions are naive...

I don’t think that the joint party wall surveyor can redo the final inspection as such. However, there is no statute of limitations regarding damage. So you could now, and at any point in the future, ask them to revisit your property and look at damage which you believe has been caused by the party wall works. They will add to the inspection and revise their final outcome, I believe, but the first version still stands but with revisions iyswim.

Just be aware, our neighbour attempted to do this - some new cracks appeared in their kitchen ceiling months after works had completed. They got a (structural I think) surveyor to do an inspection and, given the severity of the situation, we paid for another to act in our interests. They jointly found that not only were the issues in the kitchen ceiling not caused by our works but that a whole host of other things elsewhere that our party wall surveyors had already agreed we’d pay for couldn’t possibly have been caused by our party wall works. To be honest, we sort of knew they weren’t but agreed to pay to expedite the process. We still offered to pay for the ‘other’ works, which they declined, but just so you’re aware of how the cards may fall.

I’d avoid talking to your neighbours at all about this if it’s getting nasty - trust the system. You can still call in a ‘third’ party wall surveyor if you used a joint surveyor but their decision is final. There isn’t a fourth/fifth party wall surveyor if you disagree with the third party wall surveyor.

Start by contacting your joint party wall surveyor and ask them to do another site visit, on the basis that new damage has appeared. If you’re unhappy with their conclusion tell them you want to go to the third party wall surveyor. Your neighbours will pay for their services - there is no cost to you.

HTH

Thank you so much for the detailed reply @LondonNQT It helps a lot! I'm sure the information is also useful for other readers. Sorry to hear that you had to go through this with your neighbor. It seems money indeed brings the worst out in some people...

Hi @LondonNQT , we have been discussing with our neighbour and the joint surveyor regarding the repair of the damages caused by the neighbour's party wall work, do you mind giving me some additional advice please?

The joint surveyor came up with a settlement figure for the repairs and it's roughly 2/3 of the quotes we have received. It means either we have to pay extra ourselves or hire a company/builder we don't really trust. So we are not planning to settle with this amount. Now my questions are: what should we do next if we can't agree with our joint surveyor? Is it worth having a third surveyor?

Thank you in advance.

Hello

I've just discovered that my garage I wanted to turn into an office is a safety hazard as the bricks have blown etc
I can not afford to demolish and rebuild so our only option is to demolish and build a fence.

This is where It gets complicated. My parent owned the house before me and the garage was a detached garage. In the 80s my parents went on holiday and the neighbours built a garage up against it using our wall which was solely on our land as a fence panel was against it.
New neighbours moved in and now 40 years later I have to knock mine down.
The neighbours claim its now a shared wall as they have used it for so long so I must pay to build them a new wall and fix their roof where they built theirs.
I can not afford to do this. Is what they say true, they now have a claim on that wall even though it's a safety hazard?

I want to take it down but they are saying to leave it up or replace it but it's in my garden not theirs and it seems so unfair.
The neighbours have rented out the house for 18 years and not spent a penny maintaining it and the tenants are taking them too court so I know it's only because they don't want to pay for wall on their property.
I can't afford legal advice or surveyor but if I leave it up and someone gets hurt then I'm liable. It feels like a no win situation. I'm really hoping someone can help me with advice
I've attached 2 pics mine is the blue door slightly open on the right. They used my wall then built on past that
Many thanks

@anteena you'd be better off starting your own thread x

Thankyou new to this and didn't realise
Apologies Op
I've now started my own thread

@petiteHBB this is where it gets tricky and another reason why own surveyors is best. There are specific amounts set out for repairs - obviously these may not be in line with your quotes, especially given how quickly building costs have gone up recently! There’s also no provision for builder of choice, allowance for the more expensive south east etc.

It’s worth getting three quotes to see how your preferred builder falls. Send these to the joint surveyor and push back, say you don’t feel the amount they’ve offered is reasonable under the circumstances.

You are fully entitled at this point to go to the third surveyor but do be aware that their decision is final. They could, in theory, award you a lower amount than you’ve already been offered. In your position I’d push the joint surveyor a bit more first and, as a worst case scenario, consider topping up any amount from them to use your preferred builder.

how would own surveyors have avoided this situation?? We’re getting some work done and adjoined neighbours asked for a survey, we were happy to appoint joint surveyors (which the adjoining neighbours recommended as was recommended to them)

how would 3 different surveyors help? (And would cost us an extra £3k in surveyor fees)?

Having been the paying party I still, very firmly, believe that separate surveyors are essential for all PWA @SupermarketMum

Our neighbours chose their surveyor before we’d even gone to tender for builders and then ‘generously’ offered that we could use her as a joint surveyor. Even with our own surveyor she tried to insert a clause into the PWA that our builders had to down tools entirely across the whole site for a number of hours in the middle of the day for nap time. This would have cost us tens of thousands in lost hours and would have added months to our already ten month long build.

More recently neighbour was insistent that our works had damaged their kitchen ceiling. Threw their toys out - all very nasty. We had already agreed to pay for cosmetic making good to this area to keep the peace (and avoid going to the third PA surveyor) now it appeared structural. Their surveyor agreed with them. Cue a building surveyor appointed by their PW surveyor doing a site visit to their property - I insisted our PW surveyor also attend, along with a second building surveyor that we appointed. We took their concern very seriously - a ceiling collapsing on a small child or animal could be fatal.

Even their own building surveyor agreed there was no way the cracks in their kitchen ceiling could possibly have been caused by our building works. They were caused by a cheap and nasty flip of the house by a developer - he recommend we shouldn't have to even pay for the cosmetic making good. We offered to still pay that portion - neighbour refused. We spent £500 of the £1,000 we had earmarked for compensation to them to get the building surveyor we appointed to write up a report.

So yes, I stand by what I say. Not only did having our own PW surveyor ensure we didn’t end up with legally binding but very expensive clauses, that had no connection to the actual intent of the award, but they’ve also saved us significantly months on.

Thanks a lot for your comment @LondonNQT Very helpful. We'll push back and see what happens. We now prepared ourselves for the worst scenario. We had no idea how the PW process works and our neighbour even didn't want to have any surveyor. The only reason we opted for the joint one is to maintain a good neighbour relationship. But i think our neighbour still think we are difficult. A big lesson learnt...