Neighbours extension advice

[roadie]

This is just absolutely and utterly wrong advice. It is both a planning and building control matter.

I'm interested in your experience here to be so certain. I worked as a planning officer until earlier this year. In my opinion, if the proposed development is in accordance with the plans submitted then planning is not the right route to be going down. The Party Wall agreement is the mechanism for this sort of issue.

Hope you get this sorted @bulb66

 

[bulb66]

Hey all, Sorry for not replying to this thread. OK so things have progressed and I'm looking for advice as to where to seek professional advice.

Let me explain, my neighbor has now it seems finished their build and any work on our garage (Party wall), I have a few problems with this and although I have tried to talk to them, they do so with their builder and state that everything is fine. I would like to get a 3rd party view on my issues and take these findings to my neighbor.

So the first issue, I am see damp and mold on the bottom course of bricks in my garage (I have a small office/workshop in half of the garage) this wall from my side has nothing against it but I smelt damp and when I took a closer look is was wet and moldy, I have cleaned this but didn't take a picture. I've also had a dehumidifier running since to remove any more damp in the air. When I told my neighbor about this, while his builder was with him, they blamed the weather and the fact it's a garage and isn't meant to be water proof. My concern is that they have raised the path on their side to 1 coarse of bricks below the DPC and water is being trapped between the edge of the path and wall, see picture below.



I am also not happy with the pillar at the front of the house it's looks horrible and as if water will just sit on top of it, again when I told my neighbor about this, while his builder was with him he said it's fine and my neighbor doesn't need to do anything about it, picture below.



And lastly a part of the roof they repaired just looks like a mess.




So, who would be the best people to contact with regards to getting it looked at and their finds fed back to my neighbor? In my option my neighbor having come into some money (How he was able to build the extension) has turn into a "Everyone is wrong, but me and I want everything done my way) kind of person.

Thanks,

James.

 

[Burned_Alive]

Presumably you're getting damp as that's now a single skin wall with no cavity to protect/separate the interior wall.

Garage's are absolutely supposed to be waterproof and dry. They've bodged it and are trying to fob you off. You probably need a surveyor involved, but I think this is a bit of a grey area. I would definitely be contacting building control, for initial advice if nothing else.

 

[bremen1874]

A garage like that would usually be single skin. There still shouldn't be any significant damp getting through under normal circumstances.

 

[a1ex2001]

Get a building surveyor round, the damp proof course should be two bricks above ground roughly to prevent rain bouncing and soaking through the wall above it.

good luck I would expect this to get messy and expensive!

 

[Puzzled]

Hi all,
I was actually planning on have a vent put in this was as I have a laser cutter in the garage but, the neighbour has already said we are not allowed to as it basically vents into their property?

Depending on what you are cutting the fumes from a laser can stink and potentially be hazardous so I wouldn't vent out on a neighbours property.

Actually I dont know what the rules are on venting outside as I'm assuming this is a hobby rather than a business. You can buy filtered systems but they are expensive.

You'll probably find the garage gets a lot colder now so be aware of the coolant potentially freezing in your tube.

 

[thezappa]

Go on to the RICS website and find the ‘find a surveyor’ link and find one in your area or one that covers your area.
Call them and ask them what experience they have in party wall matters and their fee (if that is a concern for you). Explain to them what has happened and send pictures or invite them round to look, they will draft all the necessary paperwork and mediate a suitable course of action.
You are being fobbed off by clowns and are being left with a dogs dinner of an effort to make good.

Just because they have finished doesn’t mean the PWA can’t apply they probably haven’t even given which sections their work relates to which by itself will invalidate the agreement that has been signed never mind anything else that it says.

 

[bulb66]

Thanks all, I'll make some enquiries and update at a later date.

 

[Slade2]

Look over the original document. You should have taken some advise at this point and initially either refused consent and then a surveyor would have been appointed by them and potentially by you and there would have then been a party wall award drawn up which would have legally detailed everything, Or you could have served a counter notice requesting additional works to be completed at the same time, either way It would appear you did not do any of these and to be honest most people don`t. What you do have if you still have the original paperwork is potentially somewhere on that paperwork is an agreement from your neighbors side that should there be any damage to your property they should fix it.

the recommended course of action would be to do as thezappa has said and find a decent RISC surveyor who could visit and compile a report on what he/she believes are defects following the work and then you can approach your neighbor to look to get them repaired and they should also bare all of those costs but perhaps a quiet word in his ear before you plan on doing that because I would imagine its going to cost a fair bit to put that right as some of that work is a bit shocking.

 

[bulb66]

Hey all,

Sorry for the delay in replying to the thread, things have got complicated.

So the last point at which I posted was that, I was told by my neighbors builder that nothing was wrong and that it's a garage and it's not meant to be water tight etc. Since then I did some research and believed that at the least the fact that then had raised the ground level to less then 150mm below the DPC that we could get some thing done about it. At the time of doing my research (Googling, and reading multiple results) I contacted the local building control, who replied back to me email with the following

"Certain structures are exempt from control under the Building Regulations, this garage fulfils the criteria. Consequently we do not have any control or enforcement powers"

This was in response to my question regarding the ground level and DPC, the state of the pillar at the front and I also mentioned that the plans state a min 1m gap between the extension and party wall, which it is not it's approx 800mm.

This made us decided to simply write a letter to out neighbor and give our side of it and see what they said, I also put in the letter the distress it is causing my Mum, she's nearly 70 and is losing sleep over the matter.

Their reply was basically, they disagree with what we were saying and that, they haven't even been invited to see the issues and the blamed the fact that I use part of the garage as a workshop, with my 3d printers in. They made a point of saying because I have a heater in there it's causing condensation to build up and that's was caused the mold. This heater is a tiny blower fan kind and just keeps the chill of while i'm in there, it doesn't cause any condensation. They also gave us 14 days to reply to the letter stating that if we didn't no further work would be done about the issues.

Then something odd happened. Out of the blue the builder comes round and says, he's fixing the pillar at the front and could he have a look inside the garage. Now I was at home so I was happy for this to happen. He then agreed with us on a number of points including that water was being trapped between the neighbors raised path and this not external single brick wall, (I have also been taking moisture reading, which show it off the scale on the course of bricks). He also said the my neighbor did the party wall agreement himself and didn't include any information about that work that was going to be carried out. He then tells us that he thinks some work needs to be done to the wall under the now raised ground level and that he was going to suggest this to my neighbors. A few days go by and apart from the pillar being repaired, we heard nothing about this extra work. Given we had been told to reply to their last letter within 14 days, we did so. We thanked them for repairing the pillar and for sending the builder round to look at the issue and that we would be happy with the fix suggested by the builder and could they tell us when this work would start. At the this point my Mum is feeling better about the whole situation.

Then out of the blue a new letter comes from my neighbors, stating they don't feel they have the relevant qualifications within the construction industry to further address out concerns and that they instead are instructing their Solicitor to handle their affairs. As I'm sure you'll agree this came as a massive shock to us and really upset my Mum.

The Solicitor as since contacted us, stating they are looking to instruct an independent surveyor to inspect both properties and write a report to all concerned about what could be causing the damp inside the garage. They saying that the cost of a surveyor would be around £500-£600 + VAT and that if the building work is not the cause they we would have to refund my neighbors the money.

We are in complete shock and now believe the whole builder coming round was a set-up to see inside the garage and report back that they would be in the clear. We can't afford to be paying a surveyor £700 for nothing. We don't feel our neighbors would be doing this unless they had the knowledge they were not to blame.

I'm sorry for the long reply and if it doesn't all make sense I'm just so annoyed with it all, not because of the damp or the time it's taking but because it's affecting my Mum in a bad way, she's even spoken of wanting to move away, we've lived in this house for 40 years.

If anyone as any advice I would greatly appreciate it.

James

 

[weathmatth]

Do you know any builders that would be willing to come round to check the work out as a second opinion to see where you stand?

The Solicitor as since contacted us, stating they are looking to instruct an independent surveyor to inspect both properties and write a report to all concerned about what could be causing the damp inside the garage. They saying that the cost of a surveyor would be around £500-£600 + VAT and that if the building work is not the cause they we would have to refund my neighbors the money.

Surely that cant be the case? Maybe a scare tactic.

 

[Beerbaron]

Does it say if it's their fault that they will fix the problem?

As its your wall once fixed i would paint it a horrible colour so they have to look at it

 

[bobuk]

Has your mum got legal insurance on her house insurance ? They normally would cover this situation.

 

[beachBOYken]

Hey all,


The Solicitor as since contacted us, stating they are looking to instruct an independent surveyor to inspect both properties and write a report to all concerned about what could be causing the damp inside the garage. They saying that the cost of a surveyor would be around £500-£600 + VAT and that if the building work is not the cause they we would have to refund my neighbors the money.


James

That's complete ********, it's their solicitor, if they want to get an independent surveyor fair enough, but you shouldn't have to pay a penny.

 

[Semple]

Surely that cant be the case? Maybe a scare tactic.

Why would you think that? That's exactly what i'd be expecting a solicitor to do.

It's basically gone like this:
- Neighbour has had an extension done
- OP notices the party wall doesn't quite look right has complained to the neighbours about it
- Neighbours believe their builder has done all he can, and now seek legal advice
- Solicitor recommends a surveyor to professionally assess the situation.

It would be perfectly normal that if the surveyor doesn't find the extension as the cause of the problems, that the OP gets landed for the bill for his time. Just the same way as it would be in reverse, if the surveyor finds the extension at fault, then the neighbour gets landed with the bill, along with having to pay a builder to correct any issues.

The only advice i'd give if you choose to go down this route, is to find your own surveyor to do the work, he has to have your interests as a priority and not the neighbours.

Do you have legal cover with your house insurance, might be worth looking into appointing your own solicitor.

 

[bulb66]

Do you know any builders that would be willing to come round to check the work out as a second opinion to see where you stand?

Surely that cant be the case? Maybe a scare tactic.

We could probably ask around, problem is, they now has a keypad entry gate and like 3 camera covering the area. So the builder wouldn't be able to see much from our side.

I have no idea if they can, It's possible the whole thing is a scare tactic.

Does it say if it's their fault that they will fix the problem?

As its your wall once fixed i would paint it a horrible colour so they have to look at it

Yes, it states that if the expert's (surveyor) report shows that it's the building work that has caused it, they will instruct their build to fix it.

Well it's a shared wall, technically we own half a brick each, so can't paint their side.

Has your mum got legal insurance on her house insurance ? They normally would cover this situation.

No Idea, I'll try and find out.

 

[bulb66]

Why would you think that? That's exactly what i'd be expecting a solicitor to do.

It's basically gone like this:
- Neighbour has had an extension done
- OP notices the party wall doesn't quite look right has complained to the neighbours about it - It's not the appearance that we noticed, it's the fact the mold grew inside our side of the garage.
- Neighbours believe their builder has done all he can, and now seek legal advice - Their build came round and made the suggestion of how to fix it, so they must see it's a problem?
- Solicitor recommends a surveyor to professionally assess the situation.

It would be perfectly normal that if the surveyor doesn't find the extension as the cause of the problems, that the OP gets landed for the bill for his time. Just the same way as it would be in reverse, if the surveyor finds the extension at fault, then the neighbour gets landed with the bill, along with having to pay a builder to correct any issues.

The only advice i'd give if you choose to go down this route, is to find your own surveyor to do the work, he has to have your interests as a priority and not the neighbours. - I'll look into that.

Do you have legal cover with your house insurance, might be worth looking into appointing your own solicitor. - I'll try and find out

 

[beachBOYken]

@bulb66

Can't quite see from the photos but is this extension getting built next to your garage, can your garage wall still be accessed to rectify any issues if present or have they already built the extension?

 

[bulb66]

@bulb66

Can't quite see from the photos but is this extension getting built next to your garage, can your garage wall still be accessed to rectify any issues if present or have they already built the extension?

Hi, the extension is built and final internal work being done. Their is a passage between the extension and our garage, as I said the plans had this as a min 1m but it's actually less than that, they built the height of the path up to meet the door they have on that side of the extension. This resulted in ground level being now only 1 brick below the dpc of the now external wall of the garage.

 

[jpaul]

Do, other folks on the street have similar garage setup, to show absence of damp, or, if they have even had similar modifications, with different remedial work. ?
which could be referenced in subsequent communications.

The original 'make it good clause' still sound pertinant, even if they had approached you for sharing costs of some breathable rendering,
is there possibility that they damaged the damp proof coarse,