Party Wall agreement - neighbours selling

[Nowthereistwo]

Hi All,

We've had planning through for a second time (first time was just before covid and decided not to proceed and it lapsed).

At the first time, our attached neighbours said they were happy with the plans and no need for a party wall agreement.

The extension is mainly on the garage that is joined to their house - bringing it forward and raising it up for extra insulation etc. So it will definitely affect them.

Whilst we were in the planning process they put their house on the market (as planned), it has sold and fallen through and back on the market.

My question is, what happens if we do a party wall agreement with the current neighbours, but they sell & complete half way through the build. Do they new neighbours have a say or do they have to abide by the previous agreement?

At the minute we don't know what's going to happen as we don't have a date to build (getting structural drawings done) and they haven't sold.

Any ideas would be welcome.

I don't know for sure, but I'd save if the building works are clearly visible during any buying process, it'd be up to buyers to ask their own questions and decide whether they proceed with the purchase.

I think you need to check with a solicitor but imo the party wall agreement would have to be accepted by the new owners if already signed. It would form part of the legal package of documents attached to your neighbours house. Otherwise anyone buying a house with a party wall agreement would face having to wrangle that. In my many moves I can't recall ever being asked to agree a new party wall agreement as part of the process.

Thanks for your thoughts. Fingers crossed it all goes through OK

I think when we did ours I was told that if our neighbours moved the new owners would take over the existing agreement. But if we moved (once work completed) the agreement was no longer valid, so our neighbours couldn't claim off the new owners for any damage that arose.

This happened to me. Previous owners signed the party wall agreement and disclosed during the sale process (which is sellers responsibility to disclose)

The works started a few months after I moved in.
The neighbours doing the work got in touch with me in case I had any issues.

Hi OP,

Our neighbours sold part way through our loft extension.

When you say your neighbours don’t want a party wall agreement, I assume that means they don’t want to instruct a party wall surveyor and have a formal contract in place? Ours didn’t, but you still need to issue them with a party wall notice letter which sets out the scope of the works and intended start dates. You can find templates for this online.

We spoke our neighbours through the work beforehand, sent them the letter which they signed and returned. And when we were selling the house, they provided this letter to their solicitor and there were no further issues.

I was under the impression that the buyers had no recourse after purchasing to suddenly demand a new party wall letter from us - they just had to accept the party wall letter had been signed by their sellers.

Thanks for the latest inputs

Got a potential builder coming round on Friday so will have a bit more info on timings then