Party wall agreement

[disappointed101]

Our neighbours informed us a month ago of their plan to convert their loft which is fine by us. However, the scaffolding has now gone up and we have not been given a party wall agreement to sign. My husband says he has looked online and says there is nothing we can do about it. I’m just worried if our house gets damaged. When our loft was done, the company took control of all of that for us so it makes me wonder who they are going to be using. Do we need one before they begin or is it more a case of let them know if we have issues?

You absolutely can and should do something about it! Email them immediately and tell them they need to halt all works until a Party Wall agreement is in place.

Once they’ve started it’ll be nigh on impossible to prove any damage was caused by them.

As PP has said, assert your right to a PW agreement before work starts. You seem to be complicit in letting them get away with not bothering.

in writing or by email, something like this:

Dear Neighbour
I've noticed that your scaffold has gone up already. Just to be clear, we do not consent to any works to the Party Wall until the appropriate paperwork is in place and an agreement has been signed as per the Party Wall Act (1996). I'm attaching a link to government advice which sets out your legal responsibilities as the building owner. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-resolving-disputes-in-relation-to-party-walls/the-party-wall-etc-act-1996-explanatory-booklet

It’s absolutely your legal right to get a PW agreement in place, and you need to let them know you want one ASAP.

But you'd need to take out an injunction to get them to stop work. That's expensive. If you have legal expenses insurance you might be able to use that.

you are already taking to them. Just ask, what did they say?

We have finally been given a PW agreement. Luckily they have agreed to hold off on staring till it is all sorted. They did have it ready, just have been not very organised.

Hi Op

How do you mean you've been "given" a Party Wall agreement.?

The first step in a Party Wall award is them serving you notice (as per the link in one of the posts above) You then basically have 3 options

1. Give consent to the work
2. Decide you want a Party Wall award but are happy to use a surveyor appointed by them
3. Decide you want a Party Wall award and that you want your own surveyor involved.

Have they served you notice? if so given their slightly casual attitude towards it all I'd be looking at Option 3 - which they will have to pay for.

Great to hear you got the PW agreement! It's good they're holding off until you review and acknowledge this. How did you own PW agreement get handled?