Building Surveyor regarding Neighbour's extensions on new property

Kainz · 18 Feb 2019 at 16:43

Hi all,

I need some advice if you will with regards to this situation as I am still making sense of it.

My parents own a semi on the left end of a block of 3 houses. The house to our right (middle house) has been vacant for many years and slowly rotting as it was inhabited by alchies and druggies at one point. Now the neighbour to our left, in the next block has purchased said house.

He is a former construction guy, swindling the benefits system for years and has access to cheap labour. Hell he owns 4 houses already on this road so this is his 5th.

Anyhow we received a letter this morning from a structural surveyors company who have an office not too far away. They have stated that the owner has requested to the council that he wishes to carry out both conservatory rebuilds, a loft extension and a garage extension to their new property and because of the 'Party Wall Act 1996' we are entitled to appoint a surveyor on our behalf - the fee to be paid for by the neighbour.

The surveyors will conduct a survey of the relevant parts of our property PRIOR to their building works and will produce legal documentation if required. They will then return AFTER the works has been carried out to ascertain if any damage has been caused.

There is more to this on the letter, which I'll grab a pic of later and censor out the important bits but I was wondering to you folks who own property if this is the norm? These guys seem to be trying to act as a go between and could ask my neighbour for a lot of money thus ruining our relationship...even though we can't stand the swindling gits.

I plan to talk to this company tomorrow at some point to seek some clarification but I also wanted to run this by you chaps too I suppose.

Any advice is most welcomed. Thanks.

fez · 18 Feb 2019 at 17:04

Sorry but i'm not massively clear on the details here...

Someone has bought the middle house of three and wants to renovate and extend just the middle house? What does your end neighbour have to do with this or are they getting an extension at the same time from the builder who has bought the middle house?

Thekwango · 18 Feb 2019 at 17:07

fez said:
Sorry but i'm not massively clear on the details here...

Someone has bought the middle house of three and wants to renovate and extend just the middle house? What does your end neighbour have to do with this or are they getting an extension at the same time from the builder who has bought the middle house?

the neighbour is the builder as far as i understand it.

Bluecube · 18 Feb 2019 at 17:08

fez said:
Sorry but i'm not massively clear on the details here...

Someone has bought the middle house of three and wants to renovate and extend just the middle house? What does your end neighbour have to do with this or are they getting an extension at the same time from the builder who has bought the middle house?

The end neighbour is a builder who has bought the middle house and wishes to extend it with a conservatory, loft extension and a garage extension.

To the OP, you (or your parents) are entitled to the use of a surveyor. As a builder, the neighbour is (or should be) more than aware of this and factored the costs in. If he hasn't then tough. I'd take up the offer from the surveyor to ensure that your parents house is unaffected after the building work has been completed, especially as it sounds like a major undertaking.

Kainz · 18 Feb 2019 at 17:09

Correct.

Edit: Thanks Bluecube for the feedback there.

fez · 18 Feb 2019 at 17:12

Thekwango said:
the neighbour is the builder as far as i understand it.

Bluecube said:
The end neighbour is a builder who has bought the middle house and wishes to extend it with a conservatory, loft extension and a garage extension.

To the OP, you (or your parents) are entitled to the use of a surveyor. As a builder, the neighbour is (or should be) more than aware of this and factored the costs in. If he hasn't then tough. I'd take up the offer from the surveyor to ensure that your parents house is unaffected after the building work has been completed, especially as it sounds like a major undertaking.

It reads to me like he is the leftmost house of a block of 3 with the middle one being bought by his builder neighbour who isn't part of the three houses in his block but is the owner of the house to the left of the OP (another block of houses).

So [builder] ----- [OP][drug den][random neighbour]

Kainz · 18 Feb 2019 at 17:17

Correct Fez yes.

Steampunk · 18 Feb 2019 at 17:20

Kainz said:
Anyhow we received a letter this morning from a structural surveyors company who have an office not too far away. They have stated that the owner has requested to the council that he wishes to carry out both conservatory rebuilds, a loft extension and a garage extension to their new property and because of the 'Party Wall Act 1996' we are entitled to appoint a surveyor on our behalf - the fee to be paid for by the neighbour.

The surveyors will conduct a survey of the relevant parts of our property PRIOR to their building works and will produce legal documentation if required. They will then return AFTER the works has been carried out to ascertain if any damage has been caused.

There is more to this on the letter, which I'll grab a pic of later and censor out the important bits but I was wondering to you folks who own property if this is the norm? These guys seem to be trying to act as a go between and could ask my neighbour for a lot of money thus ruining our relationship...even though we can't stand the swindling gits.

I plan to talk to this company tomorrow at some point to seek some clarification but I also wanted to run this by you chaps too I suppose.

Any advice is most welcomed. Thanks.

Yeah, this is normal. Your neighbour has put some planning permission in, and there's some party wall stuff that relates to you. The surveyors keep an eye on the council website for just such a thing, and contact the neighbours touting for business. In the party wall agreement, you are entitled to your own surveyor. If your surveyor and their surveyor can't agree, then a third surveyor is appointed to judge who's right. The person doing the building work is expected to pay for all the surveyors, as they are the ones who will benefit from the building work.

The surveyors who contacted you are effectively doing a bit of ambulance chasing, because they are offering their services knowing that you're likely to say yes, as the cost comes from the builder, not from you, and that's where they make their money.

You definitely need to look at the party wall agreement rules, to see what your neighbour can or can't do, and if it's anything significant, consider bringing your own surveyor in (which your neighbour will have to pay for) to see that your neighbour is doing it right and isn't going to damage your property or do things like block all the light from your garden or put a wall up against your windows.

Kainz · 18 Feb 2019 at 17:34

Dear all, thanks for the heads up.

I've just looked at our council website and have seen the plans. However the plans show only a 6m conservatory extension and not loft as per the surveyors letter.

I shall be in touch with both tomorrow to further discuss.

Maccapacca · 18 Feb 2019 at 17:59

If it's permitted development they may not need permission that might be available for you to view online.

Regarding the party wall. You are free to agree yourself and you can get all the forms online from gov

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/party-wall-etc-act-1996-guidance

fastwunz · 18 Feb 2019 at 19:44

It’s end of terrace.

Not semi.

Just sayin.

Burned_Alive · 19 Feb 2019 at 12:25

Have you spoken to the neighbour? Because, speak to the neighbour.

Kainz · 19 Feb 2019 at 15:08

Burned_Alive said:
Have you spoken to the neighbour? Because, speak to the neighbour.

Not yet, they're rarely in their house next to ours these days and we haven't seen them since yesterday morning.

Just received letters from two more surveyors all trying to get a slice of the pie.

a1ex2001 · 19 Feb 2019 at 15:10

This is all standard for a party wall agreement, the person undertaking work has to accept responsibility for any damage done and is also liable for the costs of your surveyor/structural engineer if you choose not to use the same one as them which I wouldn't.

Kainz · 19 Feb 2019 at 15:55

Thanks for the advice/links guys. I'm going to hold off firstly and try and speak to the neighbour because I don't want this ruining our relationship with the neighbours. I did some reading up on one of the companies that dropped off a letter and to my surprise there are a lot of complaints as per below. I'll give Maccapacca's official link a thorough reading tomorrow too.

https://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/psg-surveys-stay-away-from-these-con-artist-c622715.html

Steampunk · 19 Feb 2019 at 17:29

Kainz said:
Thanks for the advice/links guys. I'm going to hold off firstly and try and speak to the neighbour because I don't want this ruining our relationship with the neighbours. I did some reading up on one of the companies that dropped off a letter and to my surprise there are a lot of complaints as per below. I'll give Maccapacca's official link a thorough reading tomorrow too.

There's nothing to stop you finding your own surveyor instead of using the ambulance chasers.

Kainz · 19 Feb 2019 at 18:07

Steampunk said:
There's nothing to stop you finding your own surveyor instead of using the ambulance chasers.

Indeed. That's the plan, to look at qualified chartered surveyors.

SeatIbiza · 20 Feb 2019 at 08:40

You're lucky they've even served it. The Party Wall Act has absolutely no teeth to it i.e. there isn't a lot you can do to stop someone working that hasn't served one. Even with an emergency injunction a judge will likely agree work can continue as if one had been served in the first place. They may need to scaffold over your boundary and, in theory, it is what the Act was put in place for - to enable building works to happen on a boundary.

I'd find your best local option (rics.org) and run with that.

psd99 · 20 Feb 2019 at 09:06

This is very normal these companies get details from the local council websites and I absolutely hate these companies that send letters like this to a neighbour which seems like something drastic will happen to your property!!

Opportunist companies that have nothing better to do but waste time and money when someone is trying invest their money to upgrade a property. I had similar issues with one of my neighbours but I was fortunate enough to actually go over and talk to them about everything we even agreed on a line of junction.

There are no ends of stories where people go ahead with this survey only to dramatically delay works and lots of money doing pointless surveys for no reason at all!

it might be best just to talk to your neighbour about the works and talk through your main concerns. I think stuff like times of the works, you don't want them to be drilling at 7am on a sunday or throughout the night is important. As for the survey don't waste their time

Building Surveyor regarding Neighbour's extensions on new property

Tea Drinker