Party wall agreements

[Scam]

As we've begun to get drawings for our loft conversion through, we need to start thinking about the party wall agreement with both houses either side (terraced). One side converted their loft about a year ago, so we will be attaching our dormer against theirs. On the other side the roof has not been converted, it is also a tenant so we will need to contact his landlord (we know the agent, should be easy enough).

We have good relationships with both neighbours although are slightly concerned the ones with the existing loft conversion might be a little 'by the book' and insist on appointing two surveyors as judging from the docs given to us when we bought the place there was two in that case and some element of back and forth. That very well might have been the previous owners here though to be honest... Either way both sides know we want to do the work, we just need to go over the formalities.

So, who has gone through this and how did you do it? Some documentation online seems to jump in with a surveyor on each side, yet talking to builders and our original sales surveyor they basically said all you're doing is reaching an agreement and a paper trail that shows you are responsible for the costs of making good any damage etc. Our original surveyor was very blasé about it and said when he did his, he literally went round, took loads of pictures of the neighbours wall/dormer and agreed in writing to pay for any damages. No point paying for surveyors he said!

Thoughts? I guess the danger is - as the party doing the work, we could open ourselves up to additional costs if either side decide we have damaged XYZ and we can't prove otherwise?

 

[Deleted User 298457]

I asked my neighbor to appoint a surveyor and basically exactly as your pal said, he took a few pics and said pay for any damages to be put right. In his email he also put some throwaway comment about making sure plywood is put down to avoid cement blobs staining my crazy paving. Utterly pointless IMO and I need to apologise for asking for one.

The biggest issue still unresolved which is the wall placement will make my boiler flue unsafe. This seems to have slipped through any cracks in regulation

 

[khrall]

I was very fortunate with my neighbors, verbally agreed to everything, downloaded a copy of the agreement, filled in the details, emailed them over with a copy of the drawings indicating where work will need to take place.

Signed and emailed back within a day. No need for expensive party wall surveyors.

 

[a1ex2001]

I was very fortunate with my neighbors, verbally agreed to everything, downloaded a copy of the agreement, filled in the details, emailed them over with a copy of the drawings indicating where work will need to take place.

Signed and emailed back within a day. No need for expensive party wall surveyors.

If you can do it like this it is much better otherwise you land up paying surveyors to basically do nothing in the vast majorities of cases.

 

[Scam]

I was very fortunate with my neighbors, verbally agreed to everything, downloaded a copy of the agreement, filled in the details, emailed them over with a copy of the drawings indicating where work will need to take place.

Signed and emailed back within a day. No need for expensive party wall surveyors.

Yeah. I'm very much hoping this is what we can do, glad to hear some people have managed it! I need to look at the forms but are you essentially agreeing to rectify any damage?

 

[Maccapacca]

I was very fortunate with my neighbors, verbally agreed to everything, downloaded a copy of the agreement, filled in the details, emailed them over with a copy of the drawings indicating where work will need to take place.

Signed and emailed back within a day. No need for expensive party wall surveyors.

I did the same with mine. Amicable and easy. If you employ a professional either a solicitor or building surveyor they are petrified of claims on their professional indemnity.

 

[khrall]

I need to look at the forms but are you essentially agreeing to rectify any damage?

N.B. I am not a solicitor, surveyor, or any other type of employment that can offer legal advice. If in doubt, go find one

The document that you send them isn't to accept any liability, or that you will rectify any issues, this is what your builders' liability insurance covers, should any issues appear when completing works on your behalf. It's to tell them you are planning to do work on the party wall. They can either agree or refuse. The important part is that you serve notice, otherwise you're in a world of hurt.

First - Talk to your neighbours, explain what you are looking to do, if you have drawings even better, include tea or beer if required. We're all humans (for the most part) and we like to feel special. This stage, for me at least, is extremely important. Why? Because you're about to serve an official notice to someone. Make them feel like they have been included or at least thought of!

Second - go to the government website https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...resolving-disputes-in-relation-to-party-walls download the relevant documents, fill in as much as you can for them, including their replies, make their life easy. They don't need to agree, but you want them to.

Third - send them a copy via a method that can be dated & traced. Email works best, recorded delivery if they don't have email addresses....

Fourth - Hopefully, get a signed agreement back. If nothing after 14 days or if you get a refusal you'll need to go for a party wall award, alterations, counter-notices, injunctions etc - this is where you'd really wished you gave them the tea and/or beer in stage one and taken their thoughts & considerations into account.

 

[JRJ]

I was very fortunate with my neighbors, verbally agreed to everything, downloaded a copy of the agreement, filled in the details, emailed them over with a copy of the drawings indicating where work will need to take place.

Signed and emailed back within a day. No need for expensive party wall surveyors.

Exactly how ours went, used an online template for the form, wet signatures for both parties and a copy each.
They put their house up for sale about 12 months later and the new buyers were flapping about the under pinning done and the sellers asked me to explain the works to the buyers and their surveyor, once I explained and showed the structural drawings the surveyor told them to get a grip and the underpinning would outlast the house

 

[Scam]

(snip) this is where you'd really wished you gave them the tea and/or beer in stage one and taken their thoughts & considerations into account.

Thank you for all that info. Since moving in, in July we've been fairly open about the work that we wanted to do. Have told them from the outset that the roof was red flagged and sort-of 'escalated' the conversation a bit from there. (Didn't want to tell them straight from the outset, plus we were looking at budget etc.). But anyway, they're well aware and seem perfectly fine with it. We've made it clear we'll be living here whilst the work is ongoing so hopefully that gives us some brownie points - we're not going to disappear as soon as heavy work starts, like I imagine some people would around here!

We're working on the drawings now so once those are finalised we'll be in full suck-up mode and go round with them and the drawings and a couple of bottles of nice wine! Fingers crossed..