my extension. part 347! party wall problems?

[chimchar]

in the ongoing saga of my planned extension, we are coming to the time now to serve the party wall notice to our joined on neighbours. they have objected to our plans and we have had to change them in order for planning to be granted (we find out tomorrow!)

what words of wisdom can anyone offer re getting them to sign and agree without having to go through the rather traumatic and expensive long route if they won't agree to us working on it.

has anyone done an extension on a semi and NOT given party wall notice and got away with it?

any help appreciated! ta.

You will not get away with not serving a party wall notice on them. They are obviously being difficult so I have no doubt they know all their rights and blah, blah, blah.

It depends what you want to do regarding whether you actually need party wall awards. You could step the extension in slightly from the boundary and build piers for any steelwork to sit on rather than have it supported on the party wall (a friend with truculent neighbours did this for a rear single storey extension). But ultimately, if planning consent is granted all they can really do is delay. It will cost you a bit because they can demand their own surveyor and so on. Just budget for that because I think it is more important to get the design right than compromise over a couple of thousand surveyor's fees.

A very wise architect I know (who has never had planning consent refused and has always negotiated amicable party wall awards) says the very best thing you can do is talk to your neighbours. I don't know if you had a good relationship prior to the proposed extension, but I would wait to see if you are granted consent and give it a while before approaching them about party wall matters. Iirc, you have to give six weeks' clear notice before the start of work so, unless you have builders ready to go, I would play for time and try to build bridges over summer. Have they got a cat you can offer to feed while they are away? Garden you can water?

I think according to statutory law (the party wall act), that they can't actually refuse you permission to do the work (as long as you don't want to underpin their foundation in a certain way....), BUT they can make life difficult for you. Once you have served them the notice, you are within your rights (I think) to start work within 2 months. I would get a good party wall surveyor involved. I would never do works without surveyors being involved, unless it was completely amicable, as I don't know my way around the legislation sufficiently (btw, I'm an architect, so do quite a few of these things....).

Completely agree about talking to your neighbours and getting them on your side. Might they want to do similar works in the future? Can you come to some reciprocal agreement?

thanks for your wise words.

it is going to be problematic...they have built their extension on top of our boundary wall. (was done before we moved in) they have actually built ON THE WALL, which has no foundations (or certainly enough to hold a building!) and already we can see a huge crack where their building is attached to our coal shed thingy. our builder has seen it and knows exactly how we'll dig our foundations to ensure that nothing next door shifts...AAARRRRGGGHHHH!

we have lived here for 7 years, and have no problems ever with them. they have been really shifty with us since we applied for planning, and won't speak to us any more apart from the polite greetings we exchange when we are actually face to face iykwim? we always used to chat. we still have big chats with their grown up kids who live at home.

we phoned our surveyor/architect guy, and heared his answerphone message saying that he was away now until 5th may! he didn't mention he was going away at all.....

we have our builder ready to go..we're just waiting, and were told to wait until we had planning permission granted, (hopefully tomorrow) and need to crack on!

its a bloody nightmare before we even start!!! i have a feeling this is going to be a hellish ride!

Sounds like they are being difficult because they have done something they shouldn't and are worried there might be repurcussions (SP?) for them! I think Orangina is right - our neighbours built an extension so we had to go through the party wall stuff with them. We objected because we wanted a party wall surveyor appointed but we were told we couldn't actually stop the work if planning permission was granted. In the end it worked out ok for us cos they fixed a big crack in our wall that we couldn't see as it was on their side IYSWIM. Frustrating that it means delays for you though. Good luck

I have a link here That explains everything you need to know about party wall act and also has sample letters you can use.

We have just served one our neighbour. I agree you need to talk to them. Ours got advise from Citizens Advice before she signed it. Thankfuly we didn't have to go down the surveyors Route.

FWIW I don't think they can stop you but can cause you to pay for a surveyor to act on their behalf. So worse case is it will cost you extra money I think.

You cans top earlier than the months notice but have to put it in th eletter - thereius info on the link.

The thing is, if their work has been done badly, a party wall surveyor will make note of any existing cracks etc so they won't be able to blame you for the problem.

Be polite, keep talking to the grown up children and you can still start the party wall process without your surveyor/architect person being around. You just send them a letter with copies of the plans and say when you want to start (allowing for minimum time) and saying they have got until whatever the stipulated time is to let you know whether they are happy for you to go ahead or want to appoint a surveyor.

If they don't respond, you just have to sit tight and your surveyor will act on their behalf.

If you will be using "their" wall on the boundary as part of the extension, you might even be able to sell it to them by saying you will be doing remedial work on it to repair the damage...

thanks again everyone.

will let you know the outcome!

small update...planning officer was unavailable on friday, so we still don't know if planning has been granted to us.

in the mean time, next door have gone on bloody holiday for 3 weeks.

i'm really fed up...its going to be months before anything is done. our builder (fil) is due to go into hospital to have something or other done by the end of the summer, and we needed to have to structural work done by then. as it stands now, we'll be lucky to even be started! its all going wrong.....