Our neighbour served us a party wall notice a few months ago as she wanted to convert her loft. We appointed our own party wall surveyor to act on our behalf, paid for by our neighbour, and I've just been a bit baffled by his behaviour and I wonder if it is normal.
He came and did a survey and after a few weeks he sent us the Party Wall award via email without any explanations or even getting any input from us regarding working hours/building up the chimney stack etc. When I asked him if this is how it works and was told his job is to prepare the Party Wall award in the interest of the freehold and that our neighbour is legally allowed to raise our chimney stack etc. I just find it strange that we would not have any say on weather our neighbour could have raised our chimney stack if we wanted to remove it in the future etc.
Now that the works are completed, some of the existing documented hairline cracks have opened up. I've now queried him how we go about raising the issue of the cracks opening up. He said we could pay for him to do a post work inspection or could raise it directly with the neighbour. He has also cautioned that we should be certain that the damage is caused do to works carried out by our neighbour - which we obviously cannot do without getting a professional opinion. He just doesnt seem forthcoming with any information/advise.
My question I suppose is is this normal? is he only providing a survey as a professional rather than acting in our interest and therefore can be quite detached? Do we have to pay for another surveyor if we need proper adivse?
Thanks for reading! would appreciate any insight.