Partywall agreement

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As part of our extension we need to move a retaining wall (currently 2m away from the boundary on our side) up to the boundary. The wall will not straddle the boundary, it will be on our side but on the boundary iykwim. The architect, after me pushing her on it, said that we need a party wall agreement with these neighbours.

Our neighbour came round yesterday with a letter that he had got out of the blue from a party wall surveyor offering his serves to them. The neighbour said he didn't want it to cost us any more money than its already going to cost us and as long as we comply with building regs and get a builder with insurance incase of something going wrong he couldn't careless what we do on our land . I said that would write them a letter that they will need to respond to within 2weeks and they said not to be silly, we talk to each other, we're all reasonable people, why bother? They don't want the hassle of writing a response back I think!!

So, can we go ahead with nothing in writing? Is this prudent or do we force the issue and get a party wall agreement? I did give him the booklet I ordered from the planning website but he said he wasn't interested, he wants us to be happy with our extension and plans and not worry about a wall!

You can download basic party wall agreements off the internet. We did this when we did lots of structural work earlier in the year - our neighbours were lovely and signed it. This means they've agreed to let you go ahead with the work. It's a good idea to get them to take photos of their walls / perhaps you could do this together? Don't be phased its really easy.

You can download basic party wall agreements off the internet. We did this - our neighbours were lovely and signed it. This means they've agreed to let you go ahead with the work. It's a good idea to get them to take photos of their walls / perhaps you could do this together? Don't be phased its really easy.

Have a look at the Garden Law website - you can put your question on the forum.

what lovely neighbours.
I found that going for planning permission, we got tons of offers from surveyors, as did our neighbours, and it just confused her.
i actually thought you had to get them to sign the agreement, but you don't have to have surveyor.
your architect probably just wants to cover herself, but its a good idea. The architect should be able to get you a copy of one, our builder sent me ours, I think they are quite standard. or off the internet like daytoday says.

Think I'd best print one off hte internet and take it round and ask them to sign it. They're such lovely people and they honestly want the best for us and want to reduce the hassle that invariably goes with building works.