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London Flat, 14 day legal notice of shared wall building work on neighbours flat

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    London Flat, 14 day legal notice of shared wall building work on neighbours flat

    Just signed for a royal mail letter and its from a Chartered Surveyor (essentially a Legal letter 'Party Wall Structure Notice' and 'Three Metre Building Notice') telling me that I have 14 days to give my consent to some major building work on London flat walls which I share with my neighbour. If I don't do anything within 14 days apparently it goes to automatic dispute and I have to get a surveyor to back my complaint or I can enter a dispute before those 14 days is up.

    The Surveyor who sent me the Legal Notice is obviously working on behalf of the owner next door and he has kindly sent me a 'draft letter' of appointment for me to sign just in case I wish to enter into a dispute and surprise, surprise it has absolutely no quote for the cost of his services if I wished to require him for this task.

    I don't like the smell of this ... there are no diagrams of the proposed work, the legal document doesn't detail which walls will be affected (there are 4 storeys in the building) and it seems to imply some heavy work involved just read the following quote from the legal document stating the work involved:

    "proposed work to cut into the wall in order to support new steel beams, concrete padstones, floor beams etc. to create a new internal layout, to cut away projecting foundation and underpin party wall using either mass concrete or reinforced concrete",

    2nd quote from Legal Notice "The proposed works are to excavate out for a lift pit"

    At the end of the day if my wall/flat collapses or develops cracks I just need to make sure that the building insurance covers it (need video evidence of the flat condition before building commences), so I'm guessing its best to get an independent surveyor in (not the one who wrote the legal letter), I have a building maintenance / service company that we pay money into (5 neighbours in total) but I'm not sure what they are obliged to do exactly.

    Has anyone had any experience of this situation before ? what steps actions did you take ? did your service charge / building maintenance company sort anything out for you ? In fact its the building maintenance company that deals with the building insurance ....

    any tips and advice are much appreciated ..

    #2
    Ooh, that doesn't sound good!

    I'm not sure how you can get advice without it costing you money.

    But I would definitely go to your council's Planning Department asap to see what planning permission your neighbour has requested.
    "I can put any old tat in my sig, put quotes around it and attribute to someone of whom I've heard, to make it sound true."
    - Voltaire/Benjamin Franklin/Anne Frank...

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      #3
      Originally posted by cojak View Post
      Ooh, that doesn't sound good!

      I'm not sure how you can get advice without it costing you money.

      But I would definitely go to your council's Planning Department asap to see what planning permission your neighbour has requested.
      You should be able to see their application online at your council's website. As a neighbour, you should probably also have received a letter about it.

      However if they're having a lift installed and the work is all internal, maybe no planning permission is required?
      "A life, Jimmy, you know what that is? It’s the s*** that happens while you’re waiting for moments that never come." -- Lester Freamon

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Freamon View Post
        You should be able to see their application online at your council's website. As a neighbour, you should probably also have received a letter about it.

        However if they're having a lift installed and the work is all internal, maybe no planning permission is required?
        yes potentially no planning permission, but the cutting into the shared wall and placing steel beams into it worries me. Also the owning company is based abroad so they could get cowboy builders in plus the buildings are very old indeed .. Georgian era ! so I'm very worried about this.

        I'll see what the building maintenance company has to say about it, as stated they deal with the building insurance and each of us pays them £3,300 per year to 'maintain the building' so they should get involved with this.

        I put this email out just to get advice on this as I want to protect my main investment, getting video evidence of my walls and windows before building starts is the first step, I will go to the local council to see if they got any planning permission and i will request it ... any other tips .... advice ... ? please !

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by sbakoola View Post
          yes potentially no planning permission, but the cutting into the shared wall and placing steel beams into it worries me. Also the owning company is based abroad so they could get cowboy builders in plus the buildings are very old indeed .. Georgian era ! so I'm very worried about this.

          I'll see what the building maintenance company has to say about it, as stated they deal with the building insurance and each of us pays them £3,300 per year to 'maintain the building' so they should get involved with this.

          I put this email out just to get advice on this as I want to protect my main investment, getting video evidence of my walls and windows before building starts is the first step, I will go to the local council to see if they got any planning permission and i will request it ... any other tips .... advice ... ? please !
          I would have thought they would need to get approval from the freeholder as the wall isn't their property? I would write to the freeholder.
          "A life, Jimmy, you know what that is? It’s the s*** that happens while you’re waiting for moments that never come." -- Lester Freamon

          Comment


            #6
            When the neighbours were having some building work done (potentially affecting party walls) they sent a surveyer round to our house. He charged them £800, so I'd imagine it would cost a similar sum for you to hire your own.
            +50 Xeno Geek Points
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            Comment


              #7
              You need to get in touch with the freeholder asap as you do not own the fabric of the building and therefore can't legally agree to this on the freeholders behalf unless they give you expressed permission to which you should get in writing and keep.

              As well as doing that I also suggest you get in touch with the surveyor asap (do it verbally then follow it up in a letter mentioning when you verbally told him) , tell them that the owner of the building is not you but the freeholder and give him the freeholders contact details.

              Also the fees are paid by owner who wants to do the work.

              So even if you (or your freeholder) get your own surveyor the neighbours pay for it.

              The reason their surveyor wants you to agree to do the work is that it keeps the costs down for the neighbours and he gets more money. The surveyor has to act impartially regardless so it doesn't matter whether you use their surveyor or get your own one. Also the work can't start until the surveyor has been round. If the surveyor isn't sure of anything they will get another professional in i.e. a structural engineer otherwise they risk a massive indemnity claim if anything goes wrong.

              (Listening to people moaning about their work has come in useful again )
              "You’re just a bad memory who doesn’t know when to go away" JR

              Comment


                #8
                Might not need Planning Permission, but will certainly require Building Regs approval as it involves structural walls, and steels etc.

                If you dont own the building then you dont really have to worry too much (apart from noise, dust, inconvenient etc) because if it all goes wrong, the building insurance will cover it and seek damages from the builders. just watch out for cracks appearing in your walls

                Comment


                  #9
                  Ok this issue is known as “party wall works” it can be complicated but a few key points to consider are:
                  Unless you own the wall you can't approve / dispute any works
                  You need to appoint a specialist party wall surveyor (not the same one as the neighbour, as that could lead
                  to a conflict of interest)

                  (The person who does own the wall may not give a damn about your discomfort during the works)

                  To find a surveyor try the RICS website , most chartered surveyors will have a free 30 min chat with you to let you know your options.

                  Things to consider:

                  Check the works:
                  What times are they going to be undertaken?
                  Will your property be left unsecure at any point?

                  Get copies of the (PI) insurances of the engineer & architect

                  Request copies of the drawings / method statements of the works being undertaken, the drawings show you where & the method statements will tell you the how of the works

                  Typically a lift pit is only 1.5m deep so they will not be going down too far: the hassle will be to dig around the footing (which could be up to 2m deep), cut away the haunching & then underpin it to prevent movement: this is very noisy works & will reverbarate will reverberate throughout the whole building, if there are any kiddies about be prepared for lots of crying.

                  But the good news for any money hungry contractor is that If you can “reasonably justify” it you can claim for financial recompense
                  Growing old is mandatory
                  Growing up is optional

                  Comment


                    #10
                    You might want to have a read of this, it's the governments guide to the party wall act and what it all means.

                    http://www.communities.gov.uk/docume...pdf/133214.pdf
                    While you're waiting, read the free novel we sent you. It's a Spanish story about a guy named 'Manual.'

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