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